Break Out the Bug Dope: The Ticks are Here!

[Periwinkle]

I found my first tick today. Yipee. Gotta keep telling myself that I really am looking forward to summer.

They aren't too bad here in the Whites yet -- that one tick was found on one of the dogs after five hours of bushwhacking -- but, where there's one....

Now, where did I put that bug spray?....

 

[sardog1]

Remember, folks, it was Periwinkle who started this thread and provoked me into publishing this bit of doggerel (sic) that I penned a couple years ago:

A Dog Handler's Bedtime Lament

Tick, tock, tick tock.
Is that a tick crawling up my leg?
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
Yes it is!
Flick the light.
Grab the tick.
Drown the tick.
Back to bed.

Tick, tock, tick tock.
Is that a tick crawling up my leg?

(My personal record is twenty-four of the little *%@$&^#+! plucked off me after a day of dog training.)

 

[Cloudsplitter]

Just some quick tick tips

Nice one sardog! Here are just a few reminders for anyone who has a nasty encounter with one of our fav little wretches...
-Using a lighter or heat to burn a tick off of skin is not a good idea. This can actually cause the tick to burrow deeper while trying to escape the flame.
-When ticks are pulled off of skin their heads can detach and stay on the skin indefinetly...Make sure you get the little pinhead to decrease risks of infection.
This advice come courtesy of THREE HOURS of tick awareness training that I had to endure for job training a few years back.
-C.

 

[hillman1]

I pulled one off of my dog yesterday. Those things freak me out.

 

[bobmak]

I live in the northeastern corner of Mass. About 3 weeks ago we took our new puppy Rose & Chica for a walk in the local state forest and pulled off over 40 of the little bugs. They were deer ticks, very small. The puppy was easier as she has a short coat, but Chica has a thick border collie coat which made it very hard to get them all. They appear to be out in force this year.

 

[marty]

I concur with Bobmak. We appear to live close by. The forests in Northeast Massachusetts (Boxford SF, Georgetown-Rowley SF) are loaded with them. We were ambushed by mosquitos around 5:30 pm tonight. Hope this is not an indicator of a really bad bug year.

 

[Sara]

We found a tick, fully engorged, on our chocolate lab about three weeks ago. I called our vet in Montgomery County and there have already been 13 confirmed cases of Lyme disease in pets in the area this season. They say that it will be one of the worst seasons in years.

ADACKR and I spent this last week on Assateague Island in MD camping and canoeing. The island was infested with ticks but we wouldn't trade the unique back country experience for anything. If you've never been, check it out!!

 

[Rick]

No termites either for that matter.

Cuz Termites live in the ground in dirt and everydody knows there's only three things in the Adirondacks and none of them is dirt..... Muck, Rocks and Hikers stuck up to their knees in muck.

 

[percious]

I don't believe that there are no ticks in the 'Dax. In fact, I am fairly certain that I obtained Lyme Disease there two years ago, after swimming in (and then walking through a field near) John's Brook.

Lyme disease is no fun. If you find a red rash, make sure you get the meds right away. The disease makes you feel like you just woke up ALL THE TIME. The medication also upset my stomache in the morning, but it beats getting headaches all the time. Oh, and if you don't have health insurance, plan on paying about $450 for all the tests they have to do on you, which come out negative anyway!

Anyone else have anything to add?

-percious

 

[mushroomman]

Ticks

Deer ticks are found in woodlands. There are no coastal areas in Renseleer and Colombia Ctys in New York State and the deer ticks are some of the worst in the country. As a Lyme sufferer, i can state that its a good idea to check yourself and your pets. No amount of antibiotic "cures" Lyme disease.
Deer ticks have been expanding their range for years and they will be in the ADKs before you know it. They carry Lyme Disease.
Mushroomman

 

[percious]

ok, maybe antibiotics don't "cure" you of Lyme, but they certainly put it into remission. As long as you catch it early you should be ok. Last week I had a tick bite my arm, and I put a circle around it with permanent marker just to make sure I remembered where it was to look for a rash. No rash so far... This was in CT.

I have to re-iterate though, I am fairly certain that there is Lyme disease in the ADKs. People bring their pets there from other places, depositing ticks sometimes I am sure. And I am pretty sure I got it near John's brook 2 years ago.

