Lyme Disease PA

Latent Lyme disease and exercise??? a link?

2008-07-19T10:14:00.002-04:00

As I've stated on this site, my wife and I had Lyme, Babeosis and Erlichosis. We spent about 50 grand, two years and a lot of antibiotics to get back on our feet. I've been relatively OK.

HOWEVER, I started a new project around the house. My 20,000 gallon in ground pool is surrounded by patio blocks that aren't even close to level, in fact, they look more like the Tetons. Also, I'm getting water intrusion around the coping that is wrecking the bond beam. The quotes we got were about 15 grand or so to redo the deck. I figured that since I don't belong to a gym, it might be a good thing to get some manual labor in. My 13 year old son and I have been removing blocks, knocking off the mortar, regrading, hand tamping and resetting the stones. The results are looking great.

BUT - the other day, I came down with a 24 hour 'flu'. Part of it might be that the window fan was blowing on me. But I began to think. It seems that every time I get into a heavy project, I end up with a 'flu' lasting anywhere from a day to a week.

THEORY - It is pretty much of a fact that lyme buries itself deep in the tissue. I suppose that what might be happening is that the exercise is forcing blood down into the muscle which is causing a herxheimer effect (an effect where the killing of lyme disease results in a fever). This makes sense in that, when I think about it, it seems that there is a correlation between hard exercise and the onset of a fever. I don't keep a journal so I don't have hard data on this.

ACTIONS - My first thought is that I probably want to keep up with the pool. and other regular hard exercise. (1) I need to get it done and (2) It seems like it might be killing the Lyme that is buried deep. Also, I think I need to get back to regular appointments with my massuese. She does deep tissue massage which seems to have a similar effect.

Anyway, I'd appreciate anyone who has had similar experiences if you would chime in here.

Youtube video on Lyme Disease

2008-06-04T21:13:00.003-04:00

Here is a Youtube video about Lyme Disease.

Lyme disease is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed. This particular video covers the basics and shows some of the pain that Lyme disease sufferers endure.

Lost everything to a fox

2008-05-24T10:13:00.002-04:00

We were down to one leghorn. All of the guineas had met their demise as well as most of the chickens. I had 10 chicks that had feathered out and I put them out in the chicken shed.

About a week ago I saw something white moving at the edge of our woods. As I ran into the backyard, I saw a fox carrying off our leghorn. There wasn't much I could do as we are in a no-discharge zone. I went back to the shed and found the corner where the fox had gotten in. All of the chicks were gone (probably as fox brunch).

So, the lessons learned

The critters will find any weak spot in your protection. The chicken wire needs to be inspected regularly.
Have a backup plan to battle ticks - We are still supposed to get guineas although they won't be ready to roam for a couple of months. In the meantime, I'm keeping the grass short, putting out mouse bait and will be ordering some pullets from our local poultry place.

Lyme spreads in Chester County

2008-03-01T09:56:00.002-05:00

Lancaster Farming has an article on the spread of Lyme disease in Chester County.

A really intersting quote in the article was

“Vets are more up to date on Lyme disease than medical doctors,” Pete said of using their services for their dogs, who also have also tested positive for Lyme.

I have to agree with this. For some reason it seems that the medical community is either ignorant about Lyme, slow to treat it when they find it and unwilling or unable to provide an aggressive enought treatment regime (Perhaps large contributions by the insurance companies to our state legislators???) .

http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/1070

Guineas in harsh winter environments - reader question

2007-10-19T22:12:00.000-04:00

A reader emailed the following question to us

"Our neighbors have guniea hens and we have been thinking of getting some. However we live in Wisconsin and have cold winters. What would we have to do to protect these hens during the winter months? Could we let them out or would we have to keep them inside?"

I'm not that familiar with the weather in Wisconsin. I imagine it's a little more harsh than Pennsylvania. I'd check with people in your area if you can find anyone who has guineas.

Our birds are pretty wild and are not trained to live in a coop. If you can build a coop or avairy and get the birds to return to it each night, that would probably work. If you do a coop the problem is that you really need to be there each night to close it up. Otherwise a critter might get in for a late night guinea snack.

