Ticks and lyme disease (York: living, safe, estimate)

[boomer]

It seems everytime I go hiking at Monte Sano or Green Mountain with my family, we find a tick or two on us. How bad is lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Alabama.

[zenjenn]

Holy crap, we go hiking at least once a month. I've never found a tick but you are freaking me out. I'm totally slathering myself with some toxic bug repellent. Does OFF repel ticks or just mosquitos? Yuck!

I did research lyme disease though - not a big concern here. It's carried mostly by deer ticks further north. Not sure about the other.

[Southlander]

I have heard of some local people getting both diseases. Wear long pants and socks when hiking...check yourself carefully and have someone check your scalp and other parts you can't see after any romps in the woods or open fields.

[boomer]

Not trying to put the fear in anyone, but the last four times I went hiking, at least on member of my family found a tick on their body or clothes. This past Sunday was the worst, I found 3 ticks on me, one on my son, and one on my wife. Luckily none of them were attached. This was only from hiking 2 hours on Monte Sano. I will say, I went off the trail and brushed against the low lying grass and branches. I hear if you stay on the trail and away from tall grass, your probably safe from ticks. Personally I never met anyone with lyme disease, but a lot of people here in AL will testify they know someone who got lyme disease or got Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

[DvlsAdvc8]

One of my dogs has lyme.

The ticks are everywhere here in northern Virginia. You can't step one foot in the woods or unkept grass/field.

[Marodi]

As long as you catch the rash, you just take about 2 grams of amoxacillin a day for a few weeks and everythings fine.

So after you go hiking and you get a small rash (depends on how far along, sometimes it's really nice and circular, sometimes it's just an arc) go see a doctor.

In my case I thought it was a really bad mosquito bite in the back of my knee, but eventually turned into a rash. After a few days (I think about a week after I noticed what I thought was the bite) I saw the doctor and he put me on that amoxacillin, 4-500g pills a day.

So if you get a really really ichy spot in the back of a joint, or crotch region, or other darker and moister area's, might wanna get it checked out.


(This was all personal experience by the way)

[sarahrose]

Im in MN, but I had Lyme last summer......it was the most awful sickness I have ever gotten.........10x worse than the flu!! plus, antibiotics for 3 weeks just to cure it!! If you catch it in time, you can treat it with no after effects of the disease, if you don't, you can have life long joint issues. Lyme is nothing to be taken lightly.....make sure you check yourself every time you get back from hiking!! The ones that cause Lyme are the little teeny ones, so check well.

[Viralmd]

I'm an infectious diseases physician. I do this kind of stuff for a living. Lyme disease is ALL OVER North America. And it's not limited to deer ticks. But that's not the only disease that ticks can transmit. Aside from RMSF (which has even been reported from tick bites in New York city), there's also ehrlichiosis, which can be quite serious in people and potentially DEADLY in pets.

Please check yourselves and your animals whenever you've been outdoors: look under your arms, in your hairline, behind your knees. In animals check under ear flaps, between the toes and around the tail, in addition to everywhere else.

[boomer]

Below is a great article defining lyme disease.

Dr. James Howenstine -- Curing Lyme Disease With Samento

Here is a quote, "Lyme Disease is the fastest growing epidemic in the world. LD is grossly underreported so there may be far more than the 200,000 cases reported annually in the U.S. Dr.Harvey and Salvato estimate that 1 billion persons in the world may be infected with LD. LD is thought to be a contributing factor in 50 % of patients who have chronic illness."

[Keeper]

WoW.. Thanks Viralmd. I have never heard of ehrlichiosis. Good thing to know about since it is in the Gulf Coast states.