[nmnita]

Originally Posted by jessaka

nmnita,

Here is a garden website for Oklahoma. They also have one for other States. I am sending you the link to what I posted on questions about ticks. I think you would like the website.

Ticks - Oklahoma Gardening Forum - GardenWeb

I won't take my dog to the river now, not unless I have control over her. Too many ticks and perhaps snakes. She knows nothing about poisonous snakes and one day killed brought in a dead baby garden snake. Hopefully, we don't have poisonous ones here inside the city limits.

i think the snake thing is what scares me the most about that part of the country. We have rattle snakes here, especially in the desert but not many of us going walking in the desert and on the golf course there are some which usually get eaten by the Road Runners.

Thanks for the website.

Nita

[Synopsis]

jessaka,
It's kind of weird, but growing up in Oklahoma and as much time as I spent in pastures, fields, and in the woods - I never caught Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or even heard of anyone that had it.

I read up on it at Wikipedia, and it says that it can be potentially fatal if not treated. I was wondering, how was yours diagnosed and how are you and your husband treating it?

I wish you well in your recovery and am sorry your first "season" in Oklahoma ended up with catching RMSF. Chalk it up to "beginner's luck" I guess..

I also found this interesting anecdote on Wikipedia that certainly would give anyone moving to the more rural areas in Oklahoma or North Carolina some cause for concern.

"The states with the highest incidences of Rocky Mountain spotted fever are North Carolina and Oklahoma; these two states combined accounted for 35% of the total number of U.S. cases reported to CDC during 1993 through 1996."

[Mattie Jo]

Synopsis:

There are a lot of people here that have tick fever. The pharmacist and urgent care said that they are getting a lot of cases this year.

Whenever we come back inside from our yard we check for ticks. We didn't before. My husband didn't even know he had one under his arm until it began itching, and since it had a big red area, I told him to go to the doctor. He wouldn't but waited until he had a fever of 102. I waited until I had flu systems and then realized that I had it, so i went to urgent care. The best thing to do when bitten is to mark down the date. I also looked on net at symptoms of all ticks. I knew he didn't have Lyme disease--no bull's eye.

Got a call from a Friend of the Library today, and she hoped I could help and told me about her tick bite by a very small tick. I said, "Deer tick that carries Lyme." She had the bull's eye and felt that hydrogen peroxide may have taken care of it. I said, "No. Go to urgent care. It takes longer than 8 days to get symptoms and get it nipped in the bud."

We have American Dog Ticks, Star Ticks, and Deer Ticks here. I think the black legged ones cause the Lyme, and maybe they are the small ones. Don't recall.

Times have changed. I think tick fever is becoming more prevalent. When I grew up in CA we never heard of tick fever. I pulled them out of myself and my cats.

Urgent Care didn't do a tick panel on me because I came in too early for it to show up. They did one on my husband and gave him an antibiotic shot and doxyclyline (spelling) right away. Did the same for me. Yesterday when I went back and they did a tick panel. It will take a week to know. I got another shot and pills and feel better today. I just wanted an extra boost since we are going to Guthrie Saturday. (Hooray). (I will get film for my camera.) I am told I will be tired for 3 months and for the next 3 years whenever I am ill it will come on again, but once bitten it won't be as bad if I get bitten by a tick again.

Due to rains this year we have more ticks.

If I were rich I would spray the acreage next door to us, but then it is full of chiggers right now too, and I don't want them either. Maybe if I were rich I would hover over with a helicopter and spray. LOL.

Where ever you move, nmnita get some guinnea hens. they kill ticks, but don't they also get snakes? I need to look that up. I know on the garden web they talked about roadrunners killing snakes, and one lady has some that took up residence on her land.

I have lived among rattlesnakes in Creston, CA, so I know the fear of having them, but I have was bitten. Shot one in my wood pile. The cats tried to bring in a baby one through the cat door, but it lay dead outside. I killed other babies in my grass. My nieces saw some in the field that we had to kill. I guess we don't have to worry about water moccasins unless we live near water. Of course in the pond next door there could be one or more. Hope not. It is a natural spring that feeds into it and is stale water. I threw in some mosquito pellets, hoping to cut down the mosquito population here. Got those at Walmarts.