What we do is simply

put a poultry waterer out that sits on an electric heater. You can probably purchase that at a feed store or over the internet.
Make sure that the birds have plenty of food. We use layer pellets. We also have a regular bird feeder and they guineas (if you don't have too many of them) can scavenge what falls from the feeder.
If we are going to be away for a while, I try to set up an automatic deer feeder loaded with layer pellets. that way, even if it snows, the feeder will dispense pellets regularly.
The birds will usually stay in the tree until I plow at least part of the driveway. You just have to make sure that the birds dont' get in front of the snowblower.
They can use a place where they can get in out of the snow and especially the icy rain. Our birds like to get under our picnic table. Keep in mind we have a small flock.

That pretty much takes care of it. There was one time when it was really nasty and the birds weren't doing too well. I was able to catch them by putting a towel over them. I put the tractor outside the shed with a tarp and let the birds sleep in the shed. You have to watch that they don't try to eat some of the stuff in the shed.

One goal would be to have at least a couple of birds survive the winter. The experience they pass on to the keets is invaluable in helping them survive.

Good luck...

Raccoons in the Henhouse

2007-10-03T16:22:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago, our son noticed that the birds were making a racket in the henhouse. It was about an hour after dark and we had locked up the henhouse at dusk.

I went out with the big handheld searchlight and saw two coons in the henhouse. It looked like they were eating the eggs and hadn't gone after the chickens yet. There isn't a whole lot of light around the henhouse so I went and got the tractor to shine it's lights on the house. While we were watching, it sounded like the coons escaped through the back of the building. (It's an old building that has seen better days).

Two of the birds came out of the house so we locked them in the other outside enclosure. I decided to go in to check on the remaining two birds, a leghorn and a rhodie. Both were sitting on their usual perch which was a metal stock tub on top of the nesting boxes at about waist height. They looked OK. I just didn't consider that they would sit there calmly if the raccoons were still in there.

Chris and I went around the back of the house to try to see how the coons got out. For the life of me I couldn't figure it out. There is a gap under the house where critters have dug access holes but the floor had seemed to be intact. I got some expanding caulk and cayanne pepper. I filled the holes with layers of cayanne and caulk. (that should keep the critters from nibbling through..)

OK, now I was getting confused, I saw no way that the little Houdinis had gotten out. I went back in again and didn't see any critters or escape routes. Now, we know that they can't teleport so there had to be another answer. Had I thought to apply Occam's Razor, the simplest solution would be that the critters were still in the shed.

Chris wanted to go in an pet the leghorn that we call 'whitey' . Against my better judgement I said Ok. As I went in, I took one last look... There was a gap of about 6" between the wall and the tub. Whitey was perched right over a clump of grey fur. I warned Chris and we immediately got out of the henhouse. Being in close quarters with two raccoons could turn deadly even without rabies.

So now, we had a dilemma, how do you get the birds out safely?? I could have shot through the wall with a .22 and hit the coons except that (1) the town is a no discharge zone (2) there are too many houses nearby anyway and (3) If the raccoons were rabid, that would put rabies tainted blood all over the place.. So, on to a plan B.

Plan B was to punch through the plastic window and use a long pvc pipe to dislodge the birds.. After about 10 minutes it was mission accomplished. We got them into the outside enclosure and pulled the henhouse door closed. Now I had two irritated raccoons trapped inside the henhouse. I wasn't sure what to do so in the words of that famous senator I figured "I'll drive off that bridge when I get to it" and turned in for the night.

I heard some commotion at about 5 am and went out to look. I saw a larger coon right outside the henhouse and it waddled off. The birds looked ok.

When it was daylight I let the birds loose and looked in the windows. There was no sign of the critters. Eventually I carefully opened the door and sure enough, they were gone. They had chewed through the bottom of the henhouse door. I found where they got in which was where the top chicken wire meets the side wire. There was just one weak spot. I took about 25 of those plastic electrical ties and closed up any and all gaps.

It occurred to me that the two coons must have gone right by the chickens when they escaped but didn't appear to go after them.

Anyway, here are some lessons learned.

