My Second Annual Warning

[Austin]

David and all: David said he took his goose to the vet, and that reminded me of something funny that happened to my vet a couple of years ago. This vet’s office is located in a strip shopping center accessed by an entrance road adjoining the largest commercial district in south central Virginia. There are three out parcels in the shopping center: The vet’s office, a primary care medical office for people, and a Chinese Restaurant.
A lady called the vet’s office and asked if they treated geese. They said, sure, bring it on in. So the lady enters the shopping center complex, pulls into a parking area shared by the vet’s office and primary care facility, parks her car and takes her goose under her arm. She walks into the primary care doctor’s office and tells the receptionist: “I am the lady with the goose.” The receptionist responds, “Yes, I can see that.” The lady was direct to the vet’s office.
Speaking of geese: Canadian geese have moved into our area big time. Two have moved onto my lake. I went to the pond yesterday morning and they raised holy hell. They must have a nest there because they didn’t fly off they just swam around honking until me and my dog gizmo left. My wife has two artificial geese in her flowerbed and the two real geese were paying them a visit this morning. They completely ignored me sitting right in front of my car. As they say, “If you build it they will come.” I am hoping they will cross breed with our figerglass decoy geese and I can go into the goose decoy business on the side.
PS: I put the frontline tick repelent behind my ears last night. This morning the wife blessed me out for killing her box woods. Anyway, this thread really "boned" us up on lyme disease. Ruff Ruff! Boy, I have got to lose some weight. When I tried to wash my feet last night my tongue would hardly reach.

 

[Ben Vukicevich SRA]

Austin,

I see from your post that you now have your very own supply of Lyme Disease right in your front yard (the geese) Remember the moron doctor that told you that Lyme Disease wasn't south of Maryland? Well, you never want to see/feed birds as they will drop those little deer ticks right in your yard. Yep, they hop a free ride on birds and they get just about everywhere.

Good luck with the geese........AKA flying rats

Ben

 

[Nancy in Friday Harbor]

Gee Ben,

I thought that nomenclature (flying rats) was reserved for sea gulls and/or crows!! Up here, geese are most often known as "dinner"! 8) Until they head back up to Dick's neck of the woods, that is.

Seriously, it's hard to get used to the fact that we all have to be super vigilant about a bug we can't see biting us in places a great many of us are probably no longer limber enough to look at! There has been only one unconfirmed report of Lyme disease in the San Juans -- but it's interesting that a number of people up here have MS. After reading your links, it makes one wonder.

Have a great weekend.

 

[David C. Johnson]

<span style='color:darkblue'>Austin,

Actually, my parrot is named "Goose," however, I did once have a pigmy goat (but never any Geese). Geese are good sentries. They are meaner than most dogs and make every bit as much noise. Plus they humiliate. Imagine the poor burglar's first night in Cell Block C at Marion after having explained to all his soon-to-be-boy-friends that, yes, it's true, he was actually chased down, caught and mauled by a couple of birds in the lady's front yard. Man, take about hard time.

Maybe like Nancy, I was sure you were going to write that the lady goes into the Chinese restaurant, where they tell her she's just in time, but to please use the back entrance for all deliveries. Once there, the smiling and amiable China-man-chef politely takes the bird, while uttering something like "chop chop choppy" wacks off its head and starts pulling out feathers on the way to the oven.

"My wife has two artificial geese in her flowerbed" Odd. I had you pegged as the plastic Flamingo type.

dcj

(Word is the newspaper article comes out on Sunday)</span>

 

[Ben Vukicevich SRA]

Nancy,

Flying rats (geese, gulls, ducks, crows, pidgeons), tree rats (squirrels), whatever, cute little bunnies, they all drop the ticks in your yard. Don't feed any of them because you'll encourage them to enter your yard.

