Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Lyme or Rocky Mountain ticks

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Celeste Illgner Havener <chavener AT uwyo.edu>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Lyme or Rocky Mountain ticks
  • Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:23:45 -0700

Both my husband and I got Rocky Mountain Spotted fever (separate years). Of
the 5 people who live on the side of the mountain where we are 3 of us have
had it now. It is amazing in its ability to stop you in your tracks and
takes forever to get up to speed again. It is attributed to the number of
deer we have here; and with chronic wasting disease in the deer no one wants
to hunt the deer. One way to minimize the tick population is chickens. They
love ticks and have really reduced the population if you let them out free
range.
I agree with Marlin; find a doctor who is familiar with the disease if you
contract it. The Lyme's we have here is pretty resistant to antibiotics, a
friend of mine had to go in daily for IV's of antibiotics for about 3 weeks.
Deer, ticks and cougars... don't they say trouble comes in threes?
Celeste
High Horse Farm
Laramie YW

-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
sunnfarm AT netscape.com
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 8:27 AM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is epidemic in NJ. yet little is said about it. All the so
called preventive measures don't work very well. On my home farm I have never
seen a tick in 25 years yet there is no shortage of deer and mice. I
attribute it to low level pesticide residue and pesticide drift into the
woods and grassy areas. I have another 8 acre farm 12 miles away without
pesticides and you can not even walk 100 feet across a close mowed lawn to
the mailbox without getting a tick. I believe the problem got out of control
10 years ago when aerial Gypsy moth spraying went from Sevin to BT. The use
of Bt allowed the tick population to explode.
Bob.
Sunny Meadow Farm
Bridgeton, NJ.

--- Glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net wrote:

From: "GlenEcoFarm" <Glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Market-farming] Lyme Disease
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:21:39 -0500

With all of the posts on this list in the past several years relating to
people struggling with deer control issues, I'm surprised that very few have
brought up the subject of Lyme disease which seems to be increasing in the
same proportion as the deer encroachment all over the country.

I was recently diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease more than a year after my
symptoms began getting serious in December 2008. I had been treated with
one month of antibiotics following a reactive tick bite in August 2002. We
think there is a possability that the infection may have resurfaced five or
more years after the tick bite and simmered at a low enough level for me not
to seek medical attention until last year, or I may have been reinfected
later.

The most appalling thing about this experience has been the amount of
frustration, pain, and loss of physical strength I have experienced in the
face of apparent ignorance and apathy among the local medical community.
About six months after a brain MRI showed white spots indicative of possible
Lyme, I learned that the blood test used to rule out LD by the neurologist
who saw me after the MRI, is widely known among the larger medical community
to give false negatives and is unreliable for Lyme diagnostics. As I began
to realize late in the year that I might need to more agressively persue the
LD question, I went into another month of my own denial after looking on the
Internet and learning the extent of the Lyme disease controversy and what it
might mean if I really do have Lyme.

I feel quite fortunate to have found a doctor competent in the most up to
date diagnosis and treatment of my illness even if it meant crossing two
state lines to find him. I now face the possability of considerable pain
and disability and a lot of expense for several more years. Just knowing
that I now have a solid diagnosis and a treatment protocol designed to
attack the problem at the roots rather than lessening the pain at the
surface (like fighting quackgrass with a weed whacker or trying to put out a
forest fire by pissing on it), gives me hope.

I bring this subject up because most of us involved in market farming live
and work in highly endemic areas (by now most of the country) and are highly
at risk of contracting this dreadful and nasty disease. Complicating the
matter is disagreement about the definition of the illness, fear among
doctors of reprisal if they transgress treatment guidelines of the CDC, and
the reluctance of insurance compaies to pay for extended treatment of LD
patients. This makes it very difficult to find good LD doctors. The longer
it goes after a person gets the disease the more difficult and expensive it
gets to treat.

My symptoms have been: extreme fatigue, panic attacks, peripheral
neuropathy, full blown fibromyalgia, and pain-pain-pain, and MORE PAIN!
Those of you or your friends who may be struggling with CFS or Fibromyalgia
take note. Remember what your doctors have told you? There are now many
who believe that a high proportion of those diagnosed with these illnesses
actually have Lyme disease.

Marlin Burkholder
Shenandoah Valley
Virginia

_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming





_____________________________________________________________
Netscape. Just the Net You Need.
_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page