Tick Bite NJ

Hi, so i went for a hike yesterday (Wall, NJ). I went between 3 and 5 PM. I got home showered and got read to go out with friends. I came home at midnight and itched my left oblique side and noticed a bump. I looked and there was a tick. I removed the tick as best i could by the head. The tick is an American Dog Tick (female). She was not very large or rounded so she was not really fully engorged to my estimates. I'm worried about Lyme or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF). So all and all the tick was on me for around 10 hours. Please help...

[JackieCalifornia]

The standard view is that Lyme is carried by tiny ticks, not the larger dog tick, but I am living proof that you can get Lyme and coinfections from a dog tick -- so I'd take me to an MD and request (demand) standard treatment for Lyme:  10 days of antibiotics.  The tick may also have carried other infections that need separate treatment, so testing for that may be advisable too.

I'm not medically trained, so don't rely on me, but I'd get in to see an MD who takes this stuff seriously, and do it very soon.  Take the tick with you.  It can be tested separately, altho I got totally blown off by an infectious disease MD who was uninterested in me and my tick, but I had the tick and me tested otherwise, and we both had the same diseases.  Be aggressive!  But don't freak out, just stay focussed.  You're wise to deal with this.

Let us know what you do and how it goes, okay?

[wonko]

Ditto the above.  With Lyme disease, prevention/early treatment are by far the most effective way to fight it.  I would insist on prophylactic antibiotics.