Recently, a netizen posted on a social platform, recording the entire process of her mother from being bitten by a tick to being sick and dead. The netizen said that at first, the family thought that his mother had just had a common cold and fever....
Recently, a netizen posted on a social platform, recording the entire process of her mother from being bitten by a tick to being sick and dead. The netizen said that at first, the family thought that his mother had just had a common cold and fever. After multiple examinations, his mother was diagnosed with "tick disease" and was infected with the new Bunia virus. After the condition worsened, she unfortunately passed away. From onset to death, a small tick took a life in just 7 days. Also, why is a "little black dot" the bug that dogs fear the most?
How should we prevent it?
What should I do after being bitten by a tick?
tick
tick is a very small arthropod parasite that can cause harm to the host by biting, sucking blood, or carrying pathogens.
In addition to causing pests to animals and livestock, ticks also parasitize on the surface of the human body to absorb human blood, causing many bitten people to be infected with various infectious diseases, and in severe cases, they may even die.
Although ticks do not feel pain when sucking blood, they can cause acute inflammatory reactions such as local congestion and edema in the bitten person, and can also cause secondary infections. In addition, the neurotoxin secreted by the saliva of some ticks causes ascending muscle paralysis in the bitten person, resulting in respiratory failure and death.
The ticks can suck blood for several days, and at the beginning it is the size of a mung bean. As the blood sucking volume increases, the volume will continue to grow, several times or even dozens of times larger than before sucking blood.
This kind of thing likes to live in dark and humid places, such as on the tips of leaves, grass, walls, rock cracks, and animal nests, etc. Once people and dogs go out, they are likely to be sucked by blood behind them.
And until bites are not random, they will look for areas on the dog's body that are prone to bites (thin skin) and difficult to find (below).
Picture丨From CDC
Dogs are easily targeted by tick bites, especially dogs who are often taken outdoors. After going out to walk the dog, they should check the dog's hair frequently and find ticks on the dog's body in time.
The ticks cause damage to dogs as severe as humans. For them, once they are on the body, it is not only as simple as sucking blood, but also releases toxins at the same time, causing pain, dermatitis, anemia, weight loss, and paralysis.
And during blood sucking, the pathogens it carries may spread to the host (cat, dog, human).
Development process:
The development process of ticks is divided into four stages: eggs, larvae, nymphs and adults. After sucking blood, the adults mate and land, crawl on grass roots, tree roots, livestock houses, etc., lay eggs in the cracks on the surface. After laying eggs, the female ticks will die, and the male ticks can mate several times in their lifetime. The eggs are spherical or oval, about 0.5 to 1mm in size, light yellow to brown in color, and often cluster into groups. Under suitable conditions, eggs can hatch larvae within 2 to 4 weeks. The larvae resembles a nymph, but has small body, with three pairs of feet. The larvae molts into nymphs after 1 to 4 weeks.
Hard tick nymphs only have one stage, while soft tick nymphs go through stages 1 to 6. The nymph has 4 pairs of feet and has no reproductive holes. Then he went to the host to suck blood, and after landing, he molted his skin for 1 to 4 weeks and became an adult. It takes a hard tick to complete the life history of a generation from 2 months to 3 years; most soft ticks take half a year to two years. The lifespan of hard ticks ranges from one month to tens of months; adults of soft ticks can generally live for 5, 6 years to decades due to multiple blood sucking and multiple egg laying.
Host replacement:
Ticks have a host replacement in their life history. According to the number of host changes, it can be divided into four types:
① Single-host tick: each stage of development is on a host, and the female worm lands on the ground and lays eggs after being filled with blood. Such as micro-calf tick (Boophilus microplus).
②Two-host tick: The larvae develops into nymphs on one host, while the adults parasitize on another host. Such as Hyaloma detritum.
③Three host ticks: larvae, nymph, and adults parasitize on three hosts respectively. Such as ticks with ticks and prairie ticks. More than 90% of hard ticks are three-host ticks, and most important vectors of tick-borne diseases are three-host ticks.
④ Multi-host ticks: larvae, nymphs, adults, and female ticks need to find host parasites to suck blood before each spawning, and leave after each blood is full. It is about the size of a mung bean before sucking blood; after sucking blood, it can reach the size of a thumb. Usually soft ticks are multi-host ticks.
Vomiting habits:
ticks all suck blood.
Hosts include terrestrial mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and some species invade the human body. Most tick species have a wide range of hosts. For example, the hosts of ticks include 200 mammals, 120 birds and a few reptiles, and can invade humans. This is epidemiologically important.
Hard ticks often invade the host during the day, and the blood sucks for a long time, which usually takes several days.