Be extremely careful if you think there are raccoons in the henhouse. I was in there three times at least and did not see them. The houses is only about 4'x8'. There isn't any clutter other than the tub. We were very lucky not to have gotten bitten or worse. Had we reached over to handle the chickens that might have been enough to cause all heck to break loose.
Raccoons will find any and all weak spots in your henhouse. You really need to go over it periodically to make sure that there are no spots where they get in. This means going over just about every square inch looking for gaps and rusted chicken wire.
Raccoons carry rabies and a really nasty parasite in their feces. The eggs can live for something like 10 years. If you ingest the eggs of the parasite, the worm will work it's way to your brain and eat your brain (that might explain some of the behavior in congress lately). The next day, I wet down the straw to keep the dust down, used a good mask, rubber gloves etc and cleaned the shed out. Even with the precautions, there is some risk to doing that.
I could use a better lighting system in the shed. Harbor Freight had reasonably priced lights that were solar charged. I'm going to pick one of those up and set it up for lighting the inside of the house if I go in there at night.
I'm not sure if a motion detecting light would help. Again, Harbor Freight has solar powered motion detecting lights. I'm not sure if that would scare the little buggers off or not. Maybe one of those halloween gadgets that screetches and cackles when you walk by would work.
I had seen our trashcans overturned a couple of times prior. I should have been more proactive and made sure that the raccoon trap was baited and set.

Final Scores

Birds:0
Raccoons: 3 eggs
People:0

Pheasants and tics - Response to comment

2007-10-03T16:02:00.000-04:00

Sorry to whoever posted the question asking if pheasants will eat ticks. I got fumble fingered and accidentally deleted that comment.

As I understand it, gallinaceous birds eat insects including ticks. Gallinaceous birds include grouse, pheasant, turkeys, quail, partridges etc.

The downside is that the birds can also be hosts for ticks to some extent. However, there is evidence that the presence of birds will reduce the tick population significantly. You can get some info on that study from Mother Earth News

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Livestock-and-Farming/2003-10-01/Go-Ahead-Get-Guineas.aspx

We are getting eggs now

2007-07-13T00:04:00.001-04:00

One of the benefits of chlckens for tick control is that you get eggs.

The pullets we recently purchased just started laying. We are getting two eggs per day from five older pullets. Pretty soon we should be seeing a half dozen per day.

As far as the tick and bug population, it appears that the birds are doing their job well.

More eggs and less ticks, I like that!

Down to one guinea from this year's batch

2007-07-13T00:04:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, it appears that we are down to only one bird left from the 12 we were raising this year. I'm not sure what got the most recent bird.

The local fox is not helping things. Also, we have coons and possum.

Some lessons for next year:

- make sure the coop is ironclad. Crittera will find the slightest weakness.
- Once they learn to roost in the trees, let them all out. Otherwise, the free birds hang too close to the cooped birds.
- If possible, be aggressive in trapping coons and possum. Be aware of the danger of rabies and local laws.

We are really hoping that the remaining young bird will survive the summer and winter to be able to pass survival skills to next year's batch.

We are also considering trying to purchase adolescents although it is harder to keep them near the property.

Lyme Disease Pickets protest new guidelines

2007-07-09T19:03:00.000-04:00

According to an article in the Atlantic City Press, On June 28th, Lyme Disease activists protested the proposed new guidelines for Lyme disease. These guidelines would make it much more difficult to treat patients with suspected Lyme Disease.

This is a serious disease with devastating implications for those infected and yet it seems that some are trying to minimize it and do everything they can to make treatment more difficult to obtain.

The article makes an excellent point that, if fewer cases are diagnosed due to the stricter guidelines, funding for Lyme Disease research may be cut.

Atlantic City Press Article

Guineas can swim !!!!

2007-07-09T09:39:00.000-04:00

I was getting my breakfast together at about 8am.. The chickens were still in their pen when I heard a commotion. I saw a fox less than 15 feet from my kitchen window (and my dang camera was upstairs where I knew I couldn't get to it in time).

The fox seemed to be trying to get to something. I realized that one of the younger guineas had landed in the pool and was swimming like a duck. The problem was that, with his feathers wet, he couldn't seem to get out. He tried to get into the skimmer but luckily the filter had not turned on yet.

When I went out, the fox trotted off. I couldn't hold onto the bird when I pulled him from the skimmer and he started swimming again. I got the skimmer net underneath him and old soggy was able to hop out. With the level of chlorine in the pool, I expect to see that we will have an albino guinea fowl for a while.

The old one eyed guy had gotten up in a tree and the other young bird got up on top of the chicken house, out of harms way. Once I got soggy out of the pool, the three teamed up again.

Anyway, I don't have the pictures to prove it, but guineas can swim pretty well. It actually looked pretty graceful in the water. If the bird had worked it's way to the shallow end, it probably could have gotten out on the steps. I'm not sure how long it could swim though.

Ticks up one's nose and scotch tape.

