So I play hookie today from work and other duties, and decide to spend a relaxing day in my yard. After tending to yard duties, I decide to just sit and enjoy my pond and pet duck (pic later)

I come in the house, and feel a tickle on my belly. I give it a rub and then look at my hand and there's a tick crawling on my hand.

UGH!!!

So my question is, what if Arwen had been on me and the tick got on HER? Or what if she was crawling on my under my shirt and she had seen the tick and ate it???

What danger is there to gliders from ticks? In either being bitten or eating them?

Wow, I wish I knew the answer to this but I don't! I think I'd ask my vet!

I would think that any diseases the tick could possibly give a victim of a bite, the glider might get if the tick is eaten. Rocky mountain spotted fever, lyme disease, among others.

However, having just said that, the stomach acid of the glider should in theory kill all the bacteria and/or viri in the ticks body.

Tough call, but I wonder if the blood within the tick were to come in contact with an open wound in the glider's mouth, then in theory the pathogen could be transmitted.

Very interesting question. I would love to hear a vet's opinion.

If it would help, I happen to work with an infectious disease physician. I can ask him next Tuesday when I work with him again.

i whould get a tick kit and keep it on hand ,those little buggers are hard to get out.i know they can carrie lime dissease so im watching this topic too to see what a vet or others say

Yikes Jill Marie, wish I knew, I agree the vet would be your best bet. Please let us know if you find out anything!

Did you get a chance to ask?

I had one vet respond that there are, so far, no reported cases of Lyme disease in gliders.

I contacted someone who is an entomologist, to see if he had any insight on this. When asked if gliders, or humans, could contract Lyme from ingesting a tick, his response was:

"Very unlikely - lyme is primarily a blood and lymph borne disease. The reason the deer tick is a good vector is that lyme survives in the tick's digestive track and after they successfully get their mouth parts into a host they kind of vomit a little to flush the plumbing so to speak and the lyme causing bacteria are injected right into your blood stream. If you or a glider actually eats the tick, the bacteria are likely going to be destroyed in your digestive tract or potentially just pass on through if the tick was swallowed whole (probably not the case with a glider of course). It's unlikely that you or a glider could contract the disease unless a lot of factors came together just right (bleeding ulcers, also have a hookworm infestation, mouth sores, etc.)."

So far, this is the best I could come up with. But I do have some thoughts on this. Why do we not see deer dropping dead from Lyme? I know a man who owns 2 wolves in a tick infested area and they get bit all the time. No Lyme. Yet I have met people with dogs that have it.

suggestions anyone?

Sorry I forgot to post his answer.

He said basically the same thing. He said that the only organisms that have the ability to withstand stomach acid would be those that are encapsulated (ie spores). C-diff for instance.

Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever wouldn't be encapsulated organisms, so they should be destroyed in the stomach.

He also mentioned that it would have to be a very unlikely set of circumstances that came together similar to what you mention: sores, ulcers, etc.

He also mentioned that lyme was fairly fragile, and needed to be injected directly into the blood stream to have any effect. He thought the likelyhood of infection, even with mouth sores, stomach ulcers, or whatever would still be extremely low.

Also, a tick must have been attached to a person (or animal) for a period of time before any treatment would even be given. I thought this sounded a little strange, but he said they wouldn't give you an antibiotic unless the tick had been attached for over 24 hours. (prophylactically, I mean. No symptoms yet.)

Thanks so much. I am sooo relieved knowing this.