#ticks and lyme disease

[mandana-the-service-pup]

We went for a freedom walk yesterday at the park I’ve been taking Mandana scootering. There is a paved pathway that goes half a mile in with several short hiking paths that loop off and rejoin along the way. It’s not really a “picnic” style park but it’s perfect for short walks and biking.

She did really great most of the time. She wasn’t as responsive to her longline cues as I would have liked, but I knew this could be an issue. We haven’t been able to do sniff walks much since she started having problems with the fertilizers/pesticides near us, so she was desperate for some decompression and out of practice.

We did have a bit of an oopsie moment but it was completely my fault for setting her up to fail. I decided to try a new hiking path and it was a lot narrower than the other trails with a lot of blind turns. We were going down a steep hill and she was out ahead of me. She saw a rabbit and took off around a corner. Because of the decline I knew I wasn’t going to be able to safely hold the line and in a second she was out of sight. She didn’t respond to her first recall so I called her by name and she came sprinting back. Even though she “failed” I gave her a jackpot reward anyways. I want her to know good things happen when she enthusiastically runs back to me.

On our way back she started to run towards something again, but this time she turned on a dime and ran back to me immediately. The failed recall was my fault without a doubt. I should have had her closer to me since we had never been on that path before and we were out of practice. Lesson learned.

TMI WARNING: ticks

I checked her over before she got in the car and I ran a flea comb all over her when we got home, but later that night I found she had a few ticks on her (they were too thin to get caught by the flea comb). She is on prevention but that only kills them after they have already latched on. Having had Lyme disease before, I am not fond of ticks but increased exposure was something I had to accept when taking on a service dog. There are sprays available like Cedarcide & permethrin but I’m limited in what products I can use because although Mandana’s super sniffer makes her perfect for medical alerts it also makes her very sensitive to strong smells.

Out of curiosity, I decided to experiment a little with teaching Mandana to alert to ticks (bed-bug detection dogs are a thing after all). I used a combination of her vocabulary and scent-training skills and we had some surprising success. I showed her a tick and let her sniff it, called it a “bad bug” and told her to “show me”. Out of the five ticks I found on her, she was the one who found three of them. She pointed to her upper back two separate times and handed me her front leg. That’s pretty good for a first session. If I wasn’t so tired I would have stored the ticks in the freezer so I could use them for more sessions but I’m positive we’ll have more to use soon. Hopefully, we’ll get to a point where she can find them on herself as well as us. Wouldn’t that be nice for hiking season!

#belgian malinois #24 months #2 years #service dog in training #mistakes were made #decompression walk #ticks and lyme disease #tw ticks #scent detection #talking dog

[ak-alexandra]

just found this little thing trying to latch on to my, obviously edible, abdomen.

check your fine bodies out for ticks my friends

#ticks and lyme disease #ticks #lyme disease #summertime checks #body ch3ck #tasty body #countryside #countryside problems #rural issues #country girls

[abluehappyface]

This is your casual reminder, that as the world gets warmer, and summer commences,

CHECK YOURSELF FOR TICKS

#my post #my stuff #summer #ticks and lyme disease #tw ticks #ticks of domestic animals #tick season #tick spray #protect yourself #abluehappyface

[transmalewife]

you can make posts that are anti lawns and pro biodiversity without downplaying the real, terrible danger that ticks pose

#I am begging you learn about lyme and then do everything you can to avoid it #lyme disease #ticks #mine.

[onenicebugperday]

Eastern black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, Ixodidae

Commonly known as the deer tick, this species is a vector for several diseases, most notably Lyme disease. In most cases, the tick must be attached for at least 36 hours to transmit the disease.

Photos 1-3 by allysonv, 4 (for scale) by adeans, 5 (engorged) by duncan10, and 6 (male - all others are female) by sambiology

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON MY BUG POSTS ARE NOT ALLOWED. That includes posts about potentially harmful species. Negative commenters will be blocked.

#animals #bugs #arachnids #tick #black legged tick #eastern black legged tick #deer tick #Ixodes #Ixodidae #parasite #one nice bug #lyme disease

[doglifesblog]

Your guide to understanding the problem of ticks for dogs, its treatment and prevention throughout the year

#dogs of tumblr #dog toy #bungou stray dogs #ticks of domestic animals #insects #wasps #ticks and lyme disease

[typhlonectes]

Lizards may be protecting people from Lyme disease in the southeastern U.S.

The reptiles make poor hosts for transmitting the infection.

Lyme disease is one of the most devastating tick-borne infections in the United States, affecting more than 300,000 people each year. It's also one of the most mysterious: The creature that spreads it—the black-legged tick—lives throughout the country. Yet the northeastern United States is home to far more cases than anywhere else. Now, researchers have identified an unexpected reason: lizards. Black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also known as deer ticks, carry corkscrew-shaped bacteria that cause Lyme disease. The ticks pick up the pathogens—spirochetes that belong to the genus Borrelia—when they suck the blood of animals like mice, deer, and lizards. In the next stage of their life cycle, the ticks may latch onto an unlucky human. But every host transmits the microbes differently. Reptiles are worse transmitters than mammals, so ticks that have lived on reptiles are less likely to make people sick. The north-south divide in Lyme cases is a fairly sharp line right along the border of Virginia and North Carolina. Researchers have hypothesized that disparity in cases stems from ticks feeding on different hosts in the two regions...