2007-07-04T08:52:00.000-04:00

In spite of all of our precautions, I felt a tick on me while I was in bed the other day. As I sat up, the darn thing fell of my arm and onto my nostrils. For a moment, I had visions of it going up my nose. I have no idea how I would have gotten it out at that point. Fortunately it didn't go up a nostril. We have off white bedsheets so it was easy to spot.

The question now was how to execute the critter. I couldn't find my needlenose pliers and killing it with a lighter on the bedsheets was out of the question... There was a roll of transparent office tape handy. It's great for trapping a tick. You just slam it down on the critter and fold it over. It can't move it's legs, so it can't escape. Also, you don't have to handle it and incur the risk of any diseases that might be on it. Still, its a good idea to wash your hands afterwards.

Our Adolescent Guineas are now roosting with the old guy

2007-07-04T08:40:00.000-04:00

We are now down to only 2 of our 12 original keets. A local fox and raccoon have gotten 10 of them. Our son noticed the other day that the 2 remaining birds are now roosting high in an evergreen with the old one eyed guy. That's good news because in the past, they would keep roosting on the ground and end up as easy prey for whatever happened along (fox, possum, raccoon or even cats).

This year I had fenced off part of the outside of the chicken house for the guineas. There was an enclosure where they could get out of the rain if necessary. What I think happened was that the chicken wire kept them relatively safe (We did lose a couple due to a tiny opening. Details, details, details. Anyway, the birds became aware that critters are out there at night looking to eat them and that the ground is not the safest place to be. They had all started roosing on top of the game feeder that was in their part of the enclosure.

Lessons learned so far this year:

You need to check every square inch of the chicken wire. Predators will find the tinyest weak spot
If the birds can see what is going on, they will learn to roost off the ground.
If at least one halfway intelligent bird survives from the previous years, they will be instrumental in teaching survival skills to the young birds.
Regular 1" chicken wire is not an adequate barrier. In the past critters have reached through and literally pulled the birds through the wire. I went with a double layer that is offset to make it difficult for paws to get through
Until you let all of the birds free, they free birds will roost near or on top of the enclosure making them vulnerable to predators. However, if you free all of them too early, they might wander off.

Tough month for the Guineas

2007-06-27T09:08:00.000-04:00

We apaprently lost two guineas last night and definitely one the night before. There is a fox or coyote in the neighborhood. I've only gotten a fleeting glimpse of it.

I think the problem was that I have not yet released all the guineas. I had them in a portion of the chicken wire enclosure around the hutch. I was keeping a couple in the enclosure so the others would stay nearby. The problem was that at night, the free birds would roost on top of the chicken wire. I think that has been where they've been getting hit. It's getting nearly impossible to get the birds back into the enclosure for the night.

So, it's time to gamble on letting them all out. Hopefully, they will roost further up in the trees out of harm's way. At this point, they should be comfortable enough with us to hang around the property without running off.

Fox, quial and guineas

2007-06-17T07:48:00.000-04:00

The neighborhood fox is still coming around. The other night we lost one of the guineas we let out about a half hour before dusk. It appears that the bird was by the door of the guinea enclosure and got attacked. There weren't a lot of feathers around, just a patch on the birds side where it was missing some feathers.

The guineas are starting to get the idea of roosting off the ground. I have an automatic game feeder that I use when we are going to be away. It's a 5 gallon can with an automatic feeder attached. It's perfect for laying down food on a regular basis when we aren't there. Anyway, the birds are piling on that at night. I'm hoping that means that when we finally release them, they will roost in the trees and not on the ground.

I have some work today. The chicken wire on the door to the chicken house is a bit old. I got a 10 gallon air tank which means I can take the air nailer/stapler out to the chicken house. The plan is to replace the chicken wire with new stuff and check the wood framing of the door. It's a lot better to be pre-emptive.

The quail have been doing nicely in their outside hutch. It's a little hutch that is really made for rabbits. I have a heat lamp that is on a GFCI protected extension. I put heavy plastic around three sides and cardboard on the bottom. So far, it's been about 2 weeks and we've only lost 1 out of 20 birds. They seem to like dandelion greens. The little buggers go crazy over them.

New CDC Lyme disease report - Cases doubling!!

2007-06-14T20:46:00.001-04:00

There is a new CDC Lyme disease report released June 14, 2007.

