Everybody Please Read!!! Tickborne Illness Thread...

[Caminofeld]

I just found the first ticks of the year crawling on me today. I've never met most of you, but going under the assumption that we all love being outdoors and y'all are my friends I must caution everyone to be careful...this coming from someone who has had Lyme multiple times and over the course of my life has seen it devastate and ruin many lives.The medical community at large is ignorant to the disease and often won't even test people for it...and even if they do, there is a good chance of a false negative. The best course of action if there is even a chance of Lyme is just taking the antibiotics for 3 weeks...although most Doctors don't follow this (my fiancee had a negative test and her Dr. wouldn't give her the meds. I knew this was bullshit and we found a Dr who would...and surprise: She felt much better after the first 3 days of treatment).

The long and short of this post is to do tick checks, use bug/clothing spray, and check/frontline your pets to prevent them from bringing ticks into the house. Remember: they are TINY!
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[ps2fixer]

I'm from Michigan and we don't have Ticks here, but have been on vacations down south. I wonder what kind of area Ticks are a problem? Michigan can't be the only state they don't really have them, unless I'm just lucky and never seen one on me like down south.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Ticks have become a much bigger problem here in northern NY than they were a few years back.

As a kid growing up in the 80s, there wasn't a sunny day I didn't spend the whole day outside with nothing but a pair of shorts on. Used to play in brush, building forts and other such things kids under or around 10 years old do..or at least did. ;) Never in my whole young life had I ever had a tick on me, ever. I'm not talking playing in the back yard, I am talking about a brush lot and woods.

Nowadays, my kids have had several found on them. And we don't let them roll around in the brush the way I used to for fear of those rotten ticks.

I have had several crawling on me when working in the woods or hunting. These things have become a big problem here in recent years. It's like all of the sudden, they showed up.

There is special tick repellant. Tick repellant sprays have an ingredient called permetherin (spelling?). I have had good results using repellants with that ingredient. Ticks don't like it one bit. I would highly recommend those of you in tick country use it.

[ps2fixer]

Thanks for the info, I hope they stay out of michigan! I'll be mindful to keep an eye out for them though. My whole yard is back woods and brush!

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Nasty little plicks! Very small and hard to kill.

[fieldy]

I have to always check for them when and after using the riding mower. I had three crusing around on my shirt one night after i sat down from mowing. Usually you can feel them crawling around before they latch on. I spray my shoes and pant legs often with off or cutter because im outside most the time and mainly because I hate chiggers. Lookout for them too!

[Bren_downe]

My experience is on par with RideRed. Except about ten years later(90's). Spent my entire childhood in the woods and fields and never saw one. Now they're everywhere! I've found them crawling up my screen door! Gross! They seemed to show up about 2000ish? There was a huge influx of wild turkeys and growing population of coyotes. I've read a few articles that said tick population is directly related to coyotes. Small rodents are the major carrier of ticks, not deer, when the coyotes move in they kill and drive out the foxes which are excellent at killing rodents. Coyotes are after larger prey.
Makes sense to me. I never heard coyotes as a kid. But I used to see foxes all the time. Now I hear coyotes almost every night and haven't seen a fox in over a year.
I saw a episode of Jesse Ventura's show about Lyme disease, very interesting.

[sledcrazyinCT]

So true about some doctors that don't believe the side effects of tick borne illnesses. Two friends of mine are dealing with lyme disease and its brutal.

[SHIFLITE]

Thanks for the info Bro....I just read a little article on this subject a few days ago....Hope all is well with you ....Going to be heading up to Mountain Ridge on May 2nd for the first ride of the year....Take care my friend.

[ironchop]

I started pickin off my first ticks of the season two weeks ago.

I got one on my back and pulled it but the wound still aint healed. My son has had two already this year himself.

It`s kind of a fact of life here in SoKY. Impossible to avoid. They fall out of trees or get on you from grass too.

Chickens and Guinea Hens that can free roam are the best thing for keeping ticks out of a yard. There might be other birds that eat ticks too but chickens and guineas are obsessive about huntin ticks.

