Tick tick boom!

I love the outdoors.

I especially love walking on trails in the woods with Cheddar the dog. It’s one of my favorite things.

But you know what I don’t love? Ticks.

Cheddar takes monthly medication for fleas and ticks.  Thanks to global warming, he now takes it year round, not just in the summer months.

I had my first tick encounter last week.

We had spent the eclipse at the farm because it was in the zone of totality.  And of course,  while there, I took Cheddar for a walk in the woods.

The eclipse was awe-inspiring,  wondrous, and magical. See Tracy’s post The eclipse filled me with wonder and appreciation.

But the next day at the gym, Sarah spotted the tick on my arm.  It was hard to finish the workout so we could get home and remove it properly with tick tweezers.

There was a rash around it, so I went to the pharmacy to see what to do.  The pharmacist recommended seeing my doctor who got me in the next day. She examined the bite to make sure no bits of the tick remained. I got a prescription for a one day prophylactic dose of antibiotics, and I promised to get back in touch if I had any symptoms. If I do, there is a three week  course of antibiotics in my future.

Because of course it’s not ticks that are the problem. It’s that they transmit Lyme disease, which can be very serious.

What to do about preventing tick bites?

Tuck your pants into your socks, wear white or light colors so you can better see ticks, avoid hiking in tick zones.

It’s a long list.

Also,  mostly all the places I live and travel are now in the tick zone, where there is a higher than usual risk of contracting Lyme disease through tick bites.

For sure,  you should invest in a pair of tick tweezers and keep them with you.  They’re different than regular tweezers and better for getting all of the tick out.

You should also regularly check yourself for ticks if you’ve been out in the woods.

Lyme disease is pretty serious. I remember reading this account of Shania Twain’s twenty year battle with it.

How worried should we be?

From NPR,

“As it turns out, the chance of catching Lyme disease from an individual tick ranges from zero to roughly 50 percent, according to Mather. The exact probability depends on three factors: the tick species, where it came from and how long the tick was feeding.”

Around here, they’re almost all black legged ticks, and I think about half are carrying Lyme disease. But if the tick isn’t in you for very long, the risk is still pretty low.  Overall, it’s about 5%.

For me, this means I’ll keep hiking in the woods but I’ll also keep a sharp eye out for ticks.

You?

Just one thing I have wondered,  So why does my dog get Lyme disease vaccine, and I don’t?