Ticks and Safety

[Sharon]

Putting this thread here , but fishermen and hunters need to be aware.

Some think it is not a big deal; you might get Lyme disease, but it will pass. Not always so.

Sometimes (often?) the affects of Lyme disease can last for years.

Be cautious. Wear long pants and a long sheaved shirt. Tie off that shirt at the cuffs with an elastic or..
Pull your socks up over your pants.

Ticks often crawl up you body and go down your neck. What should we do about that?

Be safe.

https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksbl...lf-from-ticks/

https://www.everydayhealth.com/lyme-...-lyme-disease/

[werner.reiche]

Some tips for self assessment:

Two of the benchmarks of lyme detections are the tick bite and the bullseye rash.
- the first time I had lyme, to my knowledge, I had never been bitten by a tick
- neither the first or second time did I develop a bullseye rash

So don't use the absence of these to discount the possibility of lyme.

Other symptoms:
- weight loss - I've always been weight concious - so I notice. I lost about 10 lbs each time I had lyme.
- irregular heart beat - missing heart beats - you should notice this as a flash of light-headedness - or if you try to take your pulse
- numbness in fingers
- cognitive awareness - I noticed this a few times - when I'm in the bush in an area I'm familiar with and I come across something I should recognize instantly - a road, a rock, a clearing - but don't, or when I'm travelling and am somewhere that should be familiar and I don't remember where anything is.
- headaches and neck pains
- severe shoulder pains
- severe hip and SI joint pains

Those are my observations based on having had lyme twice. You can have other symptoms - there are several sources of online check lists.

[MeghanOOD]

Here are some OOD news stories and columns on ticks, too, over the years: https://oodmag.com/?s=tick

[Sharon]

Thanks Meghan.

[werner.reiche]

Last year was a bugger for ticks for me. Partly because they were worse than usual (I think), but more so to me spending a lot more time in the bush working with a new dog. I got 6 tick bytes last fall and found *lots* of other ticks on my clothes. Was into ER twice for the double dose of doxycycline, but still got lyme - two weeks of doxycycline fixed it. Second time for me - also had it in 2017.

I already found one tick on my clothes last week. Looking at using permetherin and taping my cuffs to my boots for this year.

[newbiehunter]

This year is pretty bad too with warm weather, was out with my dog scouting last weekend.
Collect about 6 of me and bunch from the dog
Thankfully, none latched to me

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[sabmgb]

with this warm winter I expect that the ticks will be a lot worse this year than the last few years. I don't take my dog in the bush at all now, at least not till I get to shoot another deer.

[newbiehunter]

with this warm winter I expect that the ticks will be a lot worse this year than the last few years. I don't take my dog in the bush at all now, at least not till I get to shoot another deer.

Last year my pup was with me all the time and I gave him Simparica Trio not single tick latched on. Have ran out of pills this year - first walk in tall grass, had pull out 2 from him

So am going for refill

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[marysburg]

Werner, thanks for posting your experience with Lyme disease. There are several signs on that list that I had not known about. I spray my boots, socks, pants, shirt, and hat with tick repellant for every outing. No guarantee that it will keep me safe though.

[werner.reiche]

Pulled a tick off my beagle last night. Must have picked it up walking on a leash in the wilds of suburban Kanata.