My 4 year old son had a squshy tick in his head!!

[baldie]

Hi everyone! My four year old woke up this morning and said mom I'm itchy back here, so I went to go itch the back of his hairline and the was this thing there. At first it felt and looked like a long wart. Then... I saw legs!! I screamed for my DH who flew downstairs to see what all the yelling was about. I have NEVER saw a tick like this before. It was squishy, not like the ticks I usually see around here. And the color of it was almost the same color as his skin. Has anyone else had an experience with one of these?? Does anyone know what kind of tick it might have been? Dr. said it wasn't a deer tick, they are really small. This things body was at least a 1/4 of an inch long and it had a black head. And the strangest part is it was not there last night. Needless to say, I stripped all the beds again(they were stripped the other day after everyones colds in the house were gone). So I have no ides where it came from. If anyone has any info on what kind of tick it might have been, that would be cool. I googled tick, but didn't really find what I was looking for. Thanks in advance, Chrissie

 

[bubbazmommy]

Poor kiddo. That is wicked scary. I have never heard of such a thing. Please let us know if you do find out what kind it was. Is the doctor concerned at all?

 

[baldie]

He says to just watch him. He wasn't very concerned about lime disease, since the tick was sooo big. I don't know who was more scared, my son Ethan, me or my hubby. We were all frantic.

 

[monarc23]

I'm not sure what ticks you have in MA. I just had a tick on my belly last night... a deer tick. The ones that cause Lymes disease...and now alli can do is wait and see if i get any symptoms then get to the docs immediatly for antibiotics. This is the second deer tick i've gotten bitten by...the first was when i was younger and i did get very sick from it but luckily my mom rushed me to the docs asap and antibiotics had me good as new.

When i first saw this post i thought oh no i hope its not a deer tick and im so glad to hear it isnt! Because yep, a deer tick is pretty much only slightly bigger than the size of an adult flea...but boy do they hurt!!!!

THen i thought dog tick until you explained the color...dog ticks are grey...deffinatly not squishy either...they actually look like a pale grape...and they get huge.

What's odd is all im getting for Mass is Dog and deer tick.....maybe ti was just a dog tick that was ill, or genetically different? Ih ope so beacuse Dog ticks arent' much to worry about that i know of.

heres a mass tick card:
http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/images/dph/cdc/tick_id_card.jpg

ticks are extreemly bad here this time of year...im nto really sure why. My moms poor outside cat keeps coming up on the porch for food and everytime he does 1-2 "grapes" fall of off him....nasty dog ticks FULL of blood. My husband steps on them, and my mom came home yesterday and she goes "didyou drop some berries on the porch"....now that's so gross.....those ticks suck so much blood out of my moms cat that the porch looked like berry juice after hubby stepped on them..it's no wonder he's not weak.

The deer tick on me...i could not remove. It seems to me that dog ticks are simple to remove, but the dang deer ticks ancor themselves in really well...i actually have a picture of the tick stuck in me..i took a pic for doctor purposes incase i start getting sick. To show you what a deer tick looks like on the body....midn you this is a zoomed in picture witha really good camera...this tick is tiny...i only noticd it because i felt an itching pain right above my pants line...im really worried about my bite but theres really nothing i can do until i get sick...IF i get sick. Im woried because of how red it already is. Ticks normally dont leave a mark behind...but a deer tick with lymes disease does..blah.... you can already see the red in the picture...again remember it's a magnified picture..my camera is a lil too good lol.

 

[s6bee]

I wouldn't take your Dr's word and say it wasnt' a Deer tick, sorry. You are in such a high risk area for them.
Here is a link to Deer Ticks. Sorry they are gross but can be the as you described. Watch your son carefully....
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...sp=21&um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&sa=N

 

[Just-Like-Hatching]

Sounds like a reqular dog tick that hadn't been attached for very long. If they get knocked off they live off the blood they have until they get a chance to fill up again...

 

[baldie]

Yeah, That is all I came up with. We were all so frantic, the hubby flushed it. It may have been a little more gray than his skin. And the grossest part was that it was squishy, not hard like a deer tick. When we tried to pull it out, the body fell apart, which made it easier to get the rest out. Then we put peroxide on it and later bacitracin. All in a matter of 3 minutes probably. Then the call to the Drs. who said to watch him. But that it was not a deer tick, so my boy would be fine. Soooo scary!!!

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
it deffinatly wasnt a deer tick, by the way she discribed it deer ticks are itty bitty even when full of blood...the one in the picture above is a deer tick on me just the other day full of blood. Kay obviously im wrong she wasnt full of blood in that picture (not as full as they can get but even so they still dont get huge full of blood as their itties)

.

 

[s6bee]

Quote:
it deffinatly wasnt a deer tick, by the way she discribed it deer ticks are itty bitty even when full of blood...the one in the picture above is a deer tick on me just the other day full of blood.

Here is a picture of many female Deer ticks. They can vary a lot by color,etc. The females are also much larger than male.
http://webpages.charter.net/balplanman/_MicPix/Ticks/DeerTickFemales.jpg

Here is a male female mating, see size difference. http://webpages.charter.net/balplanman/_MicPix/Ticks/TickMating.jpg

Just be careful and keep an eye out.

 

[Nupine]

I have seen giant ticks like what you are describing on the dog, but not on me, just little ones.