D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
July 2009
It's Summer — Watch Out!
From dogs left in cars to deer ticks, cautionary tales
for warm weather
It's the height of the summer season and I thought I'd give you some info that may or may not help you in the pursuit of your outdoor activities.
First off, I have a story to tell you that just happened to my brother when he came to visit me. He stopped in the Phoenix area to grab a bite of lunch, and not long into the activity, a policeman came in and asked who owned the blue Honda.
My brother answered in the affirmative and the cop asked him to come outside, where he observed that no fewer than three cruisers had his Honda surrounded. The officer then explained that my brother had committed acrime because he had left his dog in the car, and that is a severe offense in Arizona!
Now, my poor brother is a very considerate dog owner; before leaving his critter in the car, he had parked in the shade, taken the animal for a walk, given it water, and then sat in the car himself for 10 minutes to see if it was too hot for the dog. Before all of this, he had even asked the restaurant if he could bring the dog inside, but they had said no.
Satisfied that the hound would be well for the half-hour he was eating, he had left said dog. Fortunately for my brother, the officers believed him and let him off with a very stern verbal warning. It left a strong impression on my brother, though. He could have ended up in one of Sheriff Joe's non-air conditioned tents and wearing pink!
What's all of this got to do with you? If you take a pooch on your adventures in the Arizona outdoors, say, up at Alpine or beyond Mule Creek, or down to bird watch beyond Rodeo, don't leave the pooch in the vehicle!
On another subject, this warm weather usually means folks are in the woods or desert more than usual; that means the chance to encounter a nasty critter rises. One of those nasty beasties is the tick.
There are three varieties that you or I could encounter. The one that we need to really watch for is the deer tick (Ixodes dammini), a very bad nasty because it is the carrier of the dreaded Lyme disease. And it doesn't need to be on deer, either!
This tiny critter is no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence (before the tick bites you and swells up on your blood, that is). Contrary to what others say, it is the only tick to carry Lyme disease.
In 2007 the Centers for Disease Control listed 27,444 cases of Lyme disease in 47 states, including five in New Mexico.
I'd advise you to take these precautions if going afield;
1. Use insect repellant with the product "DEET" in it. The more DEET, the better. But beware that DEET is hard on plastics and plastic finishes, so don't touch anything with your hands if they have DEET on them. There is a new product out that contains no DEET; it is called "Geronial."
2. Wear light-colored clothing so that you can see the ticks.
3. Wear long-sleeved shirts and long trousers.
4. Duct-tape trouser legs to your boots or socks.
5. Periodically during an outing and afterwards, check folds in skin, underarms, hair, behind the ears and the groin area for the beasties.
6. Wear a hat.
7. Remove embedded ticks with tweezers or with the tip of a hot instrument ( it will cause them to back out so that you can grab them).
8. Check your pets after an outing.
9. Wash yourself and clothes immediately.
10. If you're hunting, and you make a kill, wear latex gloves to touch the carcass.
Here is one little story about ticks: I was hunting in the hill country of Texas in the spring and the animals were covered with ticks; fortunately, they were not the Lyme carriers! Anyway, I was finding ticks on my body for two weeks after that hunt. I can only surmise that they had stayed in the folds of my hat that I neglected to wash. It was a slight but unsettling experience! Makes me itchy even as I write this!
Lastly, there are three stages to the disease after a person is infected by a deer-tick bite. A person may or may not have any of the symptoms, or they could have all of them, or the symptoms could skip a stage entirely.
These symptoms could occur within a week, a month or after years, as in the case of stage three.
Stage one — A rash that looks like a bullseye from a target, itchiness at the bite-site, flu-like symptoms, and swollen lymph glands.
Stage two — Severe headaches, joint and body aches, memory loss, dizziness, eye and ear pain, chills and fever, fatigue, heart palpitations and a stiff neck.
Stage three — Could occur years after the bite; arthritis, partial paralysis, tremors, nervous tics, severe memory loss, chronic muscle pain, sleeplessness, skin disorders and blood breakdown.
I've known three folks who have contracted Lyme disease, and in every case it wasn't discovered until many years too late, and was misdiagnosed as either MS or cancer. The two folks diagnosed as MS were from back east, and the cancer fellow was from here in Silver; he lost most of an ear at the bite site.
One of the folks back east has been on regular blood transfusions for three years now, and must have the transfusion machine in her home — a very expensive proposition which has nearly ruined her and her family's lives.
All of these folks suffer from permanent, serious symptoms. Had the disease been correctly diagnosed in the early stage, the symptoms could have been negated.
The only sure-fire way to know if you have Lyme disease is to have two blood tests taken in the proper order by a medical staff. Don't believe that if you successfully dislodge the tick, that you aren't infected!
At the same time, don't be paranoid and think every tick has given you Lyme disease. Common dog ticks aren't carriers! Remember this is a very tiny critter.
If you do suspect it, watch for the stage one symptoms or, if you can't stand the wait, go get the blood tests.
As always, keep the sun forever at your back, the wind forever in your face, and may the Forever God bless you too!
When not ramblin' outdoors, Larry Lightner lives in Silver City.