Life cycle of ticks and what we should expect this year

Be careful outdoors this spring and summer:

http://www.timesunion.com/local/art...emailarticle&cmpid=emailarticle#photo-2714979

Already picked a dozen off family members after a day of yardwork on Saturday and a trip to the park on Sunday....

Bitten, awaiting prescription for Doxycycline, hate the rotten little bugs

Be careful of being in the sunlight, Jim. Doxy makes your skin weird. A friend of mine described it perfectly, "it feels like it is raining on you, but there is no rain or water in sight." When I was taking Doxy, despite wearing Zinc, my nose became like leather, then a few months later I got a sunburn and my nose peeled and became soft again. When it peeled, it bled like crazy. Now I'm on a cocktail of other meds and it has been several years.

I can't stress it enough, this is not to be taken lightly. I'm finding more and more people who have been sick as a result of the bacteria brought by tick bites.

Great. I'm going to itch for the rest of the day.

Yes, Griffin, and it doesn't get any better after you have found one.

I took a walk at work the other day (okay, a bushwhack through the woods by the office to the disc on the nearby hill's high point) and had four on me when I was done. Dog ticks, immature and young, but on me nonetheless. One was on the inside of my shorts. You truly do need to disrobe and examine not just yourself but your clothes in order to do a "tick check."

(yes, we have a locker room at work)

Good advice, Michael J.

A friend of ours acquireed Lyme several years ago. Since then, we do a meticulous tick check after every hike. We also use permethrin on clothing and DEET on skin. We've been fortunate; we've never found one on either of us. Most of our hiking is bushwhacking in the Adirondacks, generally in the woods, not the fields. I think there is also a genetic component to this. I know a woman who does a lot of gardening with her sister. Every time they work in the garden, her sister will have several ticks on her; my acquaintance never has one.

Could be diet too. I have found that mosquitoes like potassium and not so much garlic.
have
Tim

erugs said:

Be careful of being in the sunlight, Jim. Doxy makes your skin weird. A friend of mine described it perfectly, "it feels like it is raining on you, but there is no rain or water in sight." When I was taking Doxy, despite wearing Zinc, my nose became like leather, then a few months later I got a sunburn and my nose peeled and became soft again. When it peeled, it bled like crazy. Now I'm on a cocktail of other meds and it has been several years.

I can't stress it enough, this is not to be taken lightly. I'm finding more and more people who have been sick as a result of the bacteria brought by tick bites.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! being fair skinned I do have to take precautions with the sun. This is my third year in a row getting bitten and Doxy works very well for me as long as you get it quickly. Its one dose and costs just over a dollar for two pills, many doctors will send in the prescription without having to see you. It you get bitten, don't wait, get the meds right away.

This time it was our cat that brought the tick home. Despite being protected by FrontLine, the rotten little things can still get in their fur and stay on.

Jim lombard said:

Thanks for the advice! being fair skinned I do have to take precautions with the sun. This is my third year in a row getting bitten and Doxy works very well for me as long as you get it quickly. Its one dose and costs just over a dollar for two pills, many doctors will send in the prescription without having to see you. It you get bitten, don't wait, get the meds right away.

.

Click to expand...

I thought Doxy was prescribed for 21 days (cycle)? At least in my case it was. I remember jumping through "medical" hoops to get treatment for my Lyme. The doctors I intially saw didn't want to give Doxy (until lyme was confirmed) fearing it may mask other causes. At least that's what they told me.

Should have just seen your Doc Jim.

Peace.

Jim lombard said:

It you get bitten, don't wait, get the meds right away.

Click to expand...

If you do wait, you'll have to go on a more traditional course of 30 days of antibiotics. Not fun. The single dose is much less intrusive.

Also don't forget that deer ticks are the problem. Dog ticks are just as nasty to find on you, but do not carry Lyme. If you can identify the tick (or your doctor can) you needn't take unnecessary antibiotics.

Great info at http://www.aldf.com/ including this tidbit I didn't know:

clothes can be spun in the dryer for 20 minutes to kill any unseen ticks

Click to expand...

Jaytrek57 said:

I thought Doxy was prescribed for 21 days (cycle)? At least in my case it was. I remember jumping through "medical" hoops to get treatment for my Lyme. The doctors I intially saw didn't want to give Doxy (until lyme was confirmed) fearing it may mask other causes. At least that's what they told me.
.

Click to expand...

There are two primary schools of thought. One is a brief course of antibiotics kill the buggers, the other is long term antibiotics are appropriate when the infection was not immediately caught. Some say that long-term antibiotics cause further problems in the over-use of the product, others say that if you are ill, you should be treated. People have faced life-changing health issues from Lyme, including death. As far as masking other causes, this disease (and it may be more than one because of the multiple types of infections delivered by the tick) Lyme looks like other diseases.

Jaytrek57 said:

I thought Doxy was prescribed for 21 days (cycle)? At least in my case it was. I remember jumping through "medical" hoops to get treatment for my Lyme. The doctors I intially saw didn't want to give Doxy (until lyme was confirmed) fearing it may mask other causes. At least that's what they told me.

Should have just seen your Doc Jim.

Peace.

Click to expand...

