Ticks Living Aboard

[Mackaroni]

If you think you have been bitten by a tick, please get tested for Lyme. It is a hellish disease. My girlfriend was bitten by a tick resulting in lyme disease and has lived with the problems and co-infections caused by it for over 8 years now. She has been in treatment for that long and has an extensive list of allergies (mostly food) that were never there before.

Once she was diagnosed with the disease, she was treated improperly by a doctor who was not lyme literate and this exasperated the problem significantly.

She did not have the common bulls-eye tell-tale that many have experienced, so it isn't always evident.

If you think you've been bitten, please have it checked. If you pull one off of your body, put it in a ziplock bag so it can be sent to the lab as well.

If you have any questions, please PM me and I can put you in contact with her. She has extensive knowledge and is willing to help anyone she can.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Mackaroni

My girlfriend was bitten by a tick resulting in lyme disease and has lived with the problems and co-infections caused by it for over 8 years now.

I too have seen the effects of Lyme disease and can empathize with what you're going through.

That said, only the tiny (smaller than a pinhead) deer ticks carry it. And even then, they have to stay attached, sucking blood, for 36 hours or more before the bacteria can be transmitted.

They're so small, that can happen (happened to my son) without you even noticing. Fortunately, my son did get the infamous bulls-eye rash and was treated within a week of it appearing, and he's been OK ever since.

So, if you know you've been bitten by a tiny deer tick, and didn't notice it right away, you should get tested.

The larger ones, called dog ticks, you certainly will notice. You'll probably feel them crawling on you long before they bite. If they do bite, you'll probably feel them when you go to scratch that spot. If you still ignore it, they will get bigger as they engorge on blood. I guarantee, you WILL know you've been bitten by one of those, in much less than 36 hours.

In other words, if you see ticks or you know you've been bitten, there's a very good chance it was the larger dog tick that can't spread Lyme Disease. All you need to do is toss it over the side. No big deal.

It's the ones you don't see that can cause Lyme Disease. Even then, they'd have to remain unnoticed for 36 hours or more.

So, if you go out in the tall grass, check your partner for ticks when you return

[Kenomac]

The answer to the tick/Lyme disease problem is to allow more deer hunting aboard yachts.

[zeehag]

for what it is worth--lyme disease is not merely a north american disease--anywhere ther are ticks you must take special care to make sure that they do not bite ye..
get tested for lyme's and be well and safe.
find a good veterinarian and ask what their favorite killer of ticks is, and use the hell out of it.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by Ian R

Ticks can also cause meat allergy.
Tick bite causes meat allergy › Dr Karl's Great Moments In Science (ABC Science)

Screw Lyme disease!!!

Did you people NOT SEE THIS!!!

OMG... My worst nightmare.... These critters need to be eradicated world wide... Immediately...

[Mackaroni]

I don't think I would bet my life on 36 hours. The potential for transmission begins once the skin is punctured.

[cburger]

Originally Posted by Mackaroni

I don't think I would bet my life on 36 hours. The potential for transmission begins once the skin is punctured.

This in not what the National Lyme Disease Center says.

[hellosailor]

Let's see now. HIV/AIDS is now thought to have jumped to humans in the Congo around 1920, and the medical establishment simply missed it for the next 60 years.


Chickenpox vaccine was around for what, 200+ years? And it took another hundred before the new and improved medical establishment figured out the vaccine doesn't really kill the bug, it just makes it retreat and go retro and 1/3 of the sufferers will come down with Shingles forty or fifty years later?


Medical advice from the most reputable sources is still, sadly, often a moving target.


If I found a tick bite and knew that it MIGHT carry a disease and I MIGHT be able to ensure pretty much 100% that I wouldn't get the disease by promptly having the bug and bite examined, or taking antibiotics, promptly...


I'd call myself a fool for listening to any advice that said I "probably" had nothing to worry about. Considering how little it would cost to make Real Damn Sure I had little to no chance of coming down with an untreatable disease decades later.


Kinda like spending the extra few minutes to secure the thruhulls and hatches before getting off the boat. Just in case.

[deblen]

CanLyme – Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation | The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation (CanLyme) was formed to promote Lyme education in Canada and raise funds to advance Lyme disease research.

Lyme Info

[deblen]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/he...anted=all&_r=0

[Steve Bean]

Lyme disease is not the only serious tick-borne disease in the United States.

[Steve Bean]

There are Lyme-infected deer ticks in California, and they often spend time feeding on Western Fence Lizards. It has been found that when an infected tick bites the lizard, the lizard does not get infected, and the tick is cleared of the Lyme bacteria.
The CDC lists fourteen tick-borne diseases in the United States.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Let's see now. HIV/AIDS is now thought to have jumped to humans in the Congo around 1920, and the medical establishment simply missed it for the next 60 years.


Chickenpox vaccine was around for what, 200+ years? And it took another hundred before the new and improved medical establishment figured out the vaccine doesn't really kill the bug, it just makes it retreat and go retro and 1/3 of the sufferers will come down with Shingles forty or fifty years later?


Medical advice from the most reputable sources is still, sadly, often a moving target.


If I found a tick bite and knew that it MIGHT carry a disease and I MIGHT be able to ensure pretty much 100% that I wouldn't get the disease by promptly having the bug and bite examined, or taking antibiotics, promptly...


I'd call myself a fool for listening to any advice that said I "probably" had nothing to worry about. Considering how little it would cost to make Real Damn Sure I had little to no chance of coming down with an untreatable disease decades later.

I don't know where you get your info, but none of what you wrote is factually correct. Especially the part about the chickenpox vaccine, which has only been around for 30 years or so (developed in 1974, available since 1995)... Plus, vaccines do not "kill the bugs," they offer you resistance to getting the virus. You might want to work on your reading comprehension. Plus keep in mind, taking unnecessary antibiotics can and does cause antibiotic resistant infections, you might want to re-think your anti-Lyme disease strategy.

[groundtackle]

Ticks don't actually 'bite'
They attach, penetrate skin with their mouth parts and remain attached feeding for hours to days
Maybe you have bedbugs!


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