Soft ticks often invade the host at night, and the blood sucking time is short, usually several minutes to one hour. The blood sucks a lot of blood. It can swell several times to dozens of times after satiety in each developmental stage, and the female hard ticks can even reach more than 100 times.
When severely bitten by ticks, organ failure will occur
Ticks are a blood-sucking parasite. The size of a tick before sucking blood may be only as big as a sesame seed, but after sucking blood, it can grow dozens or even hundreds of times.
Ticks usually appear in densely populated areas such as grasses, shrubs, forests, and animals' bodies. When walking your dog outdoors, you may have close contact with ticks when you get into bushes or piles of weeds.
The terrible thing about ticks is that they can spread a variety of diseases. After being bitten by ticks, the tick's saliva will cause peripheral vasculitis, local congestion, edema, bleeding and thickening of the stratum corneum.
If there is infection with insect-borne infectious diseases, symptoms such as high fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea may occur. Many people will mistakenly think it is a cold or fever, which will delay treatment..
If bitten by a tick carrying the new Bunia virus, it may cause "fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome", referred to as "fever with" for short. The main clinical manifestations are fever, thrombocytopenia and leukopenia. Some patients may die due to multiple organ failure.
Fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome: commonly known as "tick disease", is a new infectious disease caused by the Bunia virus, and ticks are their transmission vector. The disease is mainly manifested by fever and thrombocytopenia. Most patients have symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and other symptoms, and fatigue. A few severe patients may die due to damage to multiple organs. The mortality rate of the disease is between 10% and 30%, and there is no effective vaccine or treatment. In addition to being bitten by ticks, blood and body fluids that are exposed to patients may also be infected.
carrying virus:
hantavirus: Ticks in certain regions may carry a hantavirus, and the vectors of this virus can be mosquito-borne, tick-borne, animal-derived, etc.
hantavirus belongs to the family Buniaviral family, which is a negative-strand RNA virus with envelope segments. The genome includes L, M, and S3 fragments, encoding L polymerase proteins, G1 and G2 glycoproteins, and nucleoproteins, respectively. Hantaviruses include Hantaan virus (HTNV), Seoul virus (SEOV), Puumala virus (PUUV), Dobrava virus (DOBV), and Unnamed virus (SinNombre virus (SNV), New York virus (NYV), Black Creek Canalvirus (BCCNV), Bayou virus (BAYV), Andes virus (Andes virus, ANV, and a group of viruses whose relationship with human diseases is not yet clear, such as ProspectHillvirus (PHV), Thailand virus (THAIV), Tula virus (TULV), and Sotopalayam virus (TPMV).
How to deal with ticks when discovering them
First remember one thing: do not forcefully remove or crush them with your hands.
Correct way:
If you find it, do not remove it yourself. You should go to the hospital to remove it in time. (The doctor will disinfect the wound, then anesthetize the wound to anesthetize the ticks, and then use a twister to easily clamp it out.)
Because the ticks may contain infectious pathogens, after being stimulated, the ticks will drill more and more into the body and release the tick saliva in an increased dose. Therefore, the method of directly removing the ticks with tools or crushing them with fingers is very incorrect. Some methods such as burning the ticks' butts are not advisable among the people.
Find the doctor in the nearest regular pet hospital to disinfect the bite and perform local anesthesia. Only after the anesthesia takes effect can tweezers be used to remove the tick (note that the barbs in the mouthparts of the tick cannot be left in the body). Then, quickly be admitted to the hospital for observation and treatment, and inject corresponding antiviral drugs. After the incubation period, the body has no symptoms of illness and is discharged again. If the body is not well-adapted after discharge, seek medical treatment in time, and be sure to tell the doctor about the bitten by the tick. Remember this passage.
Prevent tick bites
Regular deworming:
Of course, if you don't want your dog at home to be sucked by blood or contagious by ticks, the most effective way is to quickly kill/repel ticks that have been on the body before the ticks spread the pathogen.
According to Article 19 of the "Nanjing Dog Riding Management Regulations":
Dog breeders should regularly vaccinate dogs with rabies prevention vaccines in accordance with relevant national regulations, and should also prevent and treat other epidemics in dogs.
Timely inspection:
When you go out, avoid going to grass, weeds, dark and wet corners to avoid contact with stray animals and wild animals, and also greatly reduce the possibility of ticks on the body.
When you come back from walking your dog, you will check the dog to check whether there are ticks attached to the skin folds and weak areas such as the armpits, groin, scalp, neck, waist and under the ankles, and see if there are any small red dots, swollen bags, etc.
If you want to raise stray dogs, you must first go to the hospital for a comprehensive examination before taking them into your home, get vaccinated in time, and do a good job of deworming, so as to prevent ticks from entering the home from outside, causing disaster for yourself and other pets at home.
