Ticks and Lyme's Disease

[sime42]

I want to mention Lyme's Disease, just to raise awareness really. I'm sure most on here already know all about it, but some may not. It's carried by ticks and can be passed on to people when they bite you. They are particularly prevalent at this time off year, but are both generally on the increase for various reasons  Lyme's can be mild, but it can also be very serious, with some pretty horrible long term consequences.

 

I've got some close experience as my brother is currently suffering with a suspected case of the disease, after getting a tick bite in the New Forest a few of weeks ago. It has completely knocked him out for the last week or so, (Flu or other virus like symptoms: headache, extreme tiredness, fever etc.). He is OK, and on the mend now, albeit very slowly. He was lucky though as he mentioned Lyme's to the doctors and they put him on a long course of antibiotics straight away. A lot of people don't get diagnosed and treated in time apparently due to a lack of awareness in both the medical profession and general population. 

 

Be careful out there folks.
 

Lyme Disease UK - a brief explanation of Lyme disease in the UK

LYMEDISEASEUK.COM

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Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia, a spirochete bacteria. It’s the most common tick-borne infectious disease in the...

 

Lyme Disease Action — Lyme Disease Action: The longest established UK charity working on Lyme disease and tick-borne diseases. Accredited to the UK quality mark PIF Tick for trustworthy information.

WWW.LYMEDISEASEACTION.ORG.UK

 

 

[Steven P]

It is also a slow burner - might not affect you right away but a couple of weeks after

 

 

 

I'd also make a reminder while we are here about Weils disease if you've been working near water particularly and feel unwell. They were the 2 we were meant to tell the doctor about if we needed to go.

[Rich Rule]

My mate lives in Finland.  His son was bitten by a tick when he was about 10 whilst at their summer cabin.

 

it went undiagnosed until Dylan (the son) started having seizures and describing what my friend said sounded like LSD trips.  Visuals and fractals.

 

Medical team in Finland refused to accept it was Limes and said he had epilepsy.  Mainly because they never described a bullseye etc and it was a few months later.

 

Dylan ended up in a wheel chair and almost went blind and missed nearly a year from school.

 

A doctor in the UK diagnosed it as Limes but his medical insurance wouldn’t pick up the bill for treatment as the Finns wouldn’t confirm it was Limes.

 

Many Euro’s later and lots of private treatment he made a recovery but still suffered from the time from school.

 

He is 19 now and about to go into the Finnish Army for his national service.  
 

Limes can be serious if undetected and untreated.

[sime42]

That's a bad story. Glad it ended well. 

 

Yep. My brother didn't have the Bullseye either, as is quite often the case. An example of the lack of clinical knowledge on the subject. 

[woody paul]

Not nice. I went to doctors about 10 years ago not feeling well, headache, stiff joints, saw eyes plus other things, doctor asked what I had been doing at work, I had been cleaning scrub in a field was my answer. Gave me a form to get blood test, then asked any deer in that area, yes I said, then another form for blood test. 

I went for blood test and land up taking it out of both arms 12 files of blood and lymes not detected. 

Results came back low platelet levels and no answer why, just had blood test three weeks later then six weeks all back to normal. 

I deer stalk on an estate with a mate, we find  parts of the estate deer are covered in ticks and other parts of it they have none. 

Edited 22 hours ago by woody paul

[roys]

Little tick buggers are out in force just now, I check my dog every night, 5 on her last night, 4 of which were bitten in and one was strolling about, it was 3 on her the night before. I had one bitten into me 2 weeks ago, I usually get one a year bitten into me, only ever had one that bullseyed and got a course of ABs for that.

 

[Rich Rule]

We have loads here in Norway.

 

My dog has had the medicine and whenever they latch on they die.  
 

We often find multiple ones in her fur that are still alive.

 

I had one latch on a couple of weeks ago.  Little bugger would not let go.  Even when using a tick remover pen.

 

I must have caught it early as I didn’t even have a red mark where it bit let alone a bullseye.

 

Had a bullseye a couple of years ago and the medical centre said just to draw a line round it and if it got larger then come in for Antibiotics.  It went away in a day or so so never got the AB’s.

[Haironyourchest]

Germany is the country to consult for suspected Lyme's. The medical system takes it seriously there and has accurate tests for it, you can order a test kit from them, not cheap. Don't wait for your clueless doctor to get around to diagnosing it, heard too many stories about three docs and a dozen tests later before it was flagged, etc etc.

[sime42]

Yep I've heard that about Germany also.

 

The blood test my brother took has just come back negative. When he looked into it he found that it was for Borrella, (the bacteria responsible) antibodies. Which are only detectable several weeks after the event.  Pretty pointless doing it only a week or so after he found the tick then. Lucky the doctor was a belt and braces type and gave him the ABs anyway, even in the absence of the Bullseye or positive result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sime42]

Worth mentioning the act of tick extraction maybe whilst we're at it. As well as my bro, two of the children had them on them as well. Those came out cleanly, but his didn't. The head got snapped off he said, which is more likely to cause an infection apparently. Or perhaps theirs weren't even carrying Lymes. Who knows? Only some of them do carry it.