West Virginia University Professor and School of Medicine Animal Director Jeffrey Wimsatt ensures the well-being of the animals used for research and learning within the West Virginia University system. Jeffrey Wimsatt often studies topics related analgesics and infectious agents such as those associated with ticks, and the way they impact local wildlife.
Tick bites can cause dangerous diseases in both humans and pets. Most of these can be identified early on by the distinctive rashes that tend to accompany them.
Rashes caused by Lyme disease and by southern tick–associated rash illness (STARI) appear anywhere between three and 30 days after a bite. The ring-shaped rash occurs at the site of the tick bite and is usually red and warm to the touch, but not painful. Rocky Mountain spotted fever rashes begin as small pink spots on arms and legs that later develop into red and purple splotches. People with this disease often come down with a fever before a rash occurs, and some patients will not develop a rash at all. Nevertheless, understanding what the rashes associated with these diseases look like can lead to early recognition of and treatment for the disease.
