Anna Morris
@klusya
Tis the season for ticks and paranoidly scratching yourself / checking under clothes for them all day everyday 🙃 The real conspiracy is not the male contraceptive pill, but why do dogs get a convenient pill to protect them from ticks and people don't??
1 reply
0 recast
8 reactions
Kriptokotya
@kriptokotya
As a city dweller, I was never too worried about ticks - just did the usual quick check after the occasional trip into nature. But a couple of years ago, I got bitten by 3 ticks at once during a hike, and now I’m fully committed to getting vaccinated
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Anna Morris
@klusya
Oh no, that's actually terrifying 😱 Did you get them checked?
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Kriptokotya
@kriptokotya
No, and it really scared me 😭 The approach in Germany is much more focused on vaccination. I ran to the doctor the next day, hoping to get a quick shot to prevent encephalitis, but the doctor explained why they don’t do that here - it’s not considered effective enough, doesn’t guarantee protection, and the side effects of the emergency shot can actually carry more risk than the chance of the tick being infected. So the only real protection against tick-borne encephalitis is vaccination. Other tick-related illnesses are treated with antibiotics, so you just need to keep an eye on the bite. Overall, I think the approach makes sense. And I noticed that doctors really do offer free vaccination. But unfortunately, I only found out about all this after a month of worrying post-bite, because I had always thought there was a plan B - that you could just get a shot afterward 🙄
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Anna Morris
@klusya
Phew, that sounds very stressful 😣 Thank goodness it all turned out for the best!
0 reply
0 recast
1 reaction