I disagree. I spoke to my dr on the phone yesterday. He says if you can get the dose within 24 hrs you won't get Lyme. Not guaranteed but the percentage is very high. Seems kind of strange to have to wait for the disease to show up to treat it. He said to watch for fever, swelling etc, those are some of the signs.

You will be a step ahead if you know the difference between the commonly called deer tick and the dog tick (and others).

Here is a link that goes into more of the controversy between the two primary groups who have different opinions. http://www.publichealthalert.org/Articles/scottforsgren/Dr Sam Shor.htm

Well I can just tell you what happened in my case. Disagree with the doctor(s) I saw.

He says if you can get the dose within 24 hrs you won't get Lyme. Not guaranteed but the percentage is very high

Click to expand...

.

I'm not a doctor or scientist...but how can this be tested/proven? Isn't it assuming that if you were bitten you have Lyme? What if the tick didn't even have it?

Jim, I really do wish I saw your doc b/c the Doxy worked wonders on me and I wished I had it sooner.

Peace.

Jaytrek57 said:

Well I can just tell you what happened in my case. Disagree with the doctor(s) I saw.

.

I'm not a doctor or scientist...but how can this be tested/proven? Isn't it assuming that if you were bitten you have Lyme? What if the tick didn't even have it?

Jim, I really do wish I saw your doc b/c the Doxy worked wonders on me and I wished I had it sooner.

Peace.

Click to expand...

Tests are not accurate for Lyme. The bacteria go into hiding. They have a long life cycle. If the antibiotics don't "hit" at the right time, they won't find the bacteria. This whole thing is very controversial, some say "political" and some accuse the insurance companies of not wanting to treat for Lyme because of the expense and because it can look like other, more commonly accepted illnesses that are not curable by antibiotics, such as ALS, Alzheimers, MS, for a few. It can cause/deepen depression. It can affect sleep because of pain. Lack of sleep can cause many issues. Then there is heart disease, etc.

Jaytrek57 said:

I thought Doxy was prescribed for 21 days (cycle)? At least in my case it was. I remember jumping through "medical" hoops to get treatment for my Lyme.

Click to expand...

I just received some information on a trial. Not that I understand all the words, but this resource boils down one dosage early on could be effective. Other experts disagree. Isn't it complicated?

Protective value of prophylactic antibiotic treatment of tick bite for Lyme disease prevention: An animal model. Piesman J, Hojgaard A. Source Bacterial Diseases Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3150 Rampart Road, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA.

Abstract
Clinical studies have demonstrated that prophylactic antibiotic treatment of tick bites by Ixodes scapularis in Lyme disease hyperendemic regions in the northeastern United States can be effective in preventing infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, the Lyme disease spirochete. A large clinical trial in Westchester County, NY (USA), demonstrated that treatment of tick bite with 200mg of oral doxycycline was 87% effective in preventing Lyme disease in tick-bite victims (Nadelman, R.B., Nowakowski, J., Fish, D., Falco, R.C., Freeman, K., McKenna, D., Welch, P., Marcus, R., Agúero-Rosenfeld, M.E., Dennis, D.T., Wormser, G.P., 2001. Prophylaxis with single-dose doxycycline for the prevention of Lyme disease after an Ixodes scapularis tick bite. N. Engl. J. Med. 345, 79-84.). Although this excellent clinical trial provided much needed information, the authors enrolled subjects if the tick bite occurred within 3days of their clinical visit, but did not analyze the data based on the exact time between tick removal and delivery of prophylaxis. An animal model allows for controlled experiments designed to determine the point in time after tick bite when delivery of oral antibiotics would be too late to prevent infection with B. burgdorferi. Accordingly, we developed a tick-bite prophylaxis model in mice that gave a level of prophylactic protection similar to what had been observed in clinical trials and then varied the time post tick bite of antibiotic delivery. We found that two treatments of doxycycline delivered by oral gavage to mice on the day of removal of a single potentially infectious nymphal I. scapularis protected 74% of test mice compared to controls. When treatment was delayed until 24h after tick removal, only 47% of mice were protected; prophylactic treatment was totally ineffective when delivered ≥2days after tick removal. Although the dynamics of antibiotic treatment in mice may differ from humans, and translation of animal studies to patient management must be approached with caution, we believe our results emphasize the point that antibiotic prophylactic treatment of tick bite to prevent Lyme disease is more likely to be efficacious if delivered promptly after potentially infectious ticks are removed from patients. There is only a very narrow window for prophylactic treatment to be effective post tick removal.
Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Seems to be much debate and uncertain within the medical community regarding both DX and RX of Lyme disease.


This article is interesting and holds some promise for the future.
http://now.tufts.edu/articles/tick-...bf-Tufts_Now_internal_120314&utm_medium=email

It seems that if for the time being, if you think you have Lyme, you had best go find someone who believes you and treats it in a ways that makes you feel comfortable.
I have a friend who recently experienced the "no you don't have Lyme" by one MD, and another MD saying "yes you do" and he treated it very aggressively. She was originally given the one dose Doxy by the first MD.
It seems for the time being, no one can quite make up their mind which camp has the correct answer.

I am just keeping my "paws" crossed in hope that I never have to decide which way to go.