CHILDREN’S DEVISTATING DISEASE WARNINGS from author Floyd P Knipe
Spring brings in the most beautiful and abundant time of the year. Our area has hundreds of calves being born. We have baby deer, raccoons, squirrels and birds in our yard. Beautiful flowers bloom. Trees bud out making ready for leaves. Spring can also wake up unwanted and very dangerous pests.
I am a lifetime teacher and I can’t help but warn folks about some really horrible outcomes from seemingly minor irritations. The following are true results from the critter I am about to talk about.
Blindness, kids misdiagnosis as MS, severe immune system problems, blood platelet count going to 0 from 400,000, that’s a severe bleeder, permanent numbness in limbs and last but not least …..death. Robbie and I know…well knew several local folks that died from this.
If you have a yard, frequent the outdoors at grandmas, the national forest, lake, stream, or city parks you must take a few seconds to protect yourself and kids from tick fever especially if they are abundant in your area.
After 40 years in the outdoors I had tick fever and I nearly died.
A hunter and fisherman neighbor nearly died.
A worker of mine was treated 3 times for the flu. It was tick fever.
A teacher friend’s boy was diagnosed with MS……YEP… TICK FEVER.
Another teacher’s teen age daughter began acting irritable and obnoxious, more than normal. This caused big problems until their doctor decided it wasn’t just teenager growing pains……..tick fever.
VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW;
Check for ticks on everyone after every outing and ask about itchy spots later.
Ticks taken off in 3 hours, some say 6, don’t usually get deep enough to infect.
Just take them off right then. Don’t pester with camfer etc. they spit more in you.
If the head breaks off take pinchers and pull it out, wash and disinfect.
Watch bites. They may swell a bit but severe reactions need a doctor’s look see.
Use deet, permithrin, tape pants legs tight, are some suggestions. You choose.
We always spray us and kids with Deet, Deep Woods Off. Research. There are other sprays you may like better. Deet is a repellent not a tick killer..
Never, ever walk over a deer sleeping area. Guess who did and got tick fever. Some say that deer ticks are the worst ones to get on you. Don’t get hung up on the kinds of ticks. Just take them off ASAP. Some say the spotted backed ones are females and the ones that bite.
If you find hundreds on you or your clothes use duct tape to pull them off. My friends took 200 off me and my clothes after walking across the deer’s bed.
Seed ticks are baby ticks and cause more tick fever than the big ones only because they are hard to find before 3 to 6 hours are up and have “spit” fever in the bloodstream.
Four tick fevers are Lyme, Rocky Mountain, Tularemia, Ehrlichia. There are more.
If someone isn’t totally cured it can come back and take out kidneys, liver etc.
Some say of every 100 ticks on dogs there are 1 to 2 that could spread tick fever.
Treated dog collars, sprays, are Cheap. My hospital expenses were over $80,000
They think I was infected nearly 3 months before the fever showed up. It can be quicker, possibly a day or so.
I have workers that have had it and just took shots and pills for 30 days to cure it.
The quicker you find out with a blood test the easier it is to cure.
Some symptoms are, low energy, worn out feeling, flu symptoms, fever, a massive headache like I had and sweats, like I had. I could lean over and water my tomato plants.
I “saved” four folks that said they had long term flu symptoms by getting them to have the blood test. The test will show antibodies fighting the tick fever. Each antibody looks different for each fever’s. My doctor told me the particular antibody showing up in your blood tells the lab the fever he has to treat for.
One of my customers just last summer complained of low energy and gave out feeling he had for a month or so. I told him about the blood test and sure enough he had tick fever. The pills took care of it.
I was diagnosed with stage 4 leukemia first off and gave a possible3 days to live. It took four days to find out it was tick fever. Three of the four showed negative but the fourth showed up tick fever. “Whew….not leuk.”
After four rounds of chemo I seem to be back to my squirrely self.
MY HOPE; That everyone will take the above serious AND DO SOMETHING to keep you and your kids from getting this dangerous disease.
Keeping your lawn mowed and bushes and branches cut helps. Did I say ticks can jump 10 feet to snag a snack…..you. I spray or pellet my yard with a pesticide. There are some natural sprays you can use. OOOR; BUY YOU SOME GUINEA HENS. They eat ticks. They’re noisy!
“Enjoy the great outdoors but don’t wipe with poison ivy, like my uncle did…..resulted in 3 days in the hospital. And don’t walk across a deer’s bed………..go ahead and laugh. I’ll hope the best for you anyway.”
“If not my books, please read someone’s books to your children.”
Floyd P Knipe ……author of Thistle, Trackers, Forest, Smillee