[Synopsis]

Thanks for the info jessaka. That definitely sounds like a pesky and annoying infection. I think the bucketloads of rain we've gotten in this whole area are definitely the main factor. One thing is for sure, that area in the Fall will surely be spectacular this year because of all the rains we've had and will probably continue to have. Get well!

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by jessaka

Synopsis:

There are a lot of people here that have tick fever. The pharmacist and urgent care said that they are getting a lot of cases this year.

Whenever we come back inside from our yard we check for ticks. We didn't before. My husband didn't even know he had one under his arm until it began itching, and since it had a big red area, I told him to go to the doctor. He wouldn't but waited until he had a fever of 102. I waited until I had flu systems and then realized that I had it, so i went to urgent care. The best thing to do when bitten is to mark down the date. I also looked on net at symptoms of all ticks. I knew he didn't have Lyme disease--no bull's eye.

Got a call from a Friend of the Library today, and she hoped I could help and told me about her tick bite by a very small tick. I said, "Deer tick that carries Lyme." She had the bull's eye and felt that hydrogen peroxide may have taken care of it. I said, "No. Go to urgent care. It takes longer than 8 days to get symptoms and get it nipped in the bud."

We have American Dog Ticks, Star Ticks, and Deer Ticks here. I think the black legged ones cause the Lyme, and maybe they are the small ones. Don't recall.

Times have changed. I think tick fever is becoming more prevalent. When I grew up in CA we never heard of tick fever. I pulled them out of myself and my cats.

Urgent Care didn't do a tick panel on me because I came in too early for it to show up. They did one on my husband and gave him an antibiotic shot and doxyclyline (spelling) right away. Did the same for me. Yesterday when I went back and they did a tick panel. It will take a week to know. I got another shot and pills and feel better today. I just wanted an extra boost since we are going to Guthrie Saturday. (Hooray). (I will get film for my camera.) I am told I will be tired for 3 months and for the next 3 years whenever I am ill it will come on again, but once bitten it won't be as bad if I get bitten by a tick again.

Due to rains this year we have more ticks.

If I were rich I would spray the acreage next door to us, but then it is full of chiggers right now too, and I don't want them either. Maybe if I were rich I would hover over with a helicopter and spray. LOL.

Where ever you move, nmnita get some guinnea hens. they kill ticks, but don't they also get snakes? I need to look that up. I know on the garden web they talked about roadrunners killing snakes, and one lady has some that took up residence on her land.

I have lived among rattlesnakes in Creston, CA, so I know the fear of having them, but I have was bitten. Shot one in my wood pile. The cats tried to bring in a baby one through the cat door, but it lay dead outside. I killed other babies in my grass. My nieces saw some in the field that we had to kill. I guess we don't have to worry about water moccasins unless we live near water. Of course in the pond next door there could be one or more. Hope not. It is a natural spring that feeds into it and is stale water. I threw in some mosquito pellets, hoping to cut down the mosquito population here. Got those at Walmarts.

We had a couple of rattle snakes in our garage in Ca as well as one in our atrium that led to the front door: pretty scary!!!! Nita

[Mattie Jo]

So I tell my sister what the doctor said about putting gunk on ticks instead of pulling them out, and she reads me from the latest Prevention magazine that putting gunk on them will make them put toxins into your body. Hey, I thought it could make them angry enough to do that. Seems to me that a quick pull would do less damage.

nmnita: I knew of a couple in San Diego that lived on the military base in a trailer, and whenever they opened their front door there were several rattlesnakes on the ground in front of them. They are against the law to kill in CA. I don't know what they said they did to get them to move. No one would stop me from killing one unless that person were standing in front of me.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by jessaka

So I tell my sister what the doctor said about putting gunk on ticks instead of pulling them out, and she reads me from the latest Prevention magazine that putting gunk on them will make them put toxins into your body. Hey, I thought it could make them angry enough to do that. Seems to me that a quick pull would do less damage.

nmnita: I knew of a couple in San Diego that lived on the military base in a trailer, and whenever they opened their front door there were several rattlesnakes on the ground in front of them. They are against the law to kill in CA. I don't know what they said they did to get them to move. No one would stop me from killing one unless that person were standing in front of me.

I can guarantee you we killed them!!!

As for ticks, we have always just used pliers and made sure we got the whole thing out. At least that is what worked best for us.