Yet again interesting thread I hadn't seen before.
Aside from clients, I suspect that tick bites/ Lymes is one of the biggest hazards for professional stalkers. Just from personal experience, I know far more stalkers who have contracted the disease than have had near death events with clients - and they can land some corkers on you.
I fully take on board Adi's points regards verification/ research. My own approach is based on likely far shallower fact finding than he advocates, so should be read as such.
Having moved from Cannock ( an early hotspot ) to Scotland and taking up spending a great deal of time laying in and crawling through vegetation, I do get regular tick bites. Starting out from nil knowledge base, I'll confess to plucking them out - then often having to pick out the remaining bits and 'progressing' to giving them a squirt of DEET. I cringe now at the thought!
I have met a number of BADA members - they often have a table in the Scottish Gamekeepers Association tent at various Country Fairs. We carry their awareness leaflets and hand them out on courses and on our stand at such events. To be honest ( and again taking Adi's point fully ) I never thought to closely scrutinise the medical thoroughness of their stance. That aside, awareness alone is a hugely important issue. Knowledge amongst GPs is improving and I know it is one of the key areas BADA work on. Typically I can't find the source to reference here - it was direct from BADA or from them via the SGA - advising that if visiting the GP with any symptoms/ such issues, we should emphasise that we were professional stalkers and had received a tick bite - with dates etc. and push the issue of potential Lymes infection.
BADA promote the Otom and that's what I use. The basis for my choosing it was partly the BADA recommendation, but also from ( as confessed limited) own research. The mouth parts of the tick have fine barbs on them - helping secure the tick in the skin. The recommended technique of rotating the tick out was suggested as one of the best ways to help these barbs 'retract' allowing full extraction of the tick with less risk of regurgitation. That just made sense to me.
Getting many tick bites a year, I have not had any issues using the tool and its fairly goof proof for clients etc - we always advise a thorough check before turning in for the night and our service doesn't extend to tucking .
Locally there have still been instances of medical staff - usually at nursing level - advising smearing with vaseline or using one of the patch type removal products. So as noted, remains contentious in terms of best practise advice.
In general, many people tend to be a bit lax in terms of antiseptic use/ wound care. I use either Savlon - and quite like their dry spray, which is great on pigs ( but that's a WHOLE different story
) but most often carry several Tisept sachets - which run about 20-40p each cost wise. Tisept has proven very effective generally - again anecdotal on my part only.
One of the most common infection events is if the stalker or client break their skin whilst gralloching a male deer during the rut, with Red Stags in Sept-Oct being the worst. For some reason, the infection risk seems much higher and the reactions more severe. I do not know the full reason why. Possibly it is to do with blood chemistry and the testosterone or other hormonal levels in their blood. It may also link to their activity - peat wallowing in urine rich muck etc. But then Roe Bucks do not do that but still show ( though not as bad as Red ) increased likelihood of infection.
Having watched the 'red line of death' progress up the arm ( during the course of breakfast! )of a gung ho colleague stalker who had nicked his finger gralloching a stag the day before, I tend to douse with tisept at the slightest provocation
On the Bushcraft side, pine resin - particularly the copious product from blisters on the Noble Fir seem highly antiseptic and do a great job protecting cuts.
But in short, treat any bite like a skin break wound and clean it.