And the first tick

jeffcat

Well-known Member
Not to steal a tread. Yesteday one of the outdoor cats had a juicy
tick on it already. Really enjoyed sqwishing that tick. Why in the
world were ticks invented?
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Actually it is an abstract modern art piece I will can " Icky Tick
Meets Boot". After you get that bullseye from lyms disease your
dislike of ticks grows even stronger.
 
I can understand that. The real culprit is the deer tick. Just when you think it is safe to got back in the water. The adults become active in cold weather and start questing when the temp gets above 40 F. The white footed deer mouse is the reservoir host where you are and larvae and nymphs get infected by feeding on the mice.
We have the ticks down in Georgia, but no deer mice. Most other small animals do not carry the Lyme bacteria very well so the infected deer tick percent is very low.
 
I can understand that. The real culprit is the deer tick. Just when you think it is safe to got back in the water. The adults become active in cold weather and start questing when the temp gets above 40 F. The white footed deer mouse is the reservoir host where you are and larvae and nymphs get infected by feeding on the mice.
We have the ticks down in Georgia, but no deer mice. Most other small animals do not carry the Lyme bacteria very well so the infected deer tick percent is very low.
 
I have to amend my previous comment. We do have the white-footed deer mouse in parts of Georgia, but only parts and other species probably serve as hosts. I don't know how the population densities compare to more northern coastal states.

Other factors include the density of deer populations which have increased here in recent years due to changes in timbering practices. Deer usually don't serve as reservoirs because they don't have very high infection levels and the larvae and nymphs don't feed on deer. Deer mainly serve to keep the tick populations high.
 
Got one of those little buggers on me maybe 10 years ago. Found it in
the shower. Couldn't have been SIX hours of time. There on my side was
a bullseye maybe three inches across. That quick! That creapy crawley
thing was barely an 1/8 of an inch in diameter. Doctors office the
next day and on the medicine by noon time. Do not mess with ANY
possibility of lyms disease. My niece got it and didn't know she had
it. It can cause all kinds of side effects that hang on for years.
Once the virus gets into you there isn't too much medicine can do. If
you have a tick with the white dot go to the doctors and get TESTED.
The bullseye does not always show up.
 
Oops. Not virus but spirochetes. Is a Bactrim that looks like a really mean kind of a worm. It bores into your nervous system, mostly the brain and if you want to really get the shivers, look up the symptoms and treatments for that disease.
 
Our county is number two for Lyme in NYS, county number one is just south of us. Our Vet wants to screen all dogs for Lyme regularly. They can be treated for Lyme but it never really goes away just dorment, in the end they fail due to the kidneys shutting down. Happened to my favorite little dog. I check for ticks all the time but still get bit several times a year. I hate them.
 
I also had Lyme disease a couple years ago. It was difficult to diagnose. I never saw a tick on me, and the bullseye rash didn’t show up until weeks after I had been having some serious symptoms, and then I had several bullseyes on me all over my body. I had blood drawn nine days in a row until they finally figured out what it was, and once I was put on the medication the acute symptoms subsided within a couple days. Some of the symptoms persist still, and will likely stick around for the rest of my life. One of the other things about dealing with Lyme disease that I seldom hear mentioned is actually the treatment. The antibiotic they put me on made me extremely sensitive to light. Even a computer screen with the brightness turned way down was too bright for me. It made for a really challenging hay season that year!
So, my advice is to take whatever precautions you can to reduce the chances of being infected. They still don’t fully understand this disease.
 
The disease is caused by a spirochete bacteria. It is related to the syphilis bacteria.

It can be transmitted by either adult or nymph, but the adult has has two chances to get the disease. It is extremely unlikely for a larva to have the disease since it is not transmitted from mother to the eggs/larvae except at extremely low levels.

The larvae and nymphs do not usually climb vegetation like the adults. The larvae and nymphs can usually be found under leaves or close to the soil. They dry out quickly compared to some tick species like the dog tick and lone star tick. Animals like birds, lizards, mice, rabbits, and raccoons that shuffle through the mat of fallen growth are the most likely to pick them up.

Prompt identification and treatment is necessary because the disease is more difficult to treat once it penetrates the blood-brain barrier. It can take as long as 6-8 weeks before seroconversion occurs. This is the amount of time it takes before antibodies to the lyme bacteria can be detected in the blood. It is the presence these antibodies they use to detect the disease using methods like ELISA. So if you even suspect Lyme disease you should get prophylactic treatment because any tests run before seroconversion will show up negative.


The following is to lessen the risk of any tick bites. Be sure to check yourself after going outside. Wear fine weave hosiery socks and white pants will help spot them. blouse the socks over your pant legs with a rubber band. Wearing a second thicker pair of socks will also help.

A roll of broad (2-3")masking tape rolled backward in a loop to expose the adhesive can be used to remove large numbers of larvae if you happen to tread over an egg hatching on species like the lone star tick and dog tick. A hatching egg mass can have as many as 5-7,000 larvae.
 
Where was the tick? Around the cat's neck and head? Our cat only get them there all the rest they kill themselves.
 

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