Reported cases of Lyme disease have more than doubled since 1991

I'm not sure if the above is good or bad news. The problem is that there has been tremendous under-reporting of Lyme. If cases have been level but reporting is up, then that is good news since the problem is being properly identified. If cases are really going up, then, of course, it is bad news.

The report also said 93 percent of reported cases were concentrated in 10 states.

The bad news for Pennsylvanians is that we are one of those 10 states...

In 1991 fewer than 10,000 cases of Lyme disease were reported.

There has been an increase in awareness of Lyme disease. There is still a lot of work to be done and a lot of the medical community and legislators are in denial or ignorance as to the true extent of the problem.

Below are some notes regarding the actual report

With approximately 20,000 new cases reported each year, Lyme disease is the most
common vector-borne disease in the United States

The question is, how many people have not been adequately diagnosed. The reality is that it is probably impossible to answer that question.

Since Lyme disease became nationally notifiable in 1991, the annual number of
reported cases has more than doubled.

It is good news that the statistics are being kept on a national level for the last 16 years.

According to the report, the number of newly reported Lyme cases are as follows

2003 5730

2004 3985

2005 4287

One of the disturbing pieces of information in the report is the number of cases in children aged 5 through 9 and 10 through 14. A lot of kids are coming down with Lyme.

The CDC Press release can be found at
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/2007/r070614.htm

The Full report link can be found at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/ in the June 15, 2007 / Vol. 56 / No. 23 issue

The report iteself is at
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5623a1.htm

Wisconsin AG vs. a Lyme Doctor

2007-06-12T08:20:00.000-04:00

OK, So it was Lyme Awareness Month in Wisconsin... Great.. However, at the same time, one of the attorneys in the Wisconsin's Attorney General's office starts an attack on a doctor who was successfully treating Lyme patients... The attack on Dr. Hoffman seems fuzzy and suspicious at best.

The link to the initial article is at http://www.publichealthalert.org./text1.htm The actual story is a PDF at http://www.publichealthalert.org./Wisconsin%20Lyme%20Doctor%20Under%20Fire%20During%20Governor.pdf

To sum up the story, it appears that the good old doc is a generous, dedicated doctor. He refused to prescribe narcotics to a patient who then went to the Wisconsin AG's office. The prosecutor is a guy named Arthur Thexton who is well known for prosecuting "alternative medicines" - (more about that later). ... Thexton then started demanding records related to treating Lyme patients.. When his office started getting innundated with out of state calls, he then tried to claim that the treatment of Lyme disease was not the issue.

By the way, there is a legal defense fund for Dr. Hoffman

contributing to Dr. Hoffmann’s legal defense fund, please contact PJ
Langhoff at info@sewill.org

Hey Wisconsin - If this is your idea of how to celebrate "lyme awareness month", why don't you just breed a couple of million infected ticks and release them??

Let's look at this a little more closely... Year after year, legislation that would allow for more aggressive treatment for Lyme dies in the Pennsylvania legislature (they did find time to give themselves and their judge friends a huge illegal pay raise though)... Why would state governments not want to provide the best treatment for people suffering from this disease? Here are a couple of thoughts...

The insurance companies want to control cash disbursements. Lyme can be expensive to treat, especially the long term, chronic cases
The insurance companies have lobbyists in the state house and often are substantial contributors to legislator's campaigns.
Lyme is primarily a suburban and rural issue right now. Those areas don't always have the voting clout of urban areas.
Those afflicted with Lyme don't yet have the political power associated with advocates for some other diseases such as aids and breast cancer.

If you do a little research into Arthur Thexton, you come up with some other interesting aspects of his career.

http://alkalizeforhealth.net/Lquackwatch4.htm is a scathing article about the way that Thexton's office handled the case of Stuart Suster. There are some pretty serious allegations there against Thexton backed up by the fact that Suster is now suing Thexton in Federal Court. The tone of that article can be summed up in the following quote.

Health Insurance companies, I’m sure you already know, do not want to pay for
services rendered by health professionals. If they pay at all, they pay a small
percentage of the billing. They especially don’t want to pay for new things –
and, of course, if a New York ad agency (quackbuster management) rails against
it – health insurance companies will eagerly leap into non-payment mode.

The issue is that we need a lot more research into Lyme disease. Research that is not restricted by what the insurance companies would like to see, but rather into what treatments are really effective for those people suffering from this disease. Once there is a solid set of verifiable, established evidence as to what will really work then overzealous prosecutors will not be able to intimidate those trying to provide treatment. The current environment where groups are pushing for minimal treatment for Lyme will simply cause a lot more suffering for those infected.

