Lyme Awareness Month

[shazdancer]

Hi everybody!

The month of May is Lyme Awareness Month. Lyme disease is the most prevalent vector-borne illness in the United States. Your risk for Lyme disease is many times greater than your risk for West Nile, yet many states -- including mine, where Lyme was discovered -- spend more on West Nile.

The Lyme bacterium can cause many different symptoms in the human body, including very dangerous ones, depending upon what strain it is, where the bug travels to in your body, and how your immune system reacts to it. There are also co-infections that you can get from the same tick bite, like bartonella, ehrlichiosis, and babesiosis. (Ticks are nasty things!)

Early symptoms may include flu-like symptoms: headache, fever, and malaise. If you get a fever, and it isn't flu season, suspect Lyme. Less than one-half of all Lyme patients have gotten the tell-tale bull's eye rash. (I didn't.) If you get it, take a picture of it in outdoor lighting and get to a doctor who knows what to do, because the rash is definitive for Lyme. The Center for Disease Control says that a Lyme diagnosis is based on clinical symptoms, not purely on blood test results, which can be falsely negative.

Later symptoms, which may show up quickly or may not appear for weeks, months, or years, include: joint inflammation, muscle pains, dizziness, Bell's Palsy (facial paralysis), brain fog, word retrieval and short-term memory problems, attention deficit, depression, heart palpitations, and worse. Lyme patients have been misdiagnosed with ALS, Parkinson's, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and schizophrenia. Lyme is a great imitator. The last disease called "the great imitator" was syphillis, also caused by a spirochete bacterium.

The tick that carries Lyme is in its nymphal stage at this time of year. It may be light in color, about the size of the dot above this i, almost impossible to spot. Remember to use serious bug spray if you plan to be in the woods or fields, and check for ticks afterwards, especially behind the knees, and in the crotch, armpits, and hair.

The most common carriers of ticks are not deer, but mice. Keep them away from your home and yard, by keeping wood piles and other tempting hideaways out of your backyard. Sweep leaves well into the woods, keep the grass cut short, and consider rimming your property with mulch, as the longer grass at the edge of woodlands is a prime habitat for ticks. Consider keeping your pets indoors, and off your bed.

If you find a tick imbedded in your skin, get a tweezers and grip the bug as close to its head as you can, and pull straight out, gently but firmly. Do NOT put ointments or a match on the tick, hoping it will back out. A distressed tick might just spit its nasty stomach contents into you. Wash and treat the bite site with antibiotic ointment, and see a doctor for prophylactic antibiotics.

There are doctors who are experts in treating this disease, and many who aren't. If you suspect Lyme, get someone who knows what they are doing. An early infection is usually easy to treat, but an inadequately-treated infection can cause a ton of problems later on.

Feel free to email me if you ever need information on Lyme disease. Take it seriously, and take care.

Regards,

Shaz

excellent site for Lyme info

[OnionEater]

A friend of mine got it when she was pregnant and passed it on to her unborn child about 8 years ago. She is now on oxycontin (the mother) to control the pain.

[WhiteDove]

Thanks shazdancer! Don't forget my tick n flea treatment.

[shazdancer]

Yeah, OE, very sad. It is still controversial, but there is evidence that Lyme can be spread through pregnancy, breast feeding, and sex.

Shaz

[herbiejuan]

Funny you should start this thread Shaz, I've been doing some research on ticks, boy are they not something to fool around with! Some suggestions that I found for dealing with ticks were:

Spraying with Neem Oil (strong odor but it goes away after a few days)

Throwing bird seed in infested areas to attract more wild birds

Raising Guinea Hens

Building a gravel or woodchip border/buffer zone between the woods and habitable areas

Tick repellant Spray:

2 sprigs lavender

20 eucalyptus leaves

1 quart water

Boil mixture. Use as a spray repellent

And then of course there is the clove of garlic a day solution which while not proven to prevent sticky-tickys does make yer body less appealing to a variety of critters including but not limited to bod members vampires and other assorted blood suckers :D-->

[shazdancer]

Thanks herb! I've heard the one about guinea hens -- I wonder if it helps? And some of the towns around here are putting in the wood chip borders around their properties, both public and private.

In my town, one in 3 families has had a family member infected. It is epidemic.

[herbiejuan]

Sure thing Shaz :)-->

We used guinea's on the golf course for years and never had a problem with ticks. I noticed that they liked to wander though, often up to a mile away. We had 5 hens, Buddy the local pharmacist had a flock as well but once his flock found out about ours they moved over here. I also noticed they prefered the short grass of the course as opposed to the taller thicker stands of grass and weeds so their effectiveness is limited by their quirkiness.

I've recently found out that fire ants will eat the hell out of the pesky buggers so you might want to leave the ants alone if they aren't encroaching on yer living space. Pets (at least the bright ones) avoid their beds so it's mostly us humans that have to be careful

:)-->

[Galen]

This certainly is a good topic of concern. I flea treated our dog the first of this month, and will continue to do so the first of every month, till fall comes. Last summer we tried going two months (even though the packages say that they are good for three months), but 6 weeks later we would start finding fleas. So the 'three-month flea + tick drops' used monthly seem to work. We have friends who own beach property in East Lyme, and we usually go there twice a week through the summer (swimming, sailboating, fishing, grrl-watching). Probably the heart of Lyme carrying deer-ticks.

:)-->

[shazdancer]

Sounds like a good idea, Galen, since dogs can get Lyme. (Cats, apparently, are not as susceptible.) And the award for the most-endemic area in CT currently goes to the northeast corner, strangely enough, not the Lymes area on the coast. 'Course, it may be that they are merely better at reporting Lyme, as they have a very good information network up there.

Regards,

Shaz

[Galen]

This month we did the flea+tick drops on Ginger (our german Shepherd) on the 5th of May.

Today I had to drive into Northern New York to get some honeybees and on my return the children were shouting that Ginger had a tick on her. Sure enough in the fur around her throat I found 2 tick, big fat ones (thankfully not the deer ticks). Today is just the 22nd.

Perhaps re-treating once a month is not enough?

In the past I have sprayed my property lines (mostly bushes) and on the foundation of the building with insecticide, a few times over the course of the summer. I have not sprayed this year. Last year I was fairly concerned about spraying such, as I do have 2 bee hives and I did not want to hurt my bees.

Any ideas?

Lately we have been brushing the dog about daily, as she is shedding a lot. So I am confident that these today were her first ticks of the season.

[shazdancer]

Sounds like you are doing a lot of good things already, Galen. Before you treat the dog more often, make sure that doing so won't hurt the dog. Your vet may have some good ideas there, because the vets are seeing a lot of this.

Ticks love moist and shade, which is so much of what our state is like once the leaves come out. They die fairly quickly in full sun, so the best thing you can do to your property is to make the areas you use dry and sunny. Keep the grass short, and the wood chip border is a great way to keep the bugs from crossing from the woods to your yard. Deer carry ticks, but so do mice and chipmunks, so try to keep their habitat out of your yard. I also learned that pachysandra and similar plants are great mouse/tick habitat, and to be avoided.

Hope that helps you a little -- I will check through the info I have to see if there is anything else that might help you.

Regards,

Shaz

[Galen]

We have a lot of squirrels in our backyard.

The vets we use are US Army vets (because they are on the base), they are good at treating our animals generally, but they dont know much about 'local' issues.

Actually they won't even with me about my bees, or their mites.

Know any good local vets?

[GrouchoMarxJr]

I know all about lymes...I put a slice on top of my corona...it's great that way. ;)-->