This Really Ticks Me Off | Arthritis Information

 

Since we are chatting about our critters, I wanted to discuss another pet issue I am having an extremely difficult time with.  TICKS!

My 17 year old son, who is normally really, really active has been slowed to a crawl.  He started out in November with mono, and then when he seemed to be improving from that, got sick again.  His doctor again ran the same battery of tests, and this time he tested positive for Lyme Disease.  He has been undergoing two months of antibiotic treatment for Lyme, and he has improved a good bit, but is still slow and sluggish.  He has a swollen knee that has been really hurting for a week and a half.  We went back to the doctor, and he doesn't know if it is from the Lyme or not.  So today we are off to the orthopedic doctor to get it checked out.

So having said all that, I am a bit obsessed about preventing ticks.  I live in Connecticut, which is where Lyme Disease was discovered and got it's name!  I've had always had problems, but this year is horrible.

I purchased 0 worth of Frontline Plus, bathed, and groomed my dogs, and treated them with the Frontline.  Didn't bath the cat, but treated him as well.  Now here it is several days after treating everyone, and I have found a total of 3 ticks on the dogs, and one on my ankle that had already attached itself!  HELP!

I am tempted to get free-range guinea hens, as I have heard they are amazing about eating up the ticks in your yard.  Has anyone tried this?  Or do you have any other things for me to try?  We live in a pretty rural area, and the back of our property is bordered by thick woods owned by the power company.  For obvious environmental and safety reasons I really don't want to use any harmful treatment on the yard, but I'm at my wit's end.

Hillhoney39209.3132060185Ack.  I am sorry that you son my have Lymes.  My mom lives in rural upper michigan and got bite a long time ago, before you really even heard about Lymes.  They didn't know what it was or treat it in time and she is in bad shape now.  I don'.t want to scare you, you seem to realize how much of a problem they can be. 

As far as I know, they haven't done anything special in the way of preventing them.  I know my mom won't go out in bare legs anymore.  I actually plan on calling my mom today and ask her if she knows of anything and will let you know.

Thanks Michele!  Lyme Disease is very scary and I don't want to blame this knee issue on it until I have it checked out, but I do wonder.  The thing is we caught it very early, and the doctor seems to feel that the disease wouldn't progress and get worse while he is on the antibiotics.  But he doesn't remember any injury to his knee - it just started hurting one day, and now clearly has fluid around it.

One step at a time, I just have to wait and see what they find on xray, etc.  He has a history of knee problems - a Bakers cyst when he was about 5, and then in his middle school years he developed Osgood Schlotter's, but recently he has been fine.  Who knows what evil lurks. . .

Hillh, I don't blame you for being upset or even mad.  When I went to my PCP with a swollen knee, they also tested me for lime, but it turned out to be RA.  Could this possibly be what you son has? 
Because tics are so prevalent in CT. perhaps authorities would have a better solution like spraying the wooded area.  That might mean that you would have to keep your pets closer to your yard for a while, but it would be worth it. Keep us posted about the situation. 
Roxy was a forest ranger, so she might have a better solution.

Take care.
You know what? Where I live it's very wooded. My dog would constantly come in with ticks even though I treated her with Frontline. My kids too. My daughter was at the point where she wouldn't even go out and enjoy the beautiful weather. I had to weigh the risk of getting ill from having my yard sprayed against the much larger risk of getting Lyme Disease. My pediatrician said they've seen many many cases here of Lyme. It's really a toss up but we are tick-free now. Yes, yes I know everyone is thinking "yes but you'll probably get cancer from the pesticides". That's just a risk I had to take.

Hillhoney, I'm so sorry about your son.  From what I've been reading  Lyme disease goes undiagnosed and untreated in many people.  I'm glad that your doctors tested him. 

When we moved to Nevada we had a choice to have the yard and surrounding areas sprayed or deal with black widow spiders in every nook, cranny and corner of the yard and sheds.  After finding black widows in our gardening tools, buckets, webs built in the garden, underneath the lawn furniture and the seats of the chairs, we decided to have monthly spraying both inside and out.  I had friends who had been bitten by black widows and brown recluse spiders and because of RA I didn't want to chance it. 

It was really a hard decision for me to intentially kill critters.  I'd carry a fly out of the house and let it go. My friend was bitten when she pulled her sweater off the hanger in the closet, put it on, and a black widow  had built a small web in the inside arm of her sweater.  That made our minds up about spraying.   

