Tick and Lyme Disease Awareness

[Mad-Dog]

Among the points that emerge from the article Jay linked in Post #154, two stand out. First, blame. If practitioners cannot identify the cause of the symptoms due to lack of training or experience in Lyme disease, some patients report finding themselves being blamed for their malaise. This, unfortunately, is found in accounts of individuals whose Lyme symptoms are mistaken for lupus, various forms of neuropathy, or depression, sometimes for years before there is an accurate diagnosis.

Clearly the physician that the subject in the foregoing article saw in Toronto got it right, and was able to help this woman.

The second takeaway is ignorance and denial by provincial health ministries. This woman and her husband reportedly spent $50,000 on treatment and medication over just three years. There is no indication in the article that she was compensated for these costs once a Lyme diagnosis was made. This is a pattern that began long before the COVID-19 crisis. There are similar stories from Lyme patients in other provinces. The article goes on to say there are 2000 reported Lyme cases in Canada.

Lyme treatment should be fully funded by provincial governments. If that were to occur, it might reveal the true Lyme disease numbers in Canada are much higher than 2000 reported cases, research might expand and, most importantly, more people might receive treatment. The status quo is a failure.

 

[Doug]

I made it a sticky once, but Jay unstuck it. He felt it would get more views in the open part of the forum. It will be stuck if it wanders down the pages some, but that will be Jay's decision.

I think ticks will become more and more of a problem with each passing year, and Lyme unfortunately will mirror that progress.

I agree with that logic. I "never" look at the sticky threads................

Doug

 

[53Izzy744]

Sitka has a line of turkey hunting gear that has fabric imbedded with permethrin and a tighter woven fabric to prevent ticks and mosquitos from getting to you. Only sold in the US though.

Equinox Guard it is called

 

[spooksar]

It’s good to see that people are becoming aware, not that many years ago the medical community denied that Lymes disease was in Canada. I had a friend who’s sister in law got it 15 years ago and it went untreated for a few years, she is now in really bad shape. The saddest part is she can’t take care of her children.

 

[bigplinker]

I'm hoping this long brutal winter does a number on the ticks that showed up here over the last 5 or 6 years.
Nothing like finding one starting to root in your 6 year old daughters ear, in northern Saskatchewan, to realize there are forms of life you could absolutely get behind the complete extermination of.

 

[bush1]

I'm hoping this long brutal winter does a number on the ticks that showed up here over the last 5 or 6 years.
Nothing like finding one starting to root in your 6 year old daughters ear, in northern Saskatchewan, to realize there are forms of life you could absolutely get behind the complete extermination of.

You have tics in northern Sask? We have lots here in eastern Ontario but so far none in the northern Ontario area where we moose hunt. Nasty buggers for sure. I had a bout of Lyme disease and my muscles were in bad shape for close to 3 years and finally symptom free after 5 years. No way I’ll have that again, I spray my deer hunting clothes with Permethrin and won’t go into the bush without it.

 

[53Izzy744]

You have tics in northern Sask? We have lots here in eastern Ontario but so far none in the northern Ontario area where we moose hunt. Nasty buggers for sure. I had a bout of Lyme disease and my muscles were in bad shape for close to 3 years and finally symptom free after 5 years. No way I’ll have that again, I spray my deer hunting clothes with Permethrin and won’t go into the bush without it.

The spray i use smells like cotronella, i only use it on my camp work clothes and my turkey hunting gear. I wonder if deer would enjoy that scent or not lol

 

[bush1]

The spray i use smells like cotronella, i only use it on my camp work clothes and my turkey hunting gear. I wonder if deer would enjoy that scent or not lol

The Permethrin smells similar to varsol when first sprayed but the smell dissipates fairly rapidly and I can’t smell it. I still get a deer or 2 every year so it can’t be that bad. A hunter from our camp won’t use it and he gets more tics on him than a dog. He’ll change his tune if he gets Lyme disease…

 

[amber2010]

I must be fortunate. In the last 2 years I have had 5 tick bites. 3 while I was hunting in 2020, probably from a hunting dog that liked to sleep on my cot during the hunt week. Then just last year on the morning I left for the hunt camp of 2021 season I found a tick on my belly. Removed it and kept it in a zip lock bag. I presume this came from my pet dog who we walk in the neighboring woods every day and likes to nap on my bed. But AGAIN when I came back from my hunt 2021 I found another tick on me. Like WTF. So everyone please be careful and watchful when out and about in the woods. I was very lucky that none of these bites were positive for Lyme...my doctor did give me some antibiotics just to be sure. Hunt camp location is near Kaladar, Ontario.

