Thread: Frickin Ticks....pet lovers...there out and about.

Crap stevo time to find yourself a suburban block me thinks

They're not so good for humans either. I've got a few million passengers in me courtesy of ticks and every now and then they make their presence known.

Originally Posted by Jamo

They're not so good for humans either. I've got a few million passengers in me courtesy of ticks and every now and then they make their presence known.

Excuse my ignorance... Please explain....

Some ticks carry microorganisms and viruses like scrub typhus. In my case, they gave me rickettsia parasites, which are microorganisms.

I'm not sure what their overall game is. Nowadays they generally lay low, but occasionally act up giving me night sweats, fatigue, headaches, soreness etc.

11 years ago when I first got 'infected' I could only work four days a week and was in bed by 4pm, amongst other things. I was 'lucky' at the time because I was very fit and my body coped a lot better than some. These days the effects are generally not as severe and are few and the time between occurrences is much longer.

There isn't enough research to find a proper treatment. I could go on doxycycline for six months, and that may clear it up, but there are some bad sideffects with that such as increased risk of sun damage (and being a redhead with fair skin, I have enough trouble with that as it is).

It doesn't really hinder me too much now. There's much worse things that can happen.

Interesting, do you know the origin of where you picked it up, as in do you have Australian or QLD Tick Typhus??

I was tested for Typhus and several other things at the time, but all came up negative. It wasn't until about 3 years ago that the symptoms were all matched to the rickettsia.

I had probably over 300 tick bites over time before I was infected. Mostly kangaroo ticks. I did get one rather large cattle tick on the top of my head at the border ranges in 1991. That's when the 'Thermostat dysfunction' started (night sweats and sometimes day ones).

The main stuff didn't happen until 1997 whe I got one just south of perth. I was bedridden for two weeks. Something that had never happened before. Usually I just got the sore itchy bite mark and that was that. So that was probably the one that did it.

Hi Jamo,

On the last Rogaine I was set up as the first aider with my other half and we met a rather nice bloke from Murdoch Uni doing his PhD on ticks and tick-borne diseases. He was looking for people who have had severe reactions to ticks.

We go caving quite a bit north of Perth and pick up lots of ticks but one of our guys was quite badly knocked about last year from tick bites. He gave a blood sample to this bloke and it helped pinpoint what he had. I reckon if you contacted the Murdoch guy he would be really interested in hearing about your experiences and might help you as well. PM me and I will send you his details.

We have always had ticks around,so we are always careful.I was at the vet the other day ,and there was a chart on the wall about the life cycle of the tick.The common tick,that causes the problems with pets must have the bandicoot to survive,it hosts to it as part of its life cycle.
So if you have got bandicoots around,good chance you have ticks around.We have less ticks around now than we did 25 yrs ago,and this is probably bacause of the destroying of the bush for developement has also got rid of many of the bandicoots .