Tick Diseases

[danrclem]

A little over a month ago I got diagnosed with Alpha-Gal Syndrome which is a tick disease. There's a good chance that some of you haven't ever heard about it, and I hadn't either until some time back my wife said that four of our neighbors had contracted it. One of them had gone to the emergency room twice for anaphylaxis because of her allergic reaction. She got diagnosed with Alpha-Gal and now carries an epi-pen with her everywhere she goes.

Well anyway, I have been having stomach trouble for a long time, which is one of the symptoms for Alpha-Gal. My doctor tried treating the symptoms but nothing seemed to help very much. When I found out about Alpha-Gal, I asked my doctor to test me, and the result was a strong positive for the disease. Alpha-Gal has several symptoms, but the main one is that it causes allergies to red meat. The severity depends on the person and how many times the person is infected by a diseased tick. The severity also decreases in time with some people. The symptoms also don't show up until two to six hours after eating red meat and I've read that they can last for up to three days.

My stomach pain was pretty bad, but it has subsided some over time even though it will still give me fits from time to time. My stomach has been hurting for two days now but it's not severe pain. Taking red meat out of your diet is supposed to make the symptoms stop, but I haven't been able to go cold turkey. I'm still eating red meat but not as much as I used to. Some of the other symptoms can be itching, hives, and shortness of breath.

Lyme Disease - My dog started limping on his front leg some time back, but it wasn't really bad. He also was laying around more than usual. About two and a half weeks ago he started limping really bad on his back leg. It got so bad that he couldn't go up or down three steps to go out in the yard. By that time, I knew I had to take him to the vet and got an appointment two weeks ago.

I had to pack him into the vet's office and the vet almost immediately suspected a tick disease but wanted to do a couple x-rays on him also. My wife said he was limping on a different leg than the one that I saw, and the vet said that it can be different legs at different times. The x-rays came back fine but when the blood test came back it showed a very positive reading for Lyme disease. The vet prescribed some medication and before that day was over, I could tell that Otis was feeling better. I'd say the anti-inflammatory drugs kicked in fast. He seems almost back to normal now but he's still taking medication.

We got a double whammy in a short period of time. I hope that none of you or your pets ever get Alpha-Gal (dogs don't get A/G) or Lyme disease but I just wanted you all to know what to possibly look out for just in case.

Otis weighed in at 61 lbs. and this is the medication that they prescribed for him. It can be adjusted up or down depending on the weight of a dog.

Doxycycline 100 mg Tablet - 3 tablets a day (all at one time) for 28 days - Quantity 84
Methocarbamal 750 mg tablet - 1 tablet twice daily for 10 days - Quantity 20
Prednisone 20 mg tablet - 1 1/2 tablets once daily for 7 days - 1 tablet once daily for 7 days - 1/2 tablet once daily for 7 days - Quantity 21

[Conelrad]

Doxy is a great legacy antibiotic.

It saved a lot of lives for jungle soldiers in 'Nam.

D

[William]

Thanks for sharing, Danny. I have often wondered it I have Lyme disease but I do not remember ever being bit by a tick. Maybe I should ask my doctor to do the blood work just to make sure. I sure have a lot of symptoms going on in my body that relate to tick diseases.

Bill

[electra225]

I eat Doxycycline like M&M's during allergy season. Doxy and Ibuprofen are miracle drugs as far as I'm concerned....

[danrclem]

Thanks for sharing, Danny. I have often wondered it I have Lyme disease but I do not remember ever being bit by a tick. Maybe I should ask my doctor to do the blood work just to make sure. I sure have a lot of symptoms going on in my body that relate to tick diseases.

Bill

I think it would be a very good idea for you get tested Bill even if you just suspect that you could have it. After I tested positive for Alpha-Gal I asked my doctor to test me for Lyme disease and he did. Thankfully that test turned out negative. The way I took it was that the test that I got covered some other tick diseases too. If left untreated, Lyme disease can have some very nasty side effects.

[TC Chris]

I just read about that red-meat sensitivity in the NYT. I've been off red meat for a few years because of cardiac issues, but the whole notion of tick-borne diseases is scary. They are spreading wisely because of climate change and, here in Michigan, our huge over-population of deer, which carry & spread them. Some may remember that I've been doing my part to reduce the population, using my truck as a weapon.

I've only had one tick on me that I'm aware of (it was still ambulatory, apparently seeking a site to settle in). But Bill, you can be tick-bitten without being aware of it, so get checked if you've had symptoms. The critters like to head toward warm and damp places on our bodies, and those are the spots we're not ordinarily looking at. I've been trying to do self-inspections after walking in grassy or brushy areas where deer and mice may be present. The ticks will hang out on long grasses and such, waiting for a host to wander past.

Chris Campbell

[walyfd]

We never had ticks when I was a kid. My mom's family has a farm and we'd take in the hay like this week and never feared ticks. I don't even remember the farm dogs having them.

Now they're everywhere. First time I found one was maybe 4 years ago after a walk in the woods behind the house. We don't have butterflies or even many birds anymore but we have ticks.

