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erugs

erugs

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Let's hope we'll be hearing and reading a lot about ticks and hiking in the weeks ahead. I don't like sounding like a hiking alarmist, but I have personal experience with this and won't take the topic casually again. Check out this article that just came out: http://www.trails.com/how_1198_check-for-ticks.html . (I know some of you, my friends, will have a field day with what is being asked of us in that piece.)

I'll post the following as an event, but here's an advance: On Tuesday, April 13, the documentary film on Lyme disease, Under Our Skin, will be shown and the topic will be discussed at UNH Manchester.
 
I had one attached to my back last week after hiking locally at the Ward Reservation. This warm weahter should bring them out in force.
 
I'm a tick magnet. I already had one stuck on me after hiking in CT on the last weekend in winter! I had to pry it off my ...ah, lets just say it was in a delicate area.:eek:
Hope this doesn't mean a bad tick year. Stu
 
Nice link.Thanks.
I'm thinking this will be a big year for ticks. I couldn't believe how many we had last year.
One thing I thought I would mention.
If you do get a tick bite mark it down on the calender..circle the date or whatever.. Just in case you get symptoms, even if it's 6 months from now, you will have some point of reference.
also
I'll put a vote to photograph any unusual skin rashes...it is way easier to show a doctor what it looked like rather than just describing it...esp. if it fades away before you get seen by a doctor who might have a clue as to what it is.

Good luck, happy hiking.
 
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12 other diseases

Two years ago while just walking a part of the Bay Circut Trail in the Hocomock Swamp in the Bridgewaters, Mass, I was bit on my thigh by a tick. When I realized the bugger was there we removed right away. Didn't think much about it until 3 or 4 days later when the proverbial bright red bulls eye rash appeared on my thigh.

What really frightened me was when the doctor said that not only was there a problem with Lyme disease but there are now 12 other diseases that are associated with the tick population.:eek: He didn't even test for the Lymes disease he just put me on and antibiotic that would takecare of ALL of these diseases .

Some months later My hiking buddy was exhibiting symptoms of Lymes disease and went through 8 testings to determine if he had Lymes disease. There were 5 positives and 3 negatives!!!! He was really sick. After one doctor finally said this was rediculous ...No more testing ... He put my buddy on antibiotics and he finally got better. That was when I found out the test for the Lymes disease is not that accurate.
 
I took 1 tick off Geneva and 1 off myself last night, and we were just hanging out in the backyard! :eek:

Fortunately her fur is too thick for the little buggers to get in very easy, and the one I had was only on my pants.

I will be getting more diligent about tick checks again. Nasty little creatures.
 
Not sure if anyone recalls this, but in the National Geo documentary on the Appalachian Trail last year, they showed how ticks cluster on vegetation (footage was from NY). I was pretty amazed -- imagine an innocuous looking field of perennials -- with clusters of hundreds of ticks consolidating on them, just waiting for someone to brush past. I've never noticed the clusters myself, so the footage was quite starting, IMHO.

Guess its time to put the K9 Advantix on Terra. TBDs are pretty terrible. Terra went into a 24 hour life threatening seizure at age 1 that was caused by Lyme/Anaplasma co-infection. She was lucky to survive it, and remained siezure free for the next 5.5 years of her happy life.

She got it again last fall-- despite my due diligence--and has developed epilepsy and is on lifetime meds to control partial focal seizures.

*TBDs = tick borne diseases

Nothing to mess around with! As much as I don't like putting poison on my dog.....well, you can guess the rest....
 
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una_dogger said:
As much as I don't like putting poison on my dog.....well, you can guess the rest....
Click to expand...

One of the few times to be really glad my cats don't get along with your dog. Since they don't cozy up or have physical contact with each other, the cats should be safe from the Advantix, which is toxic to cats.

Don't forget: "Until K9 advantix dries, keep pet off furniture and away from hardwood floors."
 