[ironchop]

... These things have become a big problem here in recent years. It's like all of the sudden, they showed up....



Because Global Warming



LMMFAO....I couldn`t resist. You know damn well someone would say it with a straight face too :lol::lol::lol:

[hoosierlogger]

I have ticks on me every day I come home from work. Guess I am lucky. Sprays don't seem to help, I guess if I put them on every couple of hours it might help more. I am in the woods on average of 9 hours a day.

[briano]

I'm in the UP of Michigan and we have tons of ticks here. Mostly where there is Jack Pine trees, but are surely found in other places. I remember back in the 90's my great uncle was in pretty bad shape for many years, docs said it was MS. Turned out to be lymes disease, he was in his 70's, but he could hardly walk or do day to day activities anymore.

[Mosh]

For those if you that have dealt with this first hand, please tell me some of the more common symptoms and what anitbiotics were used?

Thanks for your info and thoughts.

[redsox]

i agree! never ever ever saw them as a kid. now they're everywhere. got the first one of the year off my dog about two weeks ago. THERE WAS STILL SNOW ON THE GROUND! I'm not a hunter, but many of my friends are. They've told me that ticks are killing off the deer and moose populations of maine and NH. Literally bleeding the animals alive. I saw some crazy stat that each adult moose has an average of 400,000 ticks on it. crazy. i hate the little bastards. where did they come from? actually, i don't really care where they came from. my question is, how do we kill them all?




I saw a episode of Jesse Ventura's show about Lyme disease, very interesting.

off topic, but Jesse Ventura is a bona fide arsehole

[Caminofeld]

Mosh, I'm so sorry to hear that. The crazy thing about Lyme (and the main reason it's so controversial in the medical community) is that symptoms are so inconsistent from person to person and people respond in so many different ways to the various treatments. Some Doctors even deny the existence of Lyme or diagnose it as "Fibromyalgia" and dismiss their patient's complaints as "drug-seeking" (I have seen both more than once). The most common symptoms in primary Lyme are fatigue, cold/flu symptoms, and joint pain. This is usually treated with Doxycycline 100mg twice a day for 3 weeks. The disease can later become what is known as "chronic Lyme", which there is no exact treatment for. Some Doctors have even lost their licenses prescribing alternative therapies and long term antibiotics. When Lyme becomes chronic, this is where you see the wide variety of symptoms: everything from memory loss to tinnitus (persistent ringing in the ears). In some severe cases, the symptoms mimic MS or Alzheimers. PA has a large Lyme cluster and many good LLMD's (Lyme-Literate Doctors). My personal take on it all is to shop around and find the treatments/therapies that work best for her, because everyone responds differently. Do your research and beware of what you Google (one hour on the internet can mislead or scare the living crap out of you). I wish you and your wife the best of Luck and please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

[Caminofeld]

I use the permethrin clothing spray, which is good for up to 6 weeks. I also spray my property where people tend to be and make homemade tick tubes out of paper towel rolls, cotton balls, and permethrin spray (the mice build nests with the cotton and it kills the ticks) and throw 10-20 around my property a few times a year. Repel just came out with a new tick-specific spray, which I am testing this year. DEET is definitely effective, but it and permethrin can absorb through the skin and cause cognitive issues, etc. I also use K-9 Advantix 2 religiously on the dogs and always check them before they come inside. The Advantix supposedly repels and doesn't just wait for them to imbed/feed before killing them (it does that too if they get past the first barrier). My #1 tool though is tick checks. I have a hand mirror and check EVERYWHERE. This includes butt-cracks, in-between the scrote and thigh, grundel, behind the knees, etc.

On a personal note, why is the CDC so panicked about Ebola and all but ignoring the Lyme pandemic? Lyme is ruining lives on a regular basis and it hardly makes the news. If I were president, that would be one of the first issues I would address (right up there with reversing the 3 wheeler ban:p)

[sledcrazyinCT]

People that have been left untreated with Lyme for years have a hard time recovering. Not sure how effective the round of antibiotics are if you have been infected for years.