I don't know how you feel about using chemicals but we have a trick that we use here in rural ky. WE use seven dust like you would put on vegetables in the garden. It is acutally made to use on cats and dogs. You just dust it on them and rub it into their skin. It is very effective and inexpensive. just a thought, have a good day. Hi, I use frontline on my 2 dogs too but I also see an ocassional flea or tick. My Vet said that it wouldn't keep the fleas and ticks from getting on your pets but would kill them and the eggs. My thought is ...if they're going to fall off my dogs they must want me!!! UGH!  Genesis

Sorry to hear about your son, HillHoney. I hope he improves and gets back to him old self real soon.

Our new little puppy, Snowball, every since we got him, he scratches and wimpers. Hubby hosed him down the other day, but it did no good. We went to the Dollar Store to see if they had anything to help with his fleas and he is too young to use any of it. He is 6 weeks old.

So sorry about your son!! Hopefully they can figure out quickly what's up with his knee.

My Dr asked me numerous times if I had been bit by a tick when my hands first started hurting. I'm pretty sure I would have known....my son had a deer tick on him once and he was in ALOT of pain.

(Is anyone else feeling like they have bugs crawling on them after reading about all these ticks?

Lindy---OH my land! I hate spiders!!! I'd do exactly what you did! Scary!

Hillhoney- I had tickbite fever 16 years ago and so did my daughter who was 3 at the time.It was awful, we had the most dreadful headaches and stiffness in the body.My little girl ws sick and it affected my eyes.We had gone to  A nature reserve( in S.Africa) and there were tick infested cows on the outskirts, a tick attached itself to my stomach and to the back of my little girls ear.They left a horrible black mark when the tick fell off.

It was considerered later on if it was this that started my RA off

I hope your son is feeling better.We used to use the ashes from the BBQ coals to rub on our dogs to prevent ticks for some reason it worked.

I'm in NH, and we have a ton of ticks.  I have a friend that tried the Hen thing...it didn't work.  She wound up with chicken crap all over her yard and still had ticks.

My kids no longer play in the yard, but I always checked them out when they walked in the door.  Even my husband and I after sitting on the porch must check eachother for ticks at the end of the day.  Those little buggers just like to latch on.  Gross!

If I walk down by the water, I definitely spray my legs/shoes.

I must say, I'm freaking at the thought of black widow spiders.  My first reaction:  OMG, good thing I don't go to Nevada!  I'm not a fan of spiders.  Then, my blondness subsided, and I said OMG, Las Vegas is in Nevada! LOL.......hope the spiders don't hang out in the casinos, lol.  I love the casinos.

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions and input.  It sounds like I should investigate having my yard treated, doesn't it.  I will do a little research and find out who does the treatments in my area and what they use.  We live in an area so rich in wildlife, I don't want to do anything to harm the birds and other critters who pass through my yard every night.

Well the results on my son's visit to the doctor are a bit worrisome.  Apparently the knee pain and swelling are not caused by the Lyme Disease, but rather, a tear in his meniscus cartilage.  The weird thing is he doesn't remember injuring it!  The doctor would have expected him to remember twisting it followed by a lot of pain!

Anyway, as best he can tell from the xrays it is a small tear, so we are in a "wait-n-see" mode right now.  He is taking naprosyn, and the doctor is hoping in a couple of weeks we will see an improvement.  If not, then we'll need an MRI and possible surgery.

Thanks again everybody for your help and support!

I hope your son is feeling better all the time.  I don't want to worry you (though as a mother I know you are already worried), but I have read many stories on my AP websites about people feeling or being told that their RA began after a bout with Lyme's.  Some were told that if the Lyme's was treated early and completely that the RA would probably disappear. I think the key is completely treated, evidently it requires quite a prolonged course of antibiotics.  People also mention that the experts in the field are LLMD's or "Lyme literate MD's" though how you find one I'm not sure - maybe on one of the Lyme websites.

We have used Revolution on our cats and saw no more ticks after starting it.  Good luck to you and your son!  Pat

Thanks Pat.  I do have that on my "radar screen" to watch out for if I see anything suspicious.  Our doctor has already said that the next step is to see a Lyme Specialist.  He has no problem giving us a referral.

As my grandmaw used to say "If'n it ain't one thing, it's a t'other" 
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