Ticks - A Nearly Invisible Danger for Farmers

As a farmer you are probably aware of the perils you can see – tractor rollovers, auger accidents, livestock run-ins – but are you paying attention to one you may not see? A peril caused by something so small that, in its nymphal stage, is the size of a poppyseed? One that can steal your health for anywhere from a few days (if caught early) to many years (if caught late)? One that every farmer is likely at risk of nearly every day?

Tick-borne illness.

As the content writer and blogger for Tractor Tools Direct, I’d like to share a personal story – the story of my Lyme Disease diagnosis and my 18-month-long journey toward recovery. For anyone working in agriculture – baling hay, feeding livestock, mowing paddocks, putting up fences, and so on – tick-borne disease is an everyday risk. A tick took a bite out of my life. I want to prevent one from taking a bite out of yours.

This story began in the fall of 2014. My husband and I were spending a lot of time on my family farm in west-central Indiana. Both of my parents had recently passed away, and it was time to prepare the farm for an estate sale. This involved mending fences, mowing pastures, tidying up around livestock and equipment sheds, and many other outdoor tasks in tall weeds and wooded areas.

During that time I noticed a perfectly formed bulls-eye rash on my left thigh. Being the daughter of a biology teacher/farmer and a farm girl myself, I was somewhat versed in bugs and their related illnesses. I figured I had been bitten by a tick. What I didn’t figure was just how much that tick would interrupt my life.

Stupidly, I did not seek treatment. I did not become sick with the bite – well, not at the time anyway – and it faded away within a couple days. I am a born and raised farm girl. We are a tough breed. If we went to the doctor for every bug bite and cat scratch we would have no time for feeding sheep, baling hay, or any of the myriad of other chores a farm requires.

Over the next few weeks and into the next few months I noticed a cascade of nagging but not necessarily debilitating issues. Issues that one might associate with getting a little older or being under stress. My knees would occasionally swell on my morning jogs. My heart would palpitate from time to time. I would experience brain fog in the afternoons that would require a short nap from which to recover.

Then one day in June of 2015, everything came crashing down. All of my issues hit at once and did not dissipate. New ones piled on – a full-body flu-like ache, panic attacks, exponentially worse brain fog (so severe that I would later get lost driving in my hometown on two occasions), spiking blood pressure, insomnia just to name a few. This was a situation I could no longer ignore. I could no longer function. I knew I needed to see a doctor.

Still not putting 2 and 2 together and too sick to really think, I headed to a convenient care clinic (of course it was a weekend). I was abruptly turned away. My blood pressure was so high that the attending physician refused to treat me and insisted that I head to the emergency room. At the emergency they ran several tests (all of which came back negative), got my blood pressure under control, and sent me away with instructions to see my family doctor as soon as possible.

At my doctor’s office the next Monday, the nurse practitioner checked me out and for lack of any specific diagnosis, sent me off with a prescription for antibiotics. And guess what!!!! They worked! Within a few days my crazy list of symptoms cleared, and I felt back to my old self.

Or so I thought……

About a week after finishing the antibiotics, all the symptoms returned. This time I made an appointment with the doctor. It was during this visit that the first connection between my symptoms and their cause was made. He, being a farmer as well, asked if I had recently been bitten by a tick.

—NOW WOAH. STOP RIGHT THERE. At the time, I had no idea how remarkable that question was. Patients with Lyme Disease can go years and years without proper diagnosis. Many people, doctors included, think that Lyme is limited to the northeastern US where it originated. Or that it is too rare of a disease to even mention. Both of these beliefs are indeed false as I would learn over the course of my later research.---

I answered that yes, I had been bitten by a tick – many over the course of the years – and that at one point had even discovered a bulls-eye rash (an indisputable mark of Lyme Disease), but that it hadn’t exactly been recently. After a good discussion we came up with a plan. My doctor admitted that though he knew of Lyme, he was not well versed in its treatment. He recommended that I find someone who was, but in the meantime, he would put me on the standard treatment–doxycycline–until I could find a specialist.

So these weren’t just random issues associated with aging, the stressful life of a mom, or signs of a summer flu. These were the symptoms of Lyme Disease. That darn tick bite I had ignored had not been ignoring me. After several days of research (which thankfully I could do again with the doxy knocking down the worst of my brain fog–it was still there though, trust me) I was able to make an appointment with an LLMD – a lyme literate medical doctor. But not for over 6 weeks!

Over the next 6 weeks my doxy script would lapse and, after a re-cascading of symptoms, would be renewed. Being on it was the only way I could function at all. And with four kids 15 and younger, a job, and a household to run, not functioning was not an option. This is not to say I was well. I still spent several hours a day in bed. I lost weight. I felt like I had a lingering case of the flu….all of the time.

I did indeed test positive for Lyme Disease on a test administered by my specialist, and after roughly 18 months of rotating antibiotics, various supplements, and working to boost my immune system, I was slowly able to return to full health. Not all Lyme patients are so lucky. Some are never able to find the protocol that works for them and continue living with the symptoms for the rest of their lives. I counted my lucky stars.

And yes, I did make the end of my story succinct. Why? Because, as I learned, the treatment for Lyme Disease is very individualized. It depends on how long you’ve had it, which of the myriad of symptoms are your worst, what other issues you have going on with your immune system, and so much more. And its treatment can actually be controversial. However, the message of prevention is the same. Protect yourself from tick bites, and take them seriously when they occur!

Read on for links sharing tick-bite prevention tips and other interesting information I learned along my journey:

How do I protect myself from tick bites?

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/prevention/index.html

What are the different forms of tick-borne disease and who is at risk?

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/tick-borne/default.html#:~:text=Lyme%20disease%20is%20the%20most,disease%20in%20the%20United%20States

What are the different types of ticks, where are they found, and what diseases do they carry?

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syndrome/in-depth/tick-species/art-20546861

Just how much do farmers know about ticks and the diseases they carry?

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37017439/

As a farmer, what do I need to know about ticks?

https://extension.psu.edu/farmers-and-ticks-what-you-need-to-know

Where can I learn more?