One treatment legal in some states is ozone therapy. A friend claims this is the best treatment for his Lyme symptoms. He wants to buy an ozone generator and hire a travelling nurse to stick him with the IVs to have a couple treatments a week at home.

There are no proven scientific claims of effectiveness but I have seen him at his worst where he appears to have suffered a stroke with facial paralysis, slurred speech, uncontrollable drooling to where after an ozone treatment he is almost back to 'normal' or at least with just joint pain not to the point where all his joints lock up and he can hardly move around or talk.

This is a little info about what works for my friend Steve:
intravenously (directly into veins). Ozone can also be introduced viaautohemotherapy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autohemotherapy), in which blood is drawn from the patient, exposed to ozone and re-injected into the patient.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_therapy#cite_note-ACS-1)
This therapy has been proposed for use in various diseases, including cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, arthritis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthritis), heart disease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_disease), Alzheimer's dementia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_dementia), Lyme, among others. One proposed mechanism for its use in treating cancer comes from the proposed theory that cancer does not thrive or grow in a high oxygen environment, and the ozone therapy will increase oxygen in the body and therefore help treat the cancer. There is no evidence to support this theory.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_therapy#cite_note-ACS-1) For treatment of HIV/AIDS, although ozone deactivates the viral particles outside the body (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro), there is no evidence of benefits to living patients.[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_therapy#cite_note-6)

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I work at the town highway department. We do alot of outdoor work, including tree removal and brush clearing as well as a bunch of mowing.

We have classes every year for several of the jobs we do, MSHA, OSHA, Dig Safe, Bucket Truck certification, etc..

In the OSHA classes, tick protection is a very well covered subject and Lyme Disease is well known and watched for. I find it surprising to hear of some circles being in denial about Lyme disease?? That blows my mind!

I believe the coyotes are carriers of ticks... But the OSHA class we take states that studies have shown that mice and other rodents are the biggest reason the tick population has expanded so greatly, at least here in NY. I don't recall the details as to why, but it has something to do with the life cycle of the ticks. The field mice and other rodents are a significant part of their life cycle.. The ticks are in a different stage when they go after larger animals and humans from what I gather from the class...

Anyhow.. they also say that the ticks are here to stay with no waning in the foreseeable future.. A fact of life now that we must adjust to..Sucks!

Mosh, all the best to you and Tammy in hopes that whatever the problem is, the doctors can get a grip on it.

[YTZ drew]

The mice are definitely the biggest contributor to the problem, but I can see where predators like coyotes can cause a problem as well by removing the foxes that prey on the mice. One thing that came up in the environmental science class I took was the suppression of fire. Fires that would naturally occur due to lightning strikes tend to sweep quickly through wooded areas, cleaning light brush and debris, and killing off all the ticks. Trees, larger vegetation and most small animals (mice, salamanders, frogs, newts, etc...) are unaffected as they hunker down and hide from the flames, which pass thru quickly if the forest is relatively clean. Forests that have not had fires in a long time are more of a danger for getting out of control.

[Caminofeld]

My next door neighbor's kid is obsessed with killing foxes apparently due to being bitten by a rabid one a few years back. His parents just bought him traps too. I never used to care, and figured less foxes would be safer for my chickens (which also eat ticks). Now I'm rethinking my stance on getting rid of the foxes...and I swear I will kick the living sh** out of him or worse if one of my dogs gets caught in his traps.

[onformula1]

Reading this thread makes me glad I live in Arizona all I have to worry about is a couple of scorpions and a few black widows.

Sent from my SM-G386T1 using Tapatalk

[RIDE-RED 250r]

We went to our annual OSHA class this week..

Thought you guys might be interested to know, NY state is #1 in the country for confirmed cases of Lyme disease... Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! :mad:

[Caminofeld]

I've heard that too...up by Connecticut, where the first cases were diagnosed. There is a plausible conspiracy theory involving a Nazi scientist named Traub who specialized in using mosquitoes and ticks as carriers for biowarfare agents who worked at Plum Island Zoological Research Lab after the war...right across the river from Lyme, CT. Scary stuff!