Dr. Hive is this a tick rash?

[Quiver0f10]

My 20 year old worked otuside this summer. He would be covered in ticks every day and was treated with antibiotics in July for a tick disease. Then two days ago he woke with this on his leg:

 

 

 

He did go to doctors this morning and has another script for antibiotics but I am curious what you all think? It looks much worse in person. The thing that has me wondering is that he has no other symptoms. I'm wondering it it would be a spider bite?

Edited August 20, 2010 by Quiver0f10

[Cindy in the NH Woods]

Hi Jean,

 

To be honest, any sort of insect bite reaction like that could be Lyme or other disease. Our Lyme literate MD who is treating our dd would have your son on some serious antibiotics. Another of our children had a bite of some sort with a large splotchy reaction. The ped gave her about 200 mg of amoxicillin, twice a day, for about four weeks. When I mentioned it to our Lyme doc, he said that was not nearly enough medication. His recs were for about twice the dose of meds, for about three months if I recall.

 

Make sure your son is treated sufficiently. :grouphug: We spent this morning having another PICC line placed in our Lyme disease kid. (A PICC is an IV which extends up the arm and into the arch of one of the veins of the heart.) INSIST on APPROPRIATE treatment. Lab tests are all well and good, but not all conclusive.

 

Please keep us posted!

[fairfarmhand]

I have reactions like that every time I get a tick bite.

[sheryl]

Yep Jean, that is a bite of some sort. I was at my dermatologist's annual appt a year ago and he said "hmmmm, did you know you have a tick on your back?" I said whaaaaaaaat? The nurse pulled it off. He said that there were 2 options:

 

1. give me antibiotic now to prevent the symptoms, or

2. wait and see....if I develop the "ring"

 

So, this could very well be a tick bite? There are various kinds of ticks though. Do they all have the same symptoms? I don't know.

 

Now, if it looks worse in person, the thought that came to mind, is like yours...a spider bite. Yuck. Something got me the end of June/July. I went to the general dr and he didn't know what to make of it. It looked a little bad. Plus I had all these little blotches up and down my legs. My dd had similar symptoms.

 

Keep us updated. He'll be fine, but does need to be treated. If not satisfied with outcome at appt, check at an infectious disease specialist or top notch dermatologist. HTH.

[MariannNOVA]

I agree with what the others wrote - better to be safe than sorry.

 

DS9 is on two antibiotics: Doxycycline (100mg bid) and Ceftin (100mg bid).

 

Today is the third day he has been able to keep all the antibiotics 'down' (if you know what I mean). It took alot of awareness on our part and juggling his meals and our schedule so that we could get to this point.

 

But, three days with the full regimen, and his joints no longer hurt, although he is waking up with a headache and his joints are stiff in the morning.

 

As someone else here wrote, our LLMD put him on the two antibiotics Monday of this week.

[Quiver0f10]

Thanks everyone! He started his antibiotics today so he should be on the mend.

[Remudamom]

Thanks everyone! He started his antibiotics today so he should be on the mend.

 

good. I'm on them for a rash no where near that bad.