Is there anything that I can take as a medicine that would treat tick fever if contracted.

What are the symptoms?

Three weeks till Zambia

Bullsprig

Take some Doxy with you, ten days worth. Go to your local travel clinic and they will set you up. I've never had it but hear it gives you a nasty head ache and over all bad feeling somewhat like the flu.

Makes you feel like you've been hit by a train. Tired, headaches and sometimes hot flushes. If you don't take anything for it you'll feel like shit for a week - if you do take medication you'll feel like shit seven days......

If you are going to take medication any wide spectrum antibiotic such as tetracycline is suitable. Doxy is in the same family so would probably do as well as anything else.

To quote Mark Twain " the cure was a tolerable thing, a cold sheet bath and a quart of whiskey taken daily, of course the sheet bath is optional". ........................JJ

I got 4 bites last year in Africa. Local Doc didn't know if it was ticks or spiders. I never saw a tick while I was there. My friend in Malelone said it was ticks. I was sick for 5 days. Severe head aches, fever and chills. Not fun. Prescription was an antibiotic.
Here's a pic of the worst bite. It was on top on my ankle. The scar is permanent.

TJ,

Does that scar look like a cigarette burn?



From WebMD

South African tick-bite fever is an infectious disease passed to humans by infected ticks (ticks of the genus Amblyomma, also called buffalo ticks). These ticks usually live on cattle in southern Africa. The infecting organism is called Rickettsia africae.

Symptoms usually begin within 8 days after the tick bite and may last for 1 to 15 days. Symptoms may include:

Fever and chills.
Multiple ulcerlike or crusty skin sores.
Swelling in the area of skin sores.
Generalized swollen glands.
Unlike some tick-borne diseases, South African tick-bite fever does not cause a rash.

A person who has South African tick-bite fever is treated with a course of antibiotics (usually doxycycline)."

An article from South Africa on Tick Bite Fever

Regards,

Terry

One very effective way to avoid TBF is simply to change your shower gel for a tick & flea dog shampoo every few days - it works for me..... The only drawback is every time I see a bone in the bush I want to bury it !

.

Terry:
Here's a recent pic of the scar. I've got 3 more, one one each arm and another on the other leg. This one was the worse.


The only reason I question that it is a tick, we never saw a tick all the time we were there.

Steve:
Do you have an urge to piss on tires?

Good idea on the dog shampoo. I'll try it next time. I'll just stay out of bars, don't want to attract any dogs, you know.

TJ: Years ago when I was doing a lot of field work in California on the north coast (more or less near Sonoma, CA), I had two tick bites that festered into wounds just like the ones you show above in your photo..these were from very, very small ticks, that apparently carried something that my body did not like...these wounds were on the lower left front and side of my chest...I was sick as a dog for a week...someone in camp scraped the dead tissue out of the wounds where the tick bit me (leaving large open holes)....I drank some gin before and after the dead tissue was removed (the guy who scraped the dead tissue had some gin too, if I remember), and the wound healed up immediately...I recognize the wound on your ankle as an infected tick bite...little bastards. I still have scars on me today from those ticks. I had not thought about that in years

Thanks Robert:
I'll remember to take some gin with me next trip.

TJ,

I'm OK with tyres - but my other half gets really ticked off when I start chewing her slippers.

TJ: No problem ..Have plenty of gin and a good pocket knife...that should take care of most things in the field...

Funny you folks should mention this now. I just returned from South Africa, and darned if I don't have a sore on my ankle just like the one in the photo posted earlier. Sure seems like tick bite fever, as I have the swollen glands and some other itchy spots elsewhere. I had the chills and fever earlier, but that seems to have passed. Local MD has been treating me with Keflex (antibiotic), and I am slowly getting better. I will hand him the article Terry posted the link to earlier and also the photo this afternoon.

TJ,

I'm pretty sure that is a tick bite. Leaves that distinctive scar. I didn't even see the sore on the back of my calf until I got home. Still have a scar.

Regards,

Terry

quote:

Originally posted by rwj:
TJ: No problem ..Have plenty of gin and a good pocket knife...that should take care of most things in the field...

But if you want to hunt you better take something you can shoot the animals with.

Another product that also work is Tabbart

Wimpie

My hunting partner contracted severe tick fever on his first trip to RSA and the East Cape, as his trip was coming to a close. Horrible experience for him (cramps, chills,and 104+ fever) and he ended up with a doctor making a house call to their hotel, and getting a shot and prescription. Our docs for the last 2 trips said to just start taking a 10 day dose of Doxy if we felt any problems at all. Never needed it, but made sure to have it along. A $15 bottle is pretty cheap insurance!

My dose involved high fever, chills, cramps & projectile vomiting... lasted for almost 2 weeks, not the vomiting thankfully... we never did find a tick bite... my PH said it was either tick fever or a dose of malaria... not sure to this day which.

Damn I hate ticks... this thread makes my skin crawl just thinking about them... yukk!

mike

Anybody tried Duranon in Africa? This stuff is great for the ticks encountered here in the Eastern portion of the States? This product is applied to you clothes (NOT your skin). I have literally watched ticks crawl across clothing treated with this stuff and die in just a few seconds. Don't know how it would work on the African "super ticks" though.