Read more: https://www.science.org/content/article/lizards-may-be-protecting-people-lyme-disease-southeastern-united-states

#lyme disease #tick #arachnid #public health #health #medicine #animals #nature #outdoors #lizard #reptile #herpetology #north america #USA #science

[chordsykat]

PSA on Ticks

Guys, I'm gonna get right to it. The other day I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease.

As most of you may know, I live in a very wooded area, and the little asshole deer ticks have been exceptionally bad, this year. Here in my part of PA, we're also on the verge of a drought, so these idiots are looking for any opportunity they can find to get inside your house where you, your pets, and their next drink can be found.

If. You. Go. Outside. Check. Yourself. For. Ticks.

Every night.

I didn't. And here I am, with these nasty aches and a lymph node the size of a golfball on my leg which, honestly, 0 out of 10 on that guy. But I'm lucky. There's a very good chance I'll recover completely and have no leftover effects. But that's because I caught it early and was lucky enough to have "classic symptoms."

The best medicine for this stuff is prevention. Please take care of yourselves <3

#PSA #lyme disease #outdoors #ticks

[couch-house]

it's tick season

#sth #sonic the hedgehog #fanart #id in alt text #im fuckign cracking up looking at this it wasnt supposed to read like a minion meme and yet #its a redraw of some chalk doodles we have in our office #where we have given sonic lyme disease #ftr the 2 wks doxycyline is my favorite part of that doodle #i just love the idea of him saying doxycycline #dont forget to give your beasts their tick baths! #THE YUCKYYYYY dot png

[mindblowingscience]

Scientists at Tufts University School of Medicine have developed a genome-scale metabolic model or "subway map" of key metabolic activities of the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Using this map, they have successfully identified two compounds that selectively target routes only used by Lyme disease to infect a host. Their research was published October 19 in the journal mSystems. While neither medication is a viable treatment for Lyme because they have numerous side effects, the successful use of the computational "subway map" to predict drug targets and possible existing treatments demonstrates that it may be possible to develop micro-substances that only block Lyme disease while leaving other helpful bacteria untouched

Continue Reading.

#Ticks #lyme disease #science #biology #medicine #chemistry

[creaturefeaster]

guy who's 5 minutes away from finding they've been bitten by a tick

#i had just happened to be taking selfies right before i went to like. #strip down and shave. and just by pure chance i found a tick on me #ive never had one. it was so small and recent it hadn't even begun feeding #i went to the ER to get it removed because i was afraid of its head ripping off or it vomming into the wound #and the medic still decapitated it on accident so 🫠 #and so then they had to surgically cut into the skin to remove the mandibles left behind #so that was my night tonight #soooo awsome #freaked me the fucketh out though lyme disease is so scary to think about #anyway i rarely post a selfie unprompted these days #and im not really even a fan of this pic im kinda tired and my hair is weird #but i thought it funny and appropriate to share

[aromanticmara]

reminder to check yourself and others for ticks if you’ve been outside in talk grasses or forests! lyme disease can become chronic and affects your nervous system, joints, and heart.

#one of my great aunts has chronic lyme and has awful heart and joint problems #i bring this up because my sister just got diagnosed #ticks are so hard to kill but you can flush them down toilets #please stay safe everyone #meg talks #lyme disease

[gin-juice-tonic]

3am isnt a great time to get so angry it makes you feel like youre going to explode

#i could go into the woods tomorrow and beat up trees again but as someone who found out they had lyme disease for 1 and half years i #think me and nature need to have a little break #though funny enough i actually got bit by a tick #AT THE BEACH #where even were you?? in the sand??

[healingheartdogs]

Love it when a doctor is like "I'm ordering a LOT of blood work for you today, sorry" like no don't be sorry, thank you for turning over every stone you can looking for answers for me

#todays doctor visit is the rheumatologist #ordering me a bunch of tests for autoimmune diseases #and a full tick-borne illness panel because she was shocked ive never been tested for lyme or any other tick-borne illness before #and we also talked about the possibility of EDS but trying to look into everything else first that could possibly be wrong #because there are so few people in the state who even do genetic testing for EDS (the types that can be tested for) #and even fewer who treat it so it'd be a long referral and wait process probably involving a lot of travel to other counties or into NYC #also getting a bunch of vitamin level testing done because my ones in september was NOT GOOD for a bunch of vitamins #6 vials of blood #definitely havent ever had that much blood drawn at once before #health stuff #ndr #not dog related

[rat-hand]

The modern day equivalent of vampirism is tick born ilness.

For example: some little bastard tried to drain you dry so now you’ve got light sensitivity and doctors don’t believe your condition is real.

#how I cope with chronic Lyme disease #lyme disease #tick born illness #chronic lyme disease #vampire core #vampires #vampire bite but not sexy 😿😿😿 #appalachain mountains #southern gothic #fuck you the cdc for this one specific thing

[haberdashing]

things i did not want to learn the hard way on this fine evening: unless you have a shaved/bald head or live where ticks are not prevalent, the chances that you have a tick hiding in your hair and feasting on your scalp, while generally low, are decidedly not zero.

#personal #shitpost #bug #bugs #tick #ticks #insect #insects #parasite #parasites #lyme disease #ughhhh i just took a bath and i'm still squicked out by it