Ticks Pose Threat Of Lyme Disease
A western black-legged tick found last week in Ojai’s Soule Park
By Earl Bates
Spring in Ojai is the time and place for many of nature’s beautiful happenings, and it’s prime time to be on the lookout for a tick attack.
Ticks are active all year and they typically become busier following the winter rains. Also it’s the traditional time for people to emerge for a new season of outdoor activities, like hiking into tick territory.
Ticks, the little bloodsuckers, would be obnoxious enough if they didn’t carry a variety of communicable maladies, Lyme disease being one of the most notorious.
“The assumption is that Lyme disease is something you get back east,” said Ojai resident Judy Bysshe. “No. 1, people need to know they can get it here.” To be unaware of that is to leave yourself vulnerable. Also, if you know you have been bitten, save the tick and have it tested. Knowing if the tick carried a disease would be helpful in deciding to seek treatment. Delaying treatment until the patient’s blood test indicates the presence of disease agents could give the disease time to become established, making treatment far more difficult, she said.
“When you hike,” said Bysshe, “hike smart.” White or tan clothing makes the tick easier to see, full-length pants and long-sleeve shirts are recommended to help keep the skin protected. Watch for ticks while you hike, they are easy to brush off before they bite. After your hike, thoroughly check your body for any kind of tick, take a shower and wash your clothing.
Last February, after a hike on one of Ojai’s local trails, Bysshe was bitten by a Lyme disease tick and got the disease because she neglected to heed the rules. “In a rush,” she said. “Had to be some place, left my hiking clothes on, ran off and did my stuff all day long. I just didn’t do what I should have done.”
Bysshe searched online for Lyme disease information. “There are some very distinctive looks that the Lyme tick produces and one is a perfect circle as though drawn by a red pen, and that’s what I had.
“I called my doctor, who didn’t think there was any Lyme in the area. That’s part of the problem locally, most doctors don’t know it’s here. And that’s what I’m hearing from lots of people, they think there’s no Lyme in this area.”
Bysshe self-diagnosed Lyme disease and her doctor provided antibiotics. “If you think you might have it you need to be tested by the Igenics Lab in Palo Alto, they are the experts in Lyme disease,” she said.
According to Randy Smith, Ventura County Environmental Health supervisor, “Yes, we do have Lyme disease here in Ventura County and we do have the type of tick that can transmit Lyme disease along with several other types of ticks.”
The thing with Lyme disease is that the potential for it is very low in Ventura County. Less than 2 percent of the species of the western black-legged tick, a tick that can transmit the disease, are found to have the disease in California. Here in Ventura County that’s even less. Meaning even if you get a tick bite in Ventura County there’s a pretty small chance you are going to get Lyme disease, he said.
The chance of contracting Lyme disease in New England and some other areas is much higher than here in California.
The western black-legged tick seems to be especially fond of some Ojai area habitats. The ticks prefer areas of higher humidity, they are more commonly found along streams and wet areas. In the Ojai Valley ticks can be found in many places. Sisar Creek, Horn Canyon and Soule Park are indicated as areas of high populations of western black-legged ticks, according to field surveys and mapped data from the Ventura County Environmental Health Division.
Dr. Robert Levin, Ventura County Public Health officer, said Lyme disease should be on people’s radar but it’s not a major problem in our county. “It can be a major problem for an individual who gets it, but we don’t get that many individuals who get it.
“I can tell you that we think we have anywhere from zero to three cases a year that likely originate in our county and most of those probably originate from the Ojai area,” he said.
From 2003 through 2008, from two to 12 cases of Lyme disease were reported annually in Ventura county, but most of those were contracted elsewhere.
The main early sign is a typical rash, a red raised spot that expands outward and clears in the center, it’s a growing ring-like lesion, said Levin. “It always matters which doctor you see,” he said. “In the best of all possible worlds, most primary care doctors would understand when they saw a ring-like rash they should consider the possibility of Lyme disease.”
More information about ticks and Lyme disease can be found at ventura
.org/rma/envhealth and search that site for the topic “ticks.”
“It’s not a serious problem in our area.” It’s this kind of ignorance and misinformation that is keeping people sick in not just CA, but in every single state in the U.S. Lyme is becoming an epidemic in this state and it’s being ignored. I have been sick for 17 years, because these ego driven doctors refuse to believe there is Lyme here. It took me 9 years to actually get correctly diagnosed, and by then it was considered chronic. Doctors need to get over their God Complex / massive egos and remember their Hippocratic Oath. “Do no harm.” And to the writer of the article, it’s IGENEX Labs, not Igenics.