Did some tick-dragging this weekend.

2007-06-11T10:35:00.000-04:00

Tick dragging is the process of taking a piece of cloth. Flannel is often recommended, but denim should work as well as an old bath towel.

The idea is that you drag it over the grass and leaves and then count how many ticks end up on it.

It can be something very simple. I took half of an old bath towel and stapled that to a 1 x 11/2" board. I put an eye bolt in the middle since I had a broom handle with a hook at the end. It was pretty easy to drag. If you are doing your property, you don't need to use a whole square yard. Something smaller will also work.

Our property is 2 1/2 acres. It took about 30 minutes to cover a good sample of it at a slow walk.

I found a dog tick right near the pool filter. I had a deer tick on my leg a week before. Well, that area got scalped when I cut the lawn. (shorter grass makes a less hospitable environment for ticks) I didn't find any in the open, sunny, short grass parts of the property. I found one in the leaves. When I went through the woods I found about a half dozen clinging to it.

With the smaller drag, you can also pass it easily over bushes, shrubs and small trees.

Thoughts

I have a little CO2 duster that uses the cartridges for an air gun. I've heard that ticks are attracted to CO2 so I'll try spraying the cloth before starting out next time.
I have to read the labels on permethrin. I'm wondering if it is OK/legal to spray the cloth with permethrin. The guineas and chickens hardly ever go into the woods. I'm thinking about making up a cloth that I can tow behind the tractor and go throught the woods (about an acre) once a month or so. I just have to make sure that it is in compliance with the federal labelling. The thought is that you can get the ticks to cling to the cloth where they get a fatal dose of permethrin, but the residual that goes onto the ground should be minute.
Our tick control is working to a degree. We were down to one guinea this year. We now have 8 adolescent guineas roaming (4 on any given day) and 4 chickens. We also use the tick tubes and have tried to keep the deer out as much as possible. There hardly seems to be any squirrels this year, but the fox does look fat. Anyway, the tick dragging, when done in a consistent manner, can provide a baseline tick cencus for you.
It will be interesting to try this at a neighbor's house who does not have birds.

Tips

Be careful. Ticks are heat seekers. If you are touching the cloth or wood, there is a good chance of getting ticks on you. Use plenty of repellant and keep checking yourself, especially your hands.
Deer ticks are, of course, tiny, You have to look closely as they tend to start burrowing into the cloth very quickly
Don't bring the cloth back into your home or shop since it may have ticks you missed.

Fox attack!!!

2007-06-10T08:59:00.001-04:00

Well, we almost lost a couple of our birds this morning. I let the birds out at about 7:30.. All four chickens and 4 of the 8 guineas. I was having some breakfast on the patio when I heard a commotion. The old one-eyed guinea was running for his life with something right behind him. At first, I thought it was one of the groundhogs, but a second later I realized it was the fox. Old one-eyed did a maximum effort climb, circled around and landed in a dead tree about 15' up.

The chickens went for the bushes which would be a good idea if it were a hawk attacking, but I'm not sure what it would do as far as a fox. The 4 guineas are still pretty green. They huddled up by the henhouse which would have made them an easy meal. Hopefully, they'll learn from this that Mr. Fox is not their friend and immediate evasive action is a must.

I took a little walk through the woods which hopefully made the fox move off, at least for now.

By the way, a couple of mornings ago I got up right around dawn. The fox was sitting right outside the henhouse, about 10' away, just looking at the birds.

Picked up some quail today

2007-06-09T15:14:00.000-04:00

We picked up 20 quail today from Davis Feedmill in Richland (bucks county). There were $1.95 each. They are about the size of your thumb when you get them.

I have them in the hutch with a heatlamp. I can see that changing the feed and water will be a challenge. The little guys think they are minature roadrunners. I had three jump out just putting them in.

The plan is to keep them in the hutch until they are fully feathered out and then release them. Hopefully they will stay nearby. Quail are natural predators of ticks.

The great Lyme debate...

2007-06-08T22:48:00.000-04:00

(read the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog - Nothing here is intended as medical advice )

There is a newsday story at
http://www.newsday.com/search/ny-hscov5223177may22,0,4347013.story?page=1
about the two schools of thought regarding Lyme disease. On one hand, there are those who believe that Lyme is not being adequately diagnosed and that Doctors are not free enough to proscribe adequate courses of antibiotics. On the other hand, there are those who believe that people are being diagnosed with Lyme when they have other diseases and that too many antibiotics are being used. Which is correct?

