tick bite [ME, tike + AS, bitan, to bite] , a puncture wound produced by the toothed beak of a blood-sucking tick, a small, tough-skinned arachnid. Ticks transmit several diseases to humans, and a few species carry a neurotoxin in their saliva that may cause ascending paralysis beginning in the legs. Nervousness, loss of appetite, tingling, and headache, followed by muscle pain and, in extreme cases, respiratory failure may occur. Symptoms often disappear when the attached tick is carefully removed with forceps. See also Lyme disease, Q fever, relapsing fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia.