 

[Doug]

I must be fortunate. In the last 2 years I have had 5 tick bites. 3 while I was hunting in 2020, probably from a hunting dog that liked to sleep on my cot during the hunt week. Then just last year on the morning I left for the hunt camp of 2021 season I found a tick on my belly. Removed it and kept it in a zip lock bag. I presume this came from my pet dog who we walk in the neighboring woods every day and likes to nap on my bed. But AGAIN when I came back from my hunt 2021 I found another tick on me. Like WTF. So everyone please be careful and watchful when out and about in the woods. I was very lucky that none of these bites were positive for Lyme...my doctor did give me some antibiotics just to be sure. Hunt camp location is near Kaladar, Ontario.

So, just out of idle curiosity, if you get ticks because you allow the dogs to sleep with you and/or on your bed, maybe the dogs need to sleep somewhere else? Just sayin'...............

 

[amber2010]

So, just out of idle curiosity, if you get ticks because you allow the dogs to sleep with you and/or on your bed, maybe the dogs need to sleep somewhere else? Just sayin'...............

Well I do not let other people's dogs sleep on my bed. One of our guys did bring a dog and it liked to sleep on my bed when it could and it did. Not anymore !

 

[53Izzy744]

The Permethrin smells similar to varsol when first sprayed but the smell dissipates fairly rapidly and I can’t smell it. I still get a deer or 2 every year so it can’t be that bad. A hunter from our camp won’t use it and he gets more tics on him than a dog. He’ll change his tune if he gets Lyme disease…

The cintronella smell lasted all summer. It is the horse spray stuff tho so it isnt only permethrin. If i can find something without the smell i might be more likely to try it during deer.

I dont worry about it much come november and december, just in the turkey season and summer working on camp stuff

 

[CoonT]

I didn't know the cold affected them?

Same goes for the gypsy moths then if that's the case. This winter might have been cold enough for long enough, to have killed a good chunk of them off.

Our second dog is just finishing. Up his meds for Lyme disease. Yeah I definitely want no part of what that does to a body.

I'm hoping this long brutal winter does a number on the ticks that showed up here over the last 5 or 6 years.
Nothing like finding one starting to root in your 6 year old daughters ear, in northern Saskatchewan, to realize there are forms of life you could absolutely get behind the complete extermination of.

 

[Mad-Dog]

So, just out of idle curiosity, if you get ticks because you allow the dogs to sleep with you and/or on your bed, maybe the dogs need to sleep somewhere else? Just sayin'...............

Probably good advice to ALWAYS be careful who you go to bed with!

On a more serious note, I have had no difficulties with results hunting deer in bush or hunting predators with Ultra Shield EX Permethrin (high-concentration non-aerosol) treatment on my clothing. Statistically I am in one of the worst areas in Canada for ticks. It was routine to have three or more ticks on me or in my clothing every time I came home. In three years since switching to Ultra Shield, I and my partners haven't had a single tick.

 

[m1008]

-40 weather doesn’t seam to bother them in NWO. 3 ticks on you is nothing, working in the bush everyday up here would open your eyes

 

[Jay]

26 March 2022, just above zero & ticks are out…

 

[squidxm]

Gross. I got a bunch of bottles of Sawyer clothing treatment to try this year while turkey hunting. Be careful out there.

 

[bigplinker]

-40 weather doesn’t seam to bother them in NWO. 3 ticks on you is nothing, working in the bush everyday up here would open your eyes

Southern Saskatchewan is the worst I've seen yet.
Old sloughs dried up with the drought, walking through to stake even 30m of one and you're knocking dozens off.
Coveralls duct taped to the boots and hoping you find them before they find the good spot.
Nothing like FR in July to make you appreciate the effort.
My least favorite parasite, after the turd of course.

 

[bigplinker]

I didn't know the cold affected them?

Same goes for the gypsy moths then if that's the case. This winter might have been cold enough for long enough, to have killed a good chunk of them off.

Our second dog is just finishing. Up his meds for Lyme disease. Yeah I definitely want no part of what that does to a body.

My understanding is prolonged cold (and heat) works on them the same way it does on bed bugs. After a week or so with no reprieve, they eventually die.

Nothing like helping someone move his stuff out of a scuzzy apartment into a storage can in Lloyd, only to find the folds on the edge of the mattress crawling with well fed bed bugs.
Think he just locked the door and walked away from the container.

 

[m1008]

Dryer heat kills bed bugs, ticks idk. Last summer here was dry and hot with almost no rain ticks where still bad. Best and cheapest course of action is buying spray with permethrin in it from a feed store and treating your clothing. It’s one thing to pick multiple ticks out of your body daily when they’re wood ticks, not looking forward to spring/summer this year.

Guess around Dryden and wabigoon positive deer ticks are starting to show up. Kenora is bad and anything south. Used to be going north red lk, pickle lk they wouldn’t be around and that’s not the case anymore