Lyme disease in Oregon? (live, about, interest)

[millr]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

I never saw a tick in 40 years of outdoor life in the Willamette Valley. In Douglas County, I have to keep my dogs on frontline and preventick collars continually, and had to treat one dog for lyme. Both my wife and I have had ticks attach to us.

It depends where you are. I don't think there are ticks on the coast either.

Is there a huge difference in terms of climate, flora and fauna between the Willamette Valley and Douglas County?

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by millr

Is there a huge difference in terms of climate, flora and fauna between the Willamette Valley and Douglas County?

Southern Oregon has a much more Mediterranean climate than the Willamette Valley, which is more of a marine climate. The Coast Range stops just south of Eugene, and the mountains south of there are the Siskiyous. Douglas County gets about 8" less rain a year than the Willamette Valley, and farther south is even dryer.

[cave76]

Moderator cut: merged threads Doctors here will only treat for Lyme if you present with a bulls-eye rash, which occurs in only about 50% of the time.

Moderator cut: snip

"Oregon ranks as one of the worst states in the nation to get help for Lyme disease."

Source:
Lyme Disease in the state of Oregon

I'm sure Kaiser Permanente is a good HMO for many people and I want to add that my issue is not so much with Kaiser but with the existing policies in Oregon that prohibit otherwise great doctors from treating Lyme and other tick-borne illness.

January 2011. OSPHL no longer provides testing for Lyme disease. (Emilio DeBess)
[OSPHL = Oregon State Public Health Laboratory]

http://public.health.oregon.gov/Dise...ments/lyme.pdf

If a disease isn't looked/tested for it can't be reported.

Interestingly---Neisseria meningitidis only had one reported case by the Oregon Public Health Division (Sept 2012 Surveillance Summary) and that was deemed statistically important enough for a neat-o chart at:
http://public.health.oregon.gov/Dise...BC_monthly.pdf

Ticks are present in Oregon. But the funding for tick-drags and labs to test for it are almost non-existent.
Because of limited (almost non-existent) knowledge about Lyme and the inability for doctors in OR to test or treat for it---- a trip to CA is necessary to find a Lyme knowledgeable doctor. I guess ticks respect state borders.

[BridgetLelay]

I've been hiking all over Oregon for my whole life and ticks are not that big of a deal. But that's not to say that there aren't exceptions. From the thousands of hikes I've taken, I've gotten a tick on me about as many times as I've seen/heard a rattlesnake: once or twice a year. It's not a big deal as long as you're careful.

My mom had a few measures that worked pretty well:

After each hike I would advise changing your clothes, as ticks usually hitch a ride on a passing pant leg and then try to make their way inside.

Familiarize yourself with the way they look and the way they walk - very slowly and distinctly. This way you will know if you found one or not. You can find pictures online, they're pretty easy to recognize.

Beyond appearance, I actually find their demeanor to be the best indicator. We have some beetles that look like ticks, but they don't move the same. Beetles are scared and try to fly away or run or hide. Not ticks. Ticks are slow and deliberate in their actions and they have TINY heads. You could pick one up and mess with it and it will still move at the same methodical pace when you set it down.

Furthermore, after changing, get nude and check all your warm spots, I know this can be unpleasant, but ticks are drawn to the warm folds of skin. Like your armpits or between your legs. Check all those spots, maybe do in turn in front of a mirror - they're big enough you should be able to see any little black spots on your back or anything if they're there. And then you should be good. If you want to wear the same clothes I would say just shake them out.

As far as bug spray goes, every time I have used I have never found a tick on me, but that is like saying I have never been attacked by a cougar when I sprayed it on either. Ticks are rare enough that I can't say the bug spray kept them away, as it may have just been that there weren't any in the area. Point being, I don't want you to think that just because you put bug spray on you don't have to check yourself after a hike. Because if a tick does get on you, the first thing it is trying to do is get under your clothes to find your skin.