[electra225]

We had a border collie on the farm when I was a kid. He had longer, shaggy hair and he got full of cockleburrs, but I don't remember any ticks. We used to set him down, then pick the burrs out of his hair without pulling on it and hurting him. We had a wild blackberry patch down on the "Monon 40" that was probably a quarter of an acre. Those are usually a good place for ticks, but I don't remember that being an issue. I wonder it the increase in tick population is due to the fact that farmers don't spray their fence rows with 2-4D week killer anymore. Even though a herbicide is not meant to kill ticks, dad always told me that ticks didn't like being around the stuff....

[danrclem]

Lyme disease was first found in the mid 70s in Lyme, Connecticut which is very close to the government ran Plum Island research facility.

After I found that I had Alpha-Gal some reading led me to permethrin. I sprayed my dog and the clothes that I usually wear outside with it and to date neither one of us have had ticks on us. Hopefully that continues. My dog hasn't been in the woods since he got sick, but I'll find out for sure later on how well it works.

[TC Chris]

Permethrin is the current best choice, from what I have read. Need to buy some.

Chris Campbell

[danrclem]

Permethrin is the current best choice, from what I have read. Need to buy some.

Chris Campbell

If you buy a concentrate and mix it yourself, it's a lot cheaper. I wanted some quick, so I bought some off of Amazon that was premixed. I won't do that again.

[TC Chris]

I've seen an article on DIY permethrin recently and went looking for it. Not in the NYT, but they did have this article about using it:
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/revi ... Position=1

Chris Campbell

[William]

Thanks, Chris, I think I will look for some the next time I am out and about.

Bill

[danrclem]

I bought some of the Sawyer premixed permethrin off of Amazon and it's a 0.5% mixture. It has worked really well and the only negative I can see is the price. I bought a quart of Gordon's 10% permethrin. It's supposed to last up to 42 days or 6 washings so this quart after diluted should last me a long time. I probably won't let my clothes go for 42 days before I spray them again though. The two 12 oz. bottles of Sawyer that I bought do have nice trigger sprayers, so I'll use them to mix my concentrate in. One guy on youtube says that he mixes his up to a 1.0% mixture and says the military uses a stronger dose than that.

I already have Alpha-Gal and I sure don't want Lyme or any other tick disease so I'm going to use permethrin regularly.

[danrclem]

I just found out today that a neighbor's daughter got diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. She is one that was diagnosed previously with Alpha-Gal. I'm not sure if she got Alpha-Gal when she was living at home or after she got married. The neighbor didn't say but it sounded like they took her to the ER, and they started IV antibiotics on her. Right now, she lives probably about five miles from us but much closer as the crow flies.

I've been reading about RMSF and it's some scary stuff. I've read several articles that says up to 5% of the people who have it die, even after treatment. It says that the people who die are usually very young or over 70. It could also be people who don't start treatment promptly. RMSF is caused by the bacterium Rickettsia rickettsii. That may be what the vet was referring to when I talked to him. He said he saw about five dogs a week that had one particular tick disease, and it may have been Rickettsia rickettsii. I know that I didn't recognize what he called it, and I need to call and find out for sure.

I'm living in Tick City for sure and don't know about taking Otis out in the woods again even though he loves it and actually begs to go. I guess I'll have to make sure he's treated often with permethrin.

Sleep tight and don't let the ticks bite.

[danrclem]

I called the vet's office today and it wasn't RMSF that he was referring to. The lady that I talked to said it was E.Canis or Ehrlichiosis. It also infects humans and can cause death. I'm going to be paranoid the next time I get a tick on me.

I mixed some permethrin and sprayed my clothes today so hopefully I'm good for another month or so.

[William]

It is scary in the world today, so many new diseases, and coming from weird places. Growing up I do not remember any mention of ticks, I played in the yard, down behind the school which was all woods, and down by Hart lake and never got bit by anything except for mosquitoes. My home backs up to the woods I once played in as a kid, and there is no way I am walking in that woods until the snow is on the ground. My neighbors have dogs and they take their dogs for walks in the woods, once home they always find ticks on the dogs or on themselves. Aa friend who a couple of years ago bought a new house that needs a lot of landscape work got bit by a tick and ended up with Lyme's disease. It really mess him up, still fighting trying to get rid of it. Scary times!

Bill

[danrclem]

Things sure a lot different now than when we were kids Bill. The only thing I remember fearing as a kid was snakes and that was totally unnecessary. I never heard of any poisonous snakes being in our area.

I knew about tick diseases but didn't give them much thought until lately. In the last year I learned what Alpha-Gal is, Now I learn that there are people and animals being infected by other tick diseases in the area that I live. There are at least five people (including myself) in my small part of the world that have Alpha-Gal and probably several others that have it and don't know it. I know I evidently had it for years and even my doctor didn't diagnose it. Now my dog has Lyme and my neighbor's daughter has RMSF. A year or so ago I would have thought this would be very, very unlikely.

Now we have tick disease infections exploding, endless viruses and people dying of cancer at unreal rates. These things just didn't happen when we were kids and throughout most of my adult life. I have my thoughts on what's going on, but I'll just keep them to myself.