Hi all,

I got back in from Dubai last night and spoke to my friends I had been in RSA with a couple of weeks ago.

I've had what I thought was an abcess on my chest and taken 7 days of 2000mg Augmentin which finished today. Apart from the abcess getting smaller I still feel rough.

Anyway, long story short, both my traveling companions seem to have come down with Tick Bite Fever, (known as Lymes Disease here apparently), and I seem to have identical syptoms to both of them.

I'm off to the Doctors tomorrow to get the script for some Dyoxycycline but I was curious about anyones experiences here. If you had it, what was it treated with and how much, how long for?

I'm still feeling pretty knackered, and struggle to do anything too strenuous. In fact walking further than a couple of hundred meters has me looking for some rest and fluid. Either way now I know I can deal with it so all is cool.

Thanks for the info.

Rgds
Kiri

Mate,

TBF isn't the same as Lyme's disease but it still makes you feel ike you've been hit by a train. Usual treatment is a broad spectrum antibiotic such as Doxy. If you take the treatment, you feel like shit for about a week and if you don't, it lasts about 7 days.

Alternative treatment is large and regular doses of a good whisky.

More seriously, everywhere I've been to this year seems particularly bad for ticks and you or your buddies may well still have some on you. Try using dog tick and flea shampoo for a few days instead of shower gel. I got back from the bush a week or so ago and although I used the dog shampoo twice a day for the 2 weeks hunting and also for a week afterwards, I'm only now feeling properly tick free.

Now all I have to do is stop myself chasing cars up the road and crapping in the garden.

Both my wife and I got it last year in South Africa. We didn't really have symptoms until about a week after we got back home. I was on another vacation and had both of our doses of cypro which knocked it out in about 3 days even though I was weak for about 7. My wife, still at home, went to the local pharmacy and took doxy and it took care of her fever as well.

steve,

I didn't think they were the same but the doctor tolld Dig otherwise. I don't think the docs are that clued up over here.

Doxy seems to be the way to go. My fever seems to have abated a bit but I still feel completely walloped.

I like the whiskey idea though....

Not so much on biting the postman though

K

Steve is correct, not the same thing. Get yourself referred to a Dr. who knows vector borne diseases. Lyme is a specific disease, tick fever covers a bunch of stuff, from minor to serious. Many tick fevers are rickettsial diseases and respond to Doxy. I'm a bug guy, not a Dr., but have interviewed people who took too long to get treatment that had very serious complications (serious heart and lung damage and long term disabilities). Not common, but it happens. Don't dilly dally. Get it checked out by someone who knows what they are looking at.
Bfly

Had tick bite fever when in Durban on "r&R" from Botswana. Thought it was malaria until I swa the perple, swollen centre of the bite. Went to Addington Hospital and tol the doctor that I had tick bite fever, only to be told: "Do not tell me my job!"

This time I was right! Horrible 10 days it was.

My boet had to be casevaced from the Zambezi valley during the war due to serious reactions to ticks.

We shot a wildebeest in Kyle National Park that was totally deprived by ticks. We (national parks) did a count and figured there were 10,000 ticks on the anaimal!

Sorry about the spelling!

Fallow Buck. There are two common strains of tick borne diseases that affect humans in Southern Africa.
a) Tick Bite fever - ulcer like sore at bite site and distinctive spotted rash on chest and palms of hands (most visible when you are in a hot bath). Left untreated, a fearsome headache starts on day 9, leading to a loss of consiousness on day 12, recovery (for those going to recover) starts on day 14 and the paitient is reasonably well again by day 18.

b) Tick Fever. Similar chancre at the bite site to a) but no rash. Feel like death warmed up/malaria for several days prior to the head ache starting. Untreated it splutters along for a couple of weeks and then you will know the truth of "it's amaizing what you can live through"

However...there are other strains of riketsia, and the chaos in Zim has led to the return of strains that have not been seen since the 1930's. Trust me. I caught one! Also, American type Lyme disease is now established in the eastern mountains. It was first documented in Africa 4 years ago, and was presumably bought in from the USA.

Get to a Doc that knows the diseases! A good friend of mine Kate T caught one of the odd strains of Riketsia in moz late last year. Doc in moz treated here with Azithromyacin - didn't work. Local doc tried Doxy- too late, still didn't work. After three months of beeing seriously ill, Lawn dard from this forum got her a fullmonths course of IV administered Ceftrioxone pluss a couple of other oral anti B's. She is still recovering!

NB. The longer you leave tick fever, the harder it is to cure. Tick bite fever is nastyier but responds quickly to doxy. Tick fever...once it has run for 4-5 days I would be suprised if it responded to doxy.

last thought - don't know where you were in RSA but if it was near the moz border, get a check for sleeping sickness. All the deaths from SS in Zim have been due to a misdiognosis of the chancre and being treated for tick fever or a combination of spider bite and malaria.