I live in Folsom,California and had the misfortune to be biten by a black tick with the typicle red bulls-eye.
I went to an emergency room for the removal of the tick. Fortunately, my doctor, who did the removal of the tick was very familiar of the sysmptoms of Lymes Disease.
He prescribed Doxycyline for ten days.
Thank you for the article on the symptons of Lymes Disease.
SHAME ON VENTURA AND OXNARD DOCTORS FOR IGNORING THIS. I WAS BIT ONCE IN MALIBU STATE PARK AND HAD SWOLLEN GLANDS , PAIN, EXASTIONS, TREMORS AND MORE AND NO ONE HELPED ME. THEN I FELL AND BROKE MY SACRUM THEN AFTER ALMOST TEN YEARS OF SUFFERING WITH SO MUCH . THEN I HAD A PANCREAS TRANSPLANT ,SOME DOCTORS HERE ARE SO UNCOMPASSIONATE AND UNPROFESSIONAL. I AM NOW LOOKING AGAIN FOR A LYME SPECIALIST ,MINE IN THE VALLEY RETIRED AND SINCE THEY NEVER DIAGNOSED ME FOR TEN YEARS I AM SUFFERING SOOOOOOO MUCH. ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW A GOOD KIND DOCTOR PLEASE POST HERE. GOD BLESS . ANY ONE WHO THINKS THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM IS IN TOTAL DENIAL WAIT TILL THEY GET IT. SIGNED IN PAIN AND TICKED OFF. HAHA
I myself as well as a high school classmate both contracted Lyme disease IN Ojai, 1994, and 1997, respectfully, he is now in a wheelchair and I was very close to being in one. We are both undergoing treatment currently, I am in my second yr of antibiotics, immune system therapy, and other therapies. I was picking ticks off my dogs every single day in Ojai then and I had 2 dogs die of it. It is very much in Ojai and the VC. My mother who has lived in Ventura and Ojai her whole life and did many hikes in the Los Padres has what would be terminal Lyme, since 1999, she is extremely sick with heart problems and seizures, in addition to all the classic sx. Protect yourself. Very VERY few cases are ever reported by MD’s to the officials, CDC, etc. Also, I have 4 children and they ALL tested positive for lyme disease, two were raised in Ojai, two were not, MD’s say it can be contracted in utero. Lyme has been found in mosquitoes, MANY other species of ticks besides the deer tick, in mites, spiders, the majority of cases come from ticks but there are documented cases from these other vectors. I recently heard VC had the 3rd fastest growing rate of lyme in the state of CA. Best of luck to all the posters battling this. The officials are not the only source of info, check with the shear numbers of infected people in this town of Ojai…to get a bigger picture of Lyme!
I went hiking on may 5th to the punch bowls in venture county, by the 8th I was at my Doctor very sick. No rash, a couple of bites on my butt. I was not aware of
Lymes and been threw tons of test. When you mention Lymes to doctors, they think your a freak. I finally found some help and a doctor after 8 months, I hope to god I can get rid of this.
Lyme disease is definitely in California, and in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Most doctors in the area deny that Lyme disease is present here and will come up with a dozen excuses why lyme cannot be here. But I know multiple people, including myself, who have been infected in this area. Articles like this one help to spread the word and make sure that people suffering with this disease are more likely to get diagnosed correctly.
In California – more than half of people who contract lyme disease do NOT get the classic bullseye rash. If you suddenly start to get weird symptoms – such as new allergies, achy neck, numbness in any parts of your body – start considering lyme. Lyme is a very strange infection, and it affects everyone differently. If you know you feel ‘off’, but no doctor can tell you why, ask for a CD57 and western blot lyme disease test and consider taking doxycycline or zithromax for a few weeks to see if it helps.
We went on a hike to Rose Valley and both dogs had ticks that we found after the long hike. The most important thing is to wash your puppy after EVERY hike. My only advice on the matter..you can not control ticks or lyme disease, but you can try to prevent them by washing your dog everytime you go on a hike. Ojai Valley is too beautiful to miss during spring.
Thanks advantix!! I hope they make it in some kind of wipe form. I hate sprays and oils. I have much more control with the wipes. I won’t dose her with that poison , you know the kind that they have big warnings not to put on your own skin? What I have been doing is combing her and if she is too covered like yesterday , I wash her with a good shampoo.
try a flea repellent for you dog so the don’t bite her
I’ve been picking off ticks from my dog every time I hike in the hills with her even since today. Usually I catch them before they get too big but still , shes never been sick.