If you are feeling run down, and getting headaches all the time, you should see your doctor. You may have had the rash where you could not easily notice it.

 

[Dugan]

Ticks

Yah, I've been finding ticks on my dog since the beginning of March. Luckily he's white, so they're easy to spot. My vet says that nymph stage wood ticks and deer ticks are virtually indistinguishable. Either way, I still pull all of 'em off as soon as I see them.

Sardog: <laughing> Nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night feeling a tick crawling on you!

Yah, burning is not a good idea. This could also cause the tick to explode, thus spreading possibly virus filled blood. Some other myths: they do NOT leave their "shell" and burrow inside the host; covering them with vaseline will not cause them to back out. They're getting oxygen from the blood stream.

Not everyone gets the rash. Doxycycline is the antibiotic of choice for treating lyme. If you catch it very early it can be completely eradicated. If not, you could test positive for lyme for years afterwards, even if it's not an active infection, which makes it difficult to find a new infection. I've read that if you're having any symptoms that are not being easily tracked down that you should ask for a lyme test.

Lyme is now considered endemic throughout MA, especially in the Connecticut River Valley. I know many dogs with very careful owners that have been diagnosed with Lyme. I don't know what the stats are for humans, or whether a human vaccine is available. The disease is considered to be spreading because people bring ticks with them when they travel.

I'm shuddering just having thought of ticks!

 

[Periwinkle]

Re: Ticks

Nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night feeling a tick crawling on you!

I dunno. I think discovering one trundling up your thigh under your pants while driving on the highway is right up there!

There recently was an article in a local paper about Lyme in dogs in NH. I have my dogs vaccinated against it, considering how hard it is to find deer ticks on a black lab.

Lately, I've been wearing pants, a long sleeve shirt and a hat while bushwhacking and have managed to avoid having any latch on to me.

 

[daxs]

Some thing to think about - up to 50% of people who get bitten by a deer tick do not get the bulls eye rash that is pathognomic of lymes disease. so bug dope and a skin check for ticks is necessary

 

[bobmak]

They are tenacious little critters. I went for a run in the woods near my house one morning, showered & washed my hair, went into work and felt something crawling on the back of my neck. It was a lovely little brown tick; she must have been hiding in my not very long hair. There are so many near where I live they don't even bother me any longer.

 

[Jack Waldron]

Avoiding Ticks

Experts said if you want to avoid ticks, then you should avoid sitting on logs. In an experiment, researchers used themselves as bait and found that logs were the worst place to sit because they posed the greatest risk of picking up ticks. In 30 percent of the trials, it was found that sitting on a log for only five minutes resulted in
exposure to ticks.

The tick-infested log surfaces included both the moss areas and the bare surface areas. Gathering wood followed by sitting against trees were considered to be the next riskiest behaviors, which resulted in tick exposure 23 percent and 17 percent of the time, respectively. It was determined that sitting in leaves was not particularly risky to tick exposure.

The researchers explained they were looking for the ticks carrying the bacteria borrelia burgdorferi, which carries Lyme disease. In order to develop efficient strategies and teaching programs on Lyme disease prevention, the researchers stated it was important to find out how people were exposed to the ticks carrying the bacteria in the first place.

Studying the behaviors that people would normally take part in while spending time in forest preserves or other wooded areas was the main criteria for the study.

Journal of Medical Entomology
March 2004;41(2):239-48

 

[Peter Miller]

One of the sets of trails I maintain and hike in a lot is a deeryard. The tick population has exploded here. Ten years ago, our older dog picked up a few ticks annually. Last year, we pulled at least 500 ticks off our new dog, a golden. 90% had not embedded yet. This dog has been getting Lyme vaccine since puppyhood. Our older dog tested positive for Lyme; he gets the vaccine too.

I myself averaged 5 ticks a day virtually every day May - July last year. None embedded. I test negative for Lyme.

I wouldn't use bug dope unless I was doing a bushwhack through brushy terrain in peak tick season. With practice, one can train the mind to be alert to their crawly presence. Self-check, clothing check, etc becomes routine. They sometimes get stuck in socks, so check there carefully.

I and my dogs have picked up very few ticks in the Whites. I attribute this, in part, to the absence of brush in the treadway. Also, deer and moose tend to inhabit lowlands during tick season.