Fallow Buck
Find yourself an SA doc in UK. They will get it right.

If you read my initial post then scratch what I said, its too risky for you especially considering that you have not even been diagnosed yet.
Good luck
Ian

these guys are telling you right - find a doc who knows something about africa and tick bite fever. unless the doc knows something about tick bite fever, he will treat it like other diseases. lyme disease is a totally different thing. there too the doc must know the areas it comes from and what it is.

Fallow Buck
If you take Doxy keep out of the sun as it makes you sunlght sensitive. Our cameraman took it on our last hunt and ended up with badly sun burned hands.
Timot, - thanks for the info. I think I will have the wife inspect me tonight. -and tomorrow, - and the day after etc. Cant be too careful !!!

That train ran over me in 2003. I also thought it was Malaria, but a doc i Grahamstown got it right and Doxy started. At 5am I felt bad. At 10am I had to call a halt to hunting and at 5pm I was tits up and taking on water ! It really worked me over and I do not want to ever go down that road again. No fun.

Caught what we thought was tick bite fever in SA last year. Doxy took care of it but not before a couple days of headache and fever. Ever since, I have had some fairly bad joint pain in my knee on the leg I was bit on.

There's two tricks with Doxy...... take it at night to minimise the sunight effect and make a point of taking live acidoiphius twice a day to prevent thrush.

I've started the Doxy and looking out of the window here in London, sunburn is the least of my worries!!

I've had a shocker with the doctor who I had to go to to get the script. I had told him 14 days ago that this could well be TBF and he said that he didn't think so, but prescribed me Flucloxacillin stating that it would deal with the bug in the event that it was TBF.

When I rang him today asking for the right pills he seemd to take it personally and didn';t wnt to issue the script until I had been in to see him and got the results of the bloods. He followed that with I don't have any appointments this week available and I have other patients I need to see.

I "kinda" politely explained to him that the whole world approaches these things differently and suggested he rethink. I picked the script up 3 hours later, but he would not refer me for screening at the tropical disease centre as I requested.

I will be seeing my private doctor tomorrow for the referall and at least I didn't have to pay full price for the meds.

Thanks for all the advice guys,
Rgds,
FB

I had the fever last year and took the same meds for about a week and was perfectly fine. just watch out for the sun when you on that stuff, it burns worse. Good luck

THe antibiotic will kill off your gut flora so you aren't going to feel right for some time.
Don't take alchohol or you may kill off the antibiotic and score an own goal.
Take a live yoghurt to try and restart the intestinal flora & honey because it not only make the yoghurt taste better but can be digested almost without effort giving an instant short term energy hit.
Top up with some baby rusks if you can get them.
Take this infection seriously because if you don't you may never fully recover.
Lots of people suffering from Borreliosis, Syphilis & Leptospirosis assume that antibiotics will effect a complete cure but that may not always be the case.
All of the spirochete diseases need to be taken seriously.
There are ELISA blood tests available for most of them. They are a bit expensive and out of the mainstream so you may need to insist.

Getting treatment early makes a huge difference. I started feeling weak the night before I left, on the way to the airport I told my PH that I thought it might be Tick Bite Fever; he looked at my leg and confirmed it.

Got some doxy, and I was feeling much better by the time I was in Atlanta, and back to normal by the morning after getting home.

FB, what worries me is that you may have picked something up during your stopover in Dubai. You didn't go to that well known watering hole known as The Rattlesnake did you?
Joking aside, I had exactly the same as you following a hunt in SA in 2002. My GP was clueless but with the help of the internet I got him to prescribe doxycyclone and I felt a lot better. I think I was out of sorts for a week or so.

DD,

The meds have kicked in now and I'm feeling better for prolonged periods of time. It's like a switch going on and off, and my brain seems to stop working all of a sudden, but those that know me will make all sorts of sladerous remarks when reading that comment!!

I didn't get to any places in Dubai as I spent the first 2-3 days in bed pretty much out of it, but i'll put it in the diary for next time. I have some unfinished business with some sailfish out there!!

Rgds,
K

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
It's like a switch going on and off, and my brain seems to stop working all of a sudden,

You're not taking Larium as well by any chance are you? ..... That sounds like a very typical reaction to Larium.

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
DD,

The meds have kicked in now and I'm feeling better for prolonged periods of time. It's like a switch going on and off, and my brain seems to stop working all of a sudden, but those that know me will make all sorts of sladerous remarks when reading that comment!!

I didn't get to any places in Dubai as I spent the first 2-3 days in bed pretty much out of it, but i'll put it in the diary for next time. I have some unfinished business with some sailfish out there!!

Rgds,
K

(cough) (cough)

Don't scratch the bite eschars after going to hospital for a consultation.
A secondary infection with MRSA would be a most unwelcome sequel.

I had a good chat with FB today.

The TBF has knocked him back, but he is on the right road now.