You are correct about the confusion with MS. I saw lots of those undiagnosed people at the Lyme "doctor." They were told they had MS when they really had advanced Lyme Disease. Now, they are people that you can really feel sorry for. Much worse than I ever was. Not very mobile. I believe an MRI can distinguish between Lyme and MS these days.

Now the guy that really has to worry is Ray Ohler from Philadelphia. I saw a TV show awhile ago that said the rats in the sewers there had hanta virus. Crawl space/basement inspections, anyone????????? All you have to do is get the infected rat feces airborne by walking/crawling through it. Then you inhale it and "bye, bye."

Ben

 

[Nancy in Friday Harbor]

Boy, if the ticks don't get ya, then the mice will!!!

Yes, we have to be careful up here since it's largely rural in character. Lots of open fields with field mice, voles (meadow mice) and RABBITS!!! At any one time, I can look out in my yard and see a dozen of them. Having a garden is an impossibility. Several of us have cautioned each other that if you found we'd driven into the ditch, it was because we were trying to run over a rabbit!!

And yes, there is hanta virus up here as well -- not real prevalent, but I don't do old barns or crawl spaces anymore!! Guess we should all consider a good dust mask if we have to poke around in older or abandoned/deserted buildings/barns/etc.

My brother who lives (and hunts) in Alaska buys latex surgical gloves by the box so he always has plenty for him and/or his friends when they're out hunting. They usually gut out their deer or sheep on the spot and leave the "goodies" for the eagles and bear. Now there's a beast that I bet could carry some ticks!!!

And then, of course, no matter how far out in the boonies you are -- you can't drink the water for fear of giardia(sp?). Makes you wonder how our ancestors survived!!

N.

 

[Ben Vukicevich SRA]

Nancy,

Your brother is a smart guy for using latex gloves. If the deer has Lyme and the infected blood gets onto an open sore/cut on your hands or arms, you can get Lyme from that.

I guess our ancestors were pretty miserable people. They typically didn't live as long as us, probably from all the "problems."

Unfortunately, Lyme is a recent disease for the US. I think it has been in Europe for about 150 years. So it's a relatively new "pest" since the 1970's-1980's, I think

Giardasis is another nasty one. But I'm good out here in NJ because we have public water from artesian wells. Plus, I leaned in Boy Scouts long ago to never drink from an open water supply, no matter how clean/clear it looks. That one I can easily avoid. I feel sorry for the people that have to drink reservoir water that could be infected. Don't they also call it "beaver fever????" They're nasty little cysts that don't die even when you boil them. They have to be filtered out.

My father-in-law would always drink the water from the stream behind his vacation cabin in Vermont. Not me. I always brought bottled water.

Ben

 

[Austin]

It is funny how things happen when you get to talking about them. I eat lunch every day at a little joint behind the court/city hall complex. The local public health doctor eats there every day too. Today he came in talking about all of the rabies in the area. I ask about lyme disease. He is from Connecticut. He said lyme disease is confined to the northeast US and he had never heard of a case of it around Southside Virginia. Then the waitress was not feeling well and I asked what was the problem. She said she had a tick in her head and the doctor had to pull it out and she had been sick since. Now is that strange or what?

 

[Ben Vukicevich SRA]

Austin,

Tell doc to go here.

http://www.ilads.org/axioms.htm

or here

http://home.swbell.net/dsny1fan/LymeDisease.html

Seems doc needs several good CE courses

Ben

 

[Willie]

Bump, I've known many folks from TN who have MS, some of whom have been misdiagnosed, and really have Lymes Disease. It is dreadful. I know two personally. One was given Chemo for his MS, only to find out it was Lymes. We aren't even suppose to have it in our state, as it is supposedly rare here. Another friend is lying in a NY hospital right now because of it, a woman in her 30's with 4 kids.

I don't see Ben V here much lately, as he's probably in the middle of a good run, but pull those seed/deer ticks off right away, and they are hard to see, being the size of a pin head.

Take care and keep those nasty critters off you.