Interior Health is warning people to beware of ticks, hard on the heels of a report of a six-year-old boy in Merritt who was partially paralyzed by a tick bite after a walk on March 8.
Milo Stevens was out hiking with his father Jamie in a grassy area near their Merritt home on Sunday, March 8. On Thursday, March 12 Milo woke up and was unable to walk, but doctors were unable to discover the cause.
A family member suggested to Jamie that he check Milo for ticks, and a search revealed an engorged tick on Milo’s scalp, hidden in his hair. Jamie suspects that the tick had been there since their March 8 walk.
It was subsequently diagnosed that Milo had been afflicted by a rare form of tick paralysis caused by the Rocky Mountain wood tick. HealthLinkBC notes that tick paralysis is caused by venom secreted by the female tick during feeding, and that symptoms usually start four to seven days after the tick attaches to the body.
Most cases of tick paralysis occur in children. Symptoms include tingling, numbness, or loss of movement that starts in the hands or feet; trouble swallowing or talking; double vision; and loss of movement in your face.
Removing the tick may be all that is needed to stop the release of the venom and control the symptoms. Jamie says that within two to three hours of the tick being removed by a doctor, Milo was pretty much back to normal.
It’s a timely reminder that with warmer weather here, ticks are now out in force. While many people associate ticks with grassy back country areas, they can be found anywhere, including gardens and back yards.
Ticks feed on the blood of humans and animals, and attach themselves to hosts when they are brushed against; they cannot fly or jump, and do not drop from trees. You can protect yourself by wearing a hat, long-sleeved tops, pants, and closed-toe shoes. Tuck your shirt into your pants, and tuck pant legs into socks or boots, to ensure ticks can’t get attached to bare skin.
Walk on cleared trails wherever possible, especially in areas with tall grass. Make sure children keep to the trail, and consider keeping your dog on a leash to stop it straying into areas where it could brush against, or run through, grasses containing ticks.
When you come in from outside, carefully check your clothing, gear, and full body for ticks. They favour areas such as the scalp (whether your head has been covered or not), the groin, and the underarms. Check young children for ticks, and also make sure to check any household pets that have been outdoors. Put the clothes you wore in the dryer on a hot setting for at least 10 minutes to kill loose ticks, and take a shower to remove any loose ticks from your body.
If you find a tick, check for others. If the tick is attached, wear gloves when removing it, and use tweezers or forceps to gently grasp the tick close to the skin. Be careful not to crush the tick, as this could cause it to inject its stomach contents into the bite wound, which increases the chance of infection.
Without squeezing, steadily lift the tick straight out of the skin. After removal, clean the area with soap and water; you can also disinfect the wound with antiseptic cream.
If the tick has been on you for several hours or days, it could have buried itself deep into the skin. This can make the tick very hard to remove without leaving some mouth parts behind, which can cause an infection. In these cases, see a health care provider, who can safely remove the entire tick. You can also see a health care provider if you have concerns or need assistance removing a tick.