Good to know. Thanks for the heads up Zuma….

Justin

Just pull it out, but mack sure you get all of it.

Not sure, but maybe we are in between waves of them. Was out 2 day ago and pulled a hundred of me and the dogs. Was out tonight and pulled of just a few.

leemme see

dock-see-sigh-clean ?

How’d I do zuma?

With early detection, and appropriate treatment, Lyme disease has a very good cure rate. Here is a summary of the new guidelines from the Infectious Disease Society of America which were only released last fall: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/545601

You should check with your doctor, but it seems reasonable for geocachers to have a lil doxycycline on hand so you can take a dose when ya get a deer tick bite, if ya expect to be out in the woods a lot.

The guidelines do not support this. Here is a quote from the guidelines: “To prevent LD after a recognized tick bite, routine use of antimicrobial prophylaxis or serologic testing is not recommended. A single dose of doxycycline (200 mg) may be given to adults and to children at least 8 years of age (4 mg/kg up to a maximum dose of 200 mg) if all of the following circumstances exist: (1) the attached tick can be reliably identified as an adult or nymphal I. scapularis estimated to have been attached for at least 36 hours; (2) prophylaxis can be started within 72 hours of tick removal; (3) ecologic information indicates that the local rate of infection of these ticks with B. burgdorferi is at least 20%; and (4) doxycycline is not contraindicated.”

For geocachers or anyone else with high risk occupations or hobbies, I have a very low threshold for using antibiotics, but I always wait for symptoms except for the relatively rare situation in which someone presents with a tick bite which has been reliably present for more than 36 hours. Alternatively, if another condition also exists which could also be treated (e.g. acne or rosacea in which doxycycline taken once daily is one of the appropriate treatments) I will occasionally prescribe doxycycline to do double duty here. The only prevalence data that I am aware of showed that 70% of ticks in Fort McCoy were infected with Lyme. Areas of the state such as Burnett (where I live) and Washburn counties which have been consistently either #1 or #2 in Lyme disease risk for the last several years probably have higher rates. Fortunately, even if the tick is infected, the disease is not easily transmitted as most estimates only put the risk of Lyme at 3% after a bite from an infected tick.

Here is a link which even includes a map with relative risks in each county of Wisconsin. http://dhfs.wisconsin.gov/communicable/LymeDisease/pdffiles/Lyme2006summary.pdf

My question for the medical folks is, does it have to be doxycycline or will any antibiotic work?

It is very easy to use chemoprophylaxis with doxycycline in a single dose as zuma described. This is inexpensive and usually well tolerated. Here’s another quote from the first link:
The guidelines do not recommend substituting amoxicillin for doxycycline in persons for whom doxycycline prophylaxis is contraindicated unless a higher infection rate was documented in specific local areas.

Some people are unable to tolerate doxycycyline. In my experience true allergies to doxycycline are rare as most are only sensitivities (nausea or diarrhea). Many people with “allergies” are still often able to tolerate doxycycline when needed for other more serious tick borne illnesses such as ehrlichiosis/anaplasmosis (for which we know that most other antibiotics will NOT work). If another antibiotic has to be substituted, single dose treatments cannot be done.

Sorry for the technical lingo. 😳 I know different opinions are very common from different groups, but IMO these guidelines are the best.

He’s got the symptoms, for sure, minus the rash. He has had these fever spikes for three days now, breaks out in a sweat, then gets chills. Joints ache, headache (but not screaming like in meningitis). He thought he was feeling better this afternoon, but crashed in the evening again. Caching tomorrow seems doubtful at this point.

Although he felt the doctor was very thorough, it was not our own family physician, who is well aware of our tendency to be out in the brush. When our younger son was a toddler, we were pretty sure he had Lyme, and called to bring him in. The nurse wouldn’t let us, she figured it was chicken pox. No way, if you’d seen this rash, you’d know that wasn’t it!

Anyway, the doctor had overheard the conversation, asked who’d called, and called us right back to bring him in. Highest titer in LaCrosse County up to that point, poor kiddo. So far, I’m the only family member who hasn’t been treated for it. I am always concerned because I have fibromyalgia, which means a normal state of aches and pains. I don’t even pay much attention to them anymore, because it’s just part of me. It’s caused me to be momentarily tricked when I had influenza, so it could do the same for lyme. Actually, my diagnosis came by default when I had gone in many years ago because I thought I had lyme. They tested for that and everything else along those lines, all of which came back negative. I had the pressure points for fibro as well.

It’s too bad we aren’t all 20 anymore, huh? 🙄

We have had 3 friends diagnosed with MS that later on ended up being Lymes and after proper treatment all the MS symptoms were gone, including partial paralysis, tremors and weak muscles.
TE