PhillyPA Posted June 23, 2011 Report Posted June 23, 2011 My children do not have Lyme disease and I want to keep it that way. I am a nut when it comes to checking for ticks. I do live in Lyme country and I know many many people who have had Lyme disease. They were all lucky enough to be cured with a three-four week dose of antibiotics. They all had the bulls eye rash. Now that the summer is here and the kids are outside a lot more often, I want to know what to do to preserve a tick if I find one. Of course,if I found one on one of my boys, I would want to send the tick to a lab but I am not sure how to preserve it properly. Do I put it in a jar with alcohol?
philamom Posted June 23, 2011 Report Posted June 23, 2011 (edited) My children do not have Lyme disease and I want to keep it that way. I am a nut when it comes to checking for ticks. I do live in Lyme country and I know many many people who have had Lyme disease. They were all lucky enough to be cured with a three-four week dose of antibiotics. They all had the bulls eye rash. Now that the summer is here and the kids are outside a lot more often, I want to know what to do to preserve a tick if I find one. Of course,if I found one on one of my boys, I would want to send the tick to a lab but I am not sure how to preserve it properly. Do I put it in a jar with alcohol? Do not put it in alcohol - that will kill it. Put it in a vial with a (slightly) moist cotton ball. A plastic bag will work as well. It's a good idea to keep one with the correct shape tweezers in your car as well. on a side note-- I'm always excited hearing of the progress your son is making!! Edited June 23, 2011 by philamom
PhillyPA Posted June 23, 2011 Author Report Posted June 23, 2011 Boys are doing well! How do I kill the tick? Ticks are so hard to kill. If I take it off of them and put it in a bag or jar with a cotton ball, I would bet that the tick would still be alive. I don't want a live tick in a bag or jar, I won't be able to sleep at night!
philamom Posted June 23, 2011 Report Posted June 23, 2011 I'm sorry...I misunderstood. To kill a tick put in alcohol. To keep a tick alive to send out for testing if needed, put in a vial with a slightly moist cotton ball. HTH
PhillyPA Posted June 23, 2011 Author Report Posted June 23, 2011 No, I think it was me who misunderstood. Are you saying that you can not send a dead tick to a lab to be tested? It has to be alive? If this is the case, does anyone have a recommendation of a lab and the procedure to get the tick to the lab? I want to make sure I have this information available and ready. My sons are both healing very well. I don't need a tick to mess things up...
JAG10 Posted June 23, 2011 Report Posted June 23, 2011 No, I think it was me who misunderstood. Are you saying that you can not send a dead tick to a lab to be tested? It has to be alive? If this is the case, does anyone have a recommendation of a lab and the procedure to get the tick to the lab? I want to make sure I have this information available and ready. My sons are both healing very well. I don't need a tick to mess things up... I pulled a tick of dd11 in 2006. My BIL has Lyme disease and told me Igenex would test the tick itself. I put it in a ziplock by itself, printed the forms off the web and sent it on its way. It was $60 back then. Now I hear it costs $65 per disease you want the tick tested for. I'm guessing it was dead, but I didn't do anything to it to kill it, so idk, maybe it wasn't. As long as you have a plastic bag and a computer, you should be good. The tick does not need its own physician to sign off.
mama2alex Posted June 23, 2011 Report Posted June 23, 2011 Glad to hear your kids are doing well! We had to do this recently when my dh was bitten. He pulled it out with his fingers, but I've read about something called a "tick twister" which will ease the tick out without squeezing it or accidentally breaking off the head. He put it in a little plastic container used for sauces at a taco place and then put masking tape around the edges. We didn't do anything to keep it alive or to purposely kill it. I don't know that it matters whether it dies or not. I wouldn't put it in alcohol though. It did creep us out to have a live tick in the house, but we knew it was secure with the hard plastic around it and the masking tape sealing it in. We were able to drive it to Igenex the next morning as we live 30 minutes away, but you can probably download the form and overnight it to them. We had to pay $65 for Lyme testing, plus $65 for each coinfection we wanted it tested for. We opted to test all, as my husband is the only healthy one left in our family and we didn't want to "wait and see" if he got sick. His tick did turn up positive for Lyme, but no coinfections.
philamom Posted June 23, 2011 Report Posted June 23, 2011 (edited) I was under the impression the labs prefer the tick to be alive (could be wrong though). For more information you can check out www.tickencounter.org/ticktesting Edited June 23, 2011 by philamom
mama2alex Posted June 23, 2011 Report Posted June 23, 2011 Oh, you could be right! We didn't really know what we were doing and they were able to test it, even though it looked dead when we brought it in. Its possible it was still alive though - I know those things don't die easily! A quick phone call to Igenex would give you the answer.
MichaelTampa Posted June 23, 2011 Report Posted June 23, 2011 As long as you have a plastic bag and a computer, you should be good. The tick does not need its own physician to sign off. How unfair is that! Those nasty buggers should at least have it as tough as us to get answers!
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