She doesn't remember an actual tick bite or classic bull's-eye rash, but
her doctors found evidence that the common Borrelia bacteria have been in her
body.

There are some people who believe that the lack of the bullseye rash is because the person's defenses didn't work properly. Therefore the people without the rash are more susceptible to lyme. Also, if I get a rash in the middle of my lower back, the chances of me spotting it are almost zero unless I do the exorcist head thing..

"There are a lot of people who think they have Lyme disease but don't," said Dr.
Raymond Dattwyler, an infectious disease expert

Yes, and there are a lot of doctors who diagnose Lyme as other diseases. When we first encountered Lyme, a neurologist claimed my wife had MS even though her symptoms were not consistent with MS. He scoffed when we asked about Lyme disease. Later DNA testing for Lyme showed that she did in fact have Lyme.

Fallon, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia, said that
in the study the antibiotics worked initially on reducing pain, fatigue and
mental fog, but six months later patients were no better than those who did not
receive long-term therapy.

That, in a nutshell is one of the problems with Lyme. Many people who get it, never seem to be able to shake all of the symptoms. One theory I've heard is that the disease gets deep into the fatty tissue and some areas where blood supply is thinner. If you aren't getting blood, is it possible that the antibiotics aren't reaching the disease and reservoirs exist? Supposedly aerobic exercise helps kill the disease, perhaps because more blood is reaching more parts of the body.

. . .infectious disease doctors worry that people with all sorts of unexplained symptoms are being routed to Lyme doctors who will treat
with long-term antibiotics - despite studies that suggest those treatments don't
work. (Stony Brook neurologist Dr. Lauren Krupp and her colleagues also did a
monthlong study and found no difference between those receiving antibiotics and
those getting a placebo. The results of the study were published in
2003.)

If the study was only a month, I'd have questions about that. Again, I'm not a doctor, but I know it took a couple of months before my symptoms started to get under control. Also, our doctor was alternating antibiotics, mostly oral, but some injections (Still hurts thinking about those BIG needles). Another issue with the article is that it does not address other tick borne disease that might be present such as erlichosis and Babesis. If the latter is present, it requires a whole different course of treatment.

"The potential for harm is enormous," Boston University's Klempner
said. "Patients have died, and others have had infections" because of the
intravenous lines

IV treatment can be scary. Fortunately, as I noted earlier, our treatment was oral and injections in the posterior.

The infection doesn't take hold right away, and experts say removing the
tick soon after it is discovered is the best prevention.

That is a LOT easier said than done.. First off, the nymphs are smaller than the periods in these sentences. The tick itself is about the size of a lower case o depending on your screen. How many of us have someone check every inch of our body looking for one of these critters? Are we all doing the Yul Brynner routine and shaving our heads and other parts of our body? What about all those age spots? What about people with darker complexions? The problem here is that one bite in a place where you don't notice it can really mess up your life.

By the way, there are a number of products that allow you to remove a tick without squishing it which would inject the disease into you. That's a topic for another post.

The Lyme bacterium can also travel into the central nervous system if not
treated immediately. And this can trigger Lyme meningitis (stiff neck and
pounding headaches) and Bell's palsy (temporary paralysis of the facial
muscles).

Make no mistake, Lyme is serious stuff. We really need a lot more research to understand exactly what is happening with Lyme and other tick related diseases. We need to properly understand it and educate people as to how to prevent it.

If you have symptoms that are indicative of Lyme, you will need to make a decision as to which of the two schools of thought you believe will help cure you. That might be one of the most important decisions of your life. The problem is, there is no one right answer.....

Reduce Lyme by reducing Deer

2007-06-08T08:25:00.000-04:00

Solebury is going to pay to have the Department of Agriculture thin out the deer herd. The main reason for the herd thinning appears to be the damage to crops.

However, deer are one of the key factors in the spread of deer ticks and Lyme Disease (and other tick born diseases). If you can reduce the deer population, you should be also reducing the prevelance of Lyme.

Solebury is far enough from Philadelphia that they probably won't have a large problem with people complaining about the hunt. It's about 45 minutes from the city and is more of a rural community.