MichaelJ said:
One of the few times to be really glad my cats don't get along with your dog. Since they don't cozy up or have physical contact with each other, the cats should be safe from the Advantix, which is toxic to cats.

Don't forget: "Until K9 advantix dries, keep pet off furniture and away from hardwood floors."
Click to expand...

Yup...K9 Advantix contains permethrin, which can poison your kittehs...
 
una_dogger said:
She got it again last fall-- despite my due diligence--and has developed epilepsy and is on lifetime meds to control partial focal seizures.

....
Click to expand...

Sabrina,
Was Terra adequately anointed with the Advantix at the time, so far as you know?

I've got Leo on Frontline Plus and I haven't found any information on the Web that would convince me to switch. The vet says he is fine with either.
 
Tick Taxi

We've already taken dozens off Emma, and Judy has already had a nasty bite in the last few weeks. This morning in PawTICKaway I killed about a half dozen. Yay, spring is here!

KDT
 
audrey said:
Sabrina,
Was Terra adequately anointed with the Advantix at the time, so far as you know?

I've got Leo on Frontline Plus and I haven't found any information on the Web that would convince me to switch. The vet says he is fine with either.
Click to expand...

She was wearing Frontline at the time of this infection, due to the concern about Adantix (more effective) and the kittes, but these products aren' 100%. Our vet determined that since the cats aren't actually sleeping on and grooming Terra, that they are in no danger of contact with Advantix.

What I like about advantix is that it's 99% effective in killing ticks within 24 hours, the time needed to transmit lyme. Frontline hasn't been able to formulate a product that kills within that time limit. So ticks are on your pet even after applying Frontline for greater than 24 hours which does not prevent with any assurance the transmission of Lyme disease.

With Advantix, our dogs have at least a fighting chance. It also repels ticks, which keeps us safer because less of them make it on the dog to begin with..

The real dilemna lies with Anaplasma, because the ticks are transmitting both infections, and there is no hard evidence yet on how long a tick needs to be attached to transmit it. So there is no proof that Advantix can protect against it.
 
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Slightly on and off topic.

I haven't seen any ticks yet, but I have seen yellow jackets, wasps, and mosquitoes!! I can't even play my guitar on the back porch right now because they've already set up shop in a nest and apparently hate my music.

Everything is early this year. What we need is one more good snow. ;)
 
I pulled one off the puppy last week. I couldn't believe I was seeing a tick in March, but I guess it's not too early after all. While I love my dog's dark chocolate color, it makes spotting ticks more difficult. I came across it by feeling it under her front leg near the shoulder - think "arm pit." It was smaller than most ticks I've seen, and given the puppy's energy level, getting her to hold still long enough to get it off her was an adventure....
 
I use to think there were Big Ticks and Baby Ticks. Now I know that the smaller ones are the deer tick.
 
when I moved here from out west my dog was ravaged by ticks and caught lyme disease. Since then she's been on Frontline and has not gotten one tick, I swear by that product. Ticks can come out at weird times, I only miss 2 or 3 months a year for treatment, Ive seen ticks on a sunny feb day down low.
 
Joyce picked up ticks within a couple of hundred feet of our house as we bushwacked through the tall grass coming back from a hike.
Fortunately we spotted them as she removed her boots.

I,ve had the target, fever etc. before, and it's no fun.
 
I have gotten in the habbit of spraying some tick spray on my lower pant legs, boot area. Not sure if it really helps, but it doesn't hurt.

I will have to say the ticks aren't as bad here as they are in Scotland. At one camp site, my wife walked into the woods a few feet to go to the bathroom (at night) came back and her pants were speckled with what we first thought were seeds from some plants. Turns out they were all ticks, must have been hundreds of them. We sprayed pants down with tick spray and 99% of them just fell off, we then had to thoroughly inspect clothes/body but didn't find any that actually got on her, just the outside of her pants. It was insane though, and it created my extreme hatred for all ticks...
 
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