Tick Disease

Tick disease has been known by many names, rabbit fever, Lyme disease and summer fever.

Detecting tick diseases and illnesses can be difficult in humans and pets due to the bacteria's ability to hide or act like other diseases.

The tick can also harbor more then one type of disease making detection difficult.

This makes contradictions in detecting Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, Erlichiosis, Relapsing Fever and Tularemia or Rabbit Fever.

Testing often comes back with false results making these bacteria difficult to find.

ticks, Lyme, fever

After catching Lyme disease and Erlichiosis while living in Arkansas, along with having a dog that contracted the disorder these tips and hints may be useful in detecting these hard to discovery disorders.

The Center for Disease control or CDC considers these diseases are becoming more wide spread. Ticks and some blood seeking Flies carry these diseases from one animal to another.

Deer, squirrels and rabbits are affected each summer. Hunters know to look at the liver of the game they take for white spots which is a sign of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (Rickettsia rickettsia) or Rabbit Fever( Tularemia).

The rash may be accompanied by fatigue, fever, headache, muscle and joint pains.

A fairly newly discovered or recognized disorder carried by ticks is STARI. Once considered a Lyme disease because of the similar rash, this disorder does not cause any arthritic, neurological, or chronic symptoms.

STARI

STARI stands for Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness because people are more likely to catch this disease in the southern United States, although the Lone Star Tick that carries the disease is found as far north as Maine.

The cause of STARI is unknown. Studies have shown that is not caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Another spirochete, Borrelia lonestari, was detected in the skin of one patient and the lone star tick that bit him.

Each tick carries a different type of bacteria so if you are bitten by a tick it is important to look at the tick and identify the culprit.

The CDC has a vast amount of pictures and information that can help a person identify which tick they were bitten by and how long to wait for symptoms.

Symptoms make these diseases look very much alike and difficulty to determine which of the diseases is affecting you. Treatment is the same for any of the diseases which makes treating this disease easier then detecting.

This disease can lay undetected in your body for months with the only sign being a low grade fever that you do not realize is affecting how you feel. If you feel tired, check for a low grade fever.

If you have a low grade fever that does not go away which makes you feel sluggish and not quite yourself then think back to if you have been in any way able to be in contact with a tick.

Has your dog been on a run in the grass or woods then come in to sleep with you?

Even petting your pet can transfer the smallest of ticks to your body where they can go undetected never letting you know they have fed on you and given you a illness.

Ticks come in the smallest of sizes, they can look like ground pepper sprinkled on a paper plant they are so small. You can rub against a blade of grass and hundreds can hitch hike a ride.

Below are links to the Center for Disease Control here in the United States, where you can find more information about the symptoms and treatment of Tick Disease.

USA Center for Disease Control

Lyme Disease Information

rocky mountain spotted fever