We live much closer to the city but the deer herd is very large. Last evening we were eating dinner and a large deer wandered through the yard about 75 feet from us. We've fenced in the entire 2 1/2 acres in an attempt to keep the deer out and thereby reduce the ticks. There are a couple of places that need patching. I see up to 5 or 6 deer at a time just outside the fence. Keep in mind that we are only 10 minutes outside the city.

We need to control the herd in our township. The problem is that, the closer you are to the city, the less people understand the need for deer control. Meanwhile the Lyme Disease epidemic continues to rage.

Sharpshooters
hired to target deer (phillyBurbs.com) Intelligencer :

"Solebury has inked a more than $250,000 contract to winnow its deer
population with sharpshooters.
The no-bid contract calls on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to kill whitetail deer, mostly at night, through the use of “suppressed rifles with high expansive ammunition, along with the aid of stands, vehicles, artificial light, night vision equipment and forward-looking infrared.”

The goal is to reduce crop and other property damage, as well as
the risk of disease from today's large deer population. "

Medical Community takes years to diagnose teen.

2007-06-08T01:06:00.000-04:00

You see these stories all the time. A person becomes ill and their quality of life deteriorates until their life is a shambles.

Quite often the symptoms are there but the diagnosis is not made.

"There were so many children coming in with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis,"
Jones said during a telephone interview. He later determined that while symptoms
were similar, often they stemmed from Lyme disease. "I developed a knack for
treating and understanding the disease."

The article does a pretty good job of outlining the problem and the current situation. Bucks County, our home county, is in the top three counties as far as Lyme cases.

York Dispatch - York teen suffers for years before Lyme disease diagnosed:

"No one believed her. They figured she was making it up for one reason
or another. She wanted attention. She wanted to skip school. She was lazy.
But those things weren't true. Nicole Lecrone wanted help. She wanted the pain to subside, the muscle aches, the sharp stabbing pains in her stomach."

Meanwhile, our illustrious representative in Harrisburg are sitting on legislation that could help those who are suffering from Lyme and other Tick Borne diseases. The article outlines some of the bills. Note that similar bills have been brought forward year after year to die in committee. You can help by reading up on the bills and contacting your state rep and senator. Ask them to support legislation to help those suffering from Lyme Disease.

There were bills that would protect doctors who are aggressivly treating Lyme. Currently these doctors live in fear of prosecution or losing their medical licenses.

Legislation: Three proposals addressing Lyme disease treatments and
education remain in state House and Senate committees. House Bill 798 and Senate
Bill 722 would establish a task force to study Lyme disease and related
maladies. The task force would comprise representatives of the state departments
of health, conservation and natural resources, and the Pennsylvania Game
Commission. The task force would monitor antibiotic therapies and misconduct
proceedings.

HB798 was referred March 19 to the Committee on Health and
Human Services; SB722 was referred April 2 to Banking and Insurance. A third
bill, Senate Bill 573, would provide Lyme disease education, prevention and
treatment.

Check out this proposed legislation and its status online at
www.legis.state.pa.us.

Guineas and chickens for 2007

2007-06-08T00:43:00.000-04:00

We are raising a new flock of Guineas and chickens for 2007. All we have left at this point is one old one-eyed guinea. He's a real survivor and pretty good natured. However, there is no way he can control the ticks on 2 1/2 acres. All three of us have had deer and dog ticks on us.

We purchased a mixed bunch of 4 Rhode Island Reds, 2 leghorns and a White Rock. Unfortunately we didn't get out early enough and something got a leghorn and the white rock. A couple of days later, I heard a commotion at dusk and there was a fox trying to force the birds out of the henhouse. I found one of the Rhodies on her back in shock. She didn't look like she had a lot of injury so I put her back in the henhouse. for the next day or so, I kept finding her on her back in what looked like shock. I'd put her back on her feet near the water or food. After two days she totally recovered.

We started out with 12 guinea keets. When I moved them outside, I put them in a portion of the chicken yard. Unfortunately, the wire was a bit week from rust and we lost 4 of them. One morning I saw a fox or coyote sitting there staring at the hens and guineas at about 5:30 in the morning. I had to double up on the chicken wire all around.

Anyway, the 4 chickens are now roaming the property pretty well. I'm letting out about 4 guineas each day. They will stay pretty close to the others that are still caged. The old one-eyed guy is working pretty well with them. I had some company over and they walked out to take a look at the birds. Old one eye herded the keets that were outside away from us.. I guess he was telling them that our friends were strangers.

chris