Tick?

Yes that is a tick but would be hard to say what kind with that pic. I'm leaning dermacentor. Did you find it on a dog?

We got these a lot when I was a kid.



Seed Tick..... we would come out of the pasture loaded and there would always be one or two that we did not find until the next day. Itch !

i learned about seed ticks the hard way. took my dog to junction on a hunting trip and he mustve brought back over a 1000 of them.

Alpha-gal is no joke. I started having unexplained occasional severe allergic reactions in 1998. It wasn't until February of 2021 that I was diagnosed with Alpha-gal. My wife also has it. We probably both got it from Lone Star Ticks at Beavers Bend at different times.

Like your throat closes up & you can't breathe?

Yes, and hives, etc..

The last time I went into anaphylactic shock, which led to me finally being diagnosed. No red meat. Also have to be careful with s lot of medicines and vaccines that are made with gelatin and mammal products.

I am scared sh**less of getting alpha gal from a tick bite these days. Cannot imagine a world without red meat or dairy products.

Id have to buy a set of epi pens just to indulge once in a while. Hope they find a way around that one eventually.

So is this syndrome related to fly fishing? It sounds terrible!

Dikfer

I've asked this before but I still wonder all the time…
With ticks being the disease vectors they are, why isn't/can't there be a monthly pill we take (like we give our dogs) that is just a systemic tick killer?

I hate those GD things.

It is from the bite of a Lone Star Tick so any outdoor activity puts you at risk. Theory is that the tick has an enzyme that contains Alpha-galactose. This causes you to develop an allergy to Alpha-galactose, a sugar that is in the cell wall of all mammals except primates.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/27/health/meat-allergy-alpha-gal-cdc/index.html

I took a wrong path through some brush out at my grandpa's farm once and ended up with hundreds of those crawling up my legs. Dad helped me get them off and then put me in the tub with some dog soap.

will.mcg said:

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Like your throat closes up & you can't breathe?

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It is the only food allergy that is not instantaneous. In other words, when I found out that I had an allergy (I have no other allergies) I had eaten a hamburger for lunch that day. The way the allergy works, you must digest the red meat until your body turns the protein into blood sugar. The allergy is triggered by the blood sugar. Thus, it can be 4-6 hours after you eat before it shows up as allergy symptoms. I got home about six hours after eating the burger and went into full anaphylaxis. The doc at the ER told me another 10 minutes and I could not even be intubated. It is a BAD deal.

EVA3 said:

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So is this syndrome related to fly fishing? It sounds terrible!

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Oh, and it only affects people who flyfish. Missed that.