If you find a tick:
Kill it. Don't try to squish it, they have very hard shells. I would saw stab it with a thumb tack and burn it. I know this sounds extreme, but my mom was not about to let a tick live in her presence, and every one of them was burned.

Now, if the tick has bitten you, that's when I would say go to the doctor. The heads of ticks can detach and continue eating their way into the tissue of the body. So if you're bitten, it's important to go to the doctor, don't ignore it!!

Basically, be aware and thorough. If you check yourself and your children after a hike, you should be fine. Sorry I know that post is long, but I thought maybe you might need it

[mwruckman]

Oregon and the West have their own tick borne diseases. You should know about Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever for one.

[cave76]

Originally Posted by mwruckman

Oregon and the West have their own tick borne diseases. You should know about Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever for one.

Yes, doctors that are knowledgeable about Lyme disease are now testing for that also. The name is misleading---- for one doesn't even have to be in or near the Rocky Mountains.

About the proper way to remove a tick---- this from the CDC.

"How to remove a tick
Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin's surface as possible.
Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don't twist or jerk the tick; this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers. If you are unable to remove the mouth easily with clean tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.
After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water."

That is the ONLY correct way to remove a tick.

The head of tick that was removed improperly doesn't continue 'eating' into the person. If the head or it's mouth parts were left in the person----it 'might' cause an infection of the 'ordinary' sort. But that's rare.

[cave76]

The more highly infective nymph or the tick (for Lyme) is about the size of a poppy seed, making it very difficult to see even when doing a 'check' for ticks.

The larval stage, although not as likely to be on a human, is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence AND it's light in color making it even more difficult to see.

[ExNooYawk]

We moved to the west coast from CT in 2001. Our family lived in CT from the early 1980s until then. We had plenty of experience with ticks. We have all had Lyme Disease - myself, DH and three daughters.

There are two types of tick: Dog ticks, which don't generally harbor Lyme Disease and deer ticks, which do. Deer ticks are much smaller than dog ticks.
My DH had the worst case of it out of all of us. He had to go through two courses of antibiotics. The rest of us were okay with one per episode.
Out here, I haven't seen any ticks. We still take precautions, though, same as we did back east. No walking through tall grass, no playing in fallen leaves, doing a regular tick check after a walk in the woods.
I brought with me a device called a Tick Nipper which works GREAT for removing ticks. Of course, we were so familiar with the damn things I could remove them my self, head and all, with no trouble. I'm out of practice now, of course, so would probably use the Nipper if we found a tick somewhere.
My advice would be to be on the alert and be sensible. Don't be afraid to do a thorough tick check if you've been out in the woods. They like the groin area, in between the toes and your head. I pulled many a tick out of a kid's head.
You should be fine.

[klyme]

There are lots of ticks in Oregon and very high Lyme Disease rates. I was diagnosed last year after suffering for 2 years from Lyme Disease. It is very prevalent and more people need to be educated on the fact that it does exist in the PNW. Most cases are not shown in the CDC numbers- for reasons that require a much longer answer than I can post here. if you find a tick on you bring it to a clinic for testing. If the clinic tells you lyme doesn't exist here (and then probably will) insist it be tested anyway. If you are sick and nobody can figure out what it wrong with you, i strongly recommend researching lyme disease.

[ukiyo-e]

There are many species of ticks, not just two. On the west coast, the tick vector is Ixoides pacificus, commonly called the black-legged tick. During the infective nymphal stage it's about the size and color of a sesame seed. If you see a large dog tick on you or your pet, it won't be transmitting Lyme disease. The life cycle of the Lyme spirochete is complex and the disease agent doesn't just live in ticks. Deer are also required to complete the life cycle, as well as mice (east coast) and lizards and occasionally mice (west coast). Because I. pacificus prefers to feed on lizards rather than mice, Lyme is less common out here. But it's still around.

ukiyo-e, entomologist and zoonotic disease writer