Monday, March 26, 2007

ticks

I spent lots of time outside yesterday, including some time in the woods, both at my cabin, and in clearing a new path to the bottom of one of our "hollers". The hillside is steep, I got tired, and I sat down to work on the brambles and brush.

When I got back to the house, I felt something crawling on my arm... it was a tick! At least he was crawling, rather than buried into my skin. But this was a warning to me to check for others.

Two years ago, I was bitten by a deer tick, and developed "bulls-eye rash" that is characteristic of Lyme Disease around the bite, as you can see by the above picture; the red area was six to eight inches across. The doctor gave me a round of antibiotics (testing for Lyme really doesn't work immediately following a tick bite).

This morning before getting dressed, I had Cliff look my backside over (a job he never seems to mind, for some reason). Sure enough, there was one on my upper back in about the same spot the above rash was found, feasting on my blood. I examined it closely and found it to be a female "wood tick" or "dog tick" (Click HERE to see what different varieties look like). Whew. I simply have to start wearing insect repellent.

3 comments:

  1. I've heard of Lyme Disease, which sounds devastating in it's full force. We check the pooches everytime we've been out in the woods/fields & they love it. Their own personal massage after a good walk, what more could they want?

    Tuck your socks in your boots I put bands on youir wrists (or so they say!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yikes! I HATE ticks! My neighbors little girl got one in her belly button!!! I check my cats constantly as we have lots of deer here. Never have found one on the horses yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am getting ticks off of the horses already. I just pulled one off my head right before reading this! It is going to be a bad year!

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!