Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Not every tick bite causes illness — the spreading redness is the key sign, and treated it heals.
Also known as: Lyme disease · borreliosis · tick bite · erythema migrans
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Bacterial infection (Borrelia) from a tick bite. Typical early sign is the bull’s-eye rash (erythema migrans); very treatable with antibiotics when caught early. Late effects involve joints, nerves and rarely the heart. Separately, ‘chronic Lyme’ as a lasting explanation for non-specific symptoms has no established basis — post-treatment symptoms (PTLDS) are real; whether long-term antibiotics change anything about them is open.
A facial palsy in summer, in a child or on both sides, belongs tested for Borrelia. The treatment is then a different one from the usual form.
Grip as close to the skin as possible with tweezers or a tick card and pull straight and steadily; then clean the spot and note the date.
A spreading red ring after a tick bite is the diagnosis. Antibodies are often still negative at this early stage — waiting for them only delays the treatment.
Backs of the knees, groin, armpits, navel, hairline, and in children the head too. A tick removed within twenty-four hours passes something on far less often.
A small redness right at the bite in the first two days is a reaction to the bite. The spreading rash starts at the earliest after three days and grows outwards over days.
Useful for later pictures — a swollen joint, facial palsy, nerve pain — and then in two steps. A positive result without matching complaints usually means an earlier contact, not an active illness.
Tiredness and pain can linger for weeks to months and usually improve slowly by themselves. A second and third course of antibiotics has not proved helpful — more important is not to miss other treatable reasons.
The most reliable early sign; when typical it suffices for diagnosis and prompt treatment.
Persistent fatigue or pain after adequate treatment occurs — recognised, mechanism unclear.
Doxycycline over ten to fourteen days clears the bacteria reliably; the bull’s-eye rash usually fades within days. In some people exhaustion and joint pain remain afterwards — that state has its own name (PTLDS) and does not respond to further antibiotics, because no bacteria are left.
After a tick bite in a risk area, about one to five in a hundred people bitten fall ill. The tick usually has to feed for more than twelve to twenty-four hours — so quick removal is the most effective measure. The bull’s-eye rash appears three days to four weeks after the bite.
Three days to four weeks after the bite: a redness that slowly spreads outwards, often paler in the middle, usually not painful and hardly itchy. It is the most reliable sign there is.
Tiredness, headache and aching limbs, mild fever and a stiff neck in the weeks after a bite — without cough and runny nose, often in summer.
A drooping half of the face, especially in children in summer, or burning pain that is worse at night and follows the course of a nerve. Both belong looked at quickly.
A largely painless, marked swelling usually of one large joint — most often the knee — that comes and goes. It is the most common late form and can be treated well.
Weeks to months after a tick bite, often wandering and changing. The bite itself is frequently not remembered.
The actual lab proof is two-step: screening test (ELISA) then confirmation (immunoblot). Antibodies take weeks — very early they can still be negative, and after a past infection they often stay positive for a long time (not a measure of activity).
Fever, sweating and faster breathing clearly raise the need. Drinking enough keeps the mucus thin and the circulation steady — in children and older people it is the most important point of all.
With low levels airway infections occur somewhat more often; correcting a deficiency makes sense, a high single dose during the infection does not act on it.
Needed by the defence cells. For lozenges at the start of a cold there are hints of a slightly shortened duration; at a high dose over months zinc lowers copper.
Antibodies and defence cells are protein. After several days with little appetite it is worth at least keeping the protein up — soup with egg, quark, yoghurt, lentils.
With facial palsy from Lyme disease cortisone is not given as it otherwise would be — here the antibiotic comes first. The difference decides the course, and it is occasionally overlooked.
Lasting exhaustion, joint and muscle pain after a treated Lyme infection is often attributed to the pathogen. Thyroid, ferritin and B12 make the same picture — they belong checked before a second round of antibiotics begins.
Treatment is with antibiotics over 2–4 weeks; the earlier, the more complete the recovery. There is no evidence for diets against borrelia — said plainly, because much is offered here.
Widely offered for Lyme disease. There is no proof of effect, and taken over months silver can permanently turn the skin grey — that is the amount and the time frame involved.
With lasting complaints after treated Lyme disease graded training is studied. It works slowly and must follow capacity, not the plan.