Our vet reports that a fair percentage of common wood ticks carry Lyme Disease. To my knowledge, there are no deer ticks as far north as the NH Lakes Region where I live. Nonethless, a lot of dogs in the area test positive for Lyme.

In my opinion, ticks are the second most obnoxious of the insect pests. My rank order, least offensive to most offensive: black flies, mosquitos, deer flies, ticks, yellow jackets.

When I find a tick on myself while hiking, I pull off all the creature's legs and toss it back into the woods to die a slow death. That's what living in a deer yard will do to the mind. So far this year I've pulled about 25 off my golden and 10 off myself. Last year was worse at this time.

My other dog, the cocker, has picked up ticks in mid-winter. All it takes is a south facing slope temporally bare of snow and a 50 degree day to bring them out. In a deeryard, not in the Whites.

This is probably more than you ever wanted to know on the subject. Tickmania. Last year, my wife, I, and our golden totalled over 1,000 ticks. I call that excessive.

 

[iceNsnow]

Treat Lyme Disease !

I took Doxacyclene (21 day dose) shortly after infection (after being deathly ill for 5days and finally having a bullseye appear), and was quickly(less than 24hrs!!) cured. Various other friends and family, in the Rensselaer Cty area, have also had similar results.

Please do not go untreated! If you have symptoms, get tested. The longer you wait, the less effective this easy treatment will be. If you have a negative test result with nasty symptoms, still push for treatment; the alternative is ugly!

 

[charlos]

so it seems that animals can be vaccinated though people cant?
lymerix was taken off the u.s. market for humans so what are animals getting?
does anyone know of any new vaccines, doing a google search turned up nothing.
the stats say that many people contracted the disease from the lymerix shots, wouldnt this be a problem in pets too?
peace

 

[Dugan]

canine lyme vaccine

<shudder> Saw one just before I turned off the light last night, crawling on the blanket up my chest. I think it was going to leap to my neck for a kill!

I've done some research into canine lyme vaccines in the past month after my dog tested positive for an inactive infection. He was not positive when placed with me last June, nor has he had the vaccine. We're extremely vigilant about ticks and used Frontline throughout tick season last year. Here's a brief run down on what I've learned so far:

Although there are supposed to be 3 vaccines, I turned up info on only 2: Fort Dodge Lymevax, and Merial Recombitek for lyme. Lymevax uses the entire bacterium, although it is killed. This is supposed to prevent the bacteria from causing an active infection. Merial uses some sort of gene technology. They take only pieces of the bacterium, enough that the body recognizes it as lyme, and that will stimulate an immune response. This cannot cause an active infection because the entire bacterium is not present. The most common efficacy figures I found were 95% for Lymevax and 100% for Recombitek. I found lots of independent research for Lymevax, including supporting articles from scientific sources. I could not find a source for Recombitek info other than Merial. I found hearsay of dogs getting an active infection following Lymevax, I could not confirm this through a valid source.

Once your dog is vaccinated, the dog will test positive for lyme. This makes it difficult to distinguish between vaccine, old and/or new infection. The Western Blot test is the only test that can distinguish between these things. If your dog has been vaccinated, but gets lyme anyway, they still need the 21 days of doxycycline. For whatever reason, far fewer dogs are susceptible than people. A newer vet recommendation is: if your dog tests positive for lyme, check kidney function through a urine test. This will measure whether the immune system is stimulated. This shows that the dog is fighting an active infection, it DOES NOT tell whether it is lyme.

The symptoms in dogs are similar to those in people. If there's any weird "undiagnosable" stuff going on, get a lyme test. With Dugan, he'd been having some oral problems with extremely inflamed gums, which has gone away since the doxy. We're assuming an indirect relationship in that his immune systems was weakened due to the lyme, which weakened his ability to fight off oral bacteria, but we could be completely off base.

I do plan to vaccinate him after a month or so has passed since the doxy. I prefer what I've read about Recombitek, but I'm not comfortable that I can't find any non-Merial sources of information. My vet supplies only Lymevax and uses it on all her dogs. Even if vaccinated, prevention is still the key word. Spot 'em as they hop on, pick 'em off immediately, do not squeeze their bodies during removal, kill them in a way that doesn't puncture the body.

And why is it that ticks were not declared as an Axis of Evil?!