It turns out that the famous 5,300-year old "Iceman" found frozen in retreating glacial ice 10,500 feet up along the Swiss-Italian border in 1991, had Lyme disease.
Perhaps most surprising, researchers found the genetic footprint of bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi in his DNA—making the Iceman the earliest known human infected by the bug that causes Lyme disease.
I am still a bit skeptical of the diagnosis, but let's assume it's right.
What it underscores is how far we have come as a species.
Today, Lyme disease is easily treatable with doxycycline.
If your dog has the disease and is asymptomatic (i.e. not lame), there is no treatment needed at all, and if the dog is lame, an order of doxycline from Amazon (sold as Bird-biotic) will treat your dog without a visit to the veterinarian. Just follow the directions here.
4 comments:
I think I've said this here before, but Lyme's can be a bugger and not as easily cured as you tend to think. Even when dx'd early and treated properly (yes, and yes in my case) it can be hard to root out, and leave the patient with lasting damage (sadly, yes again.). Unfortunately, I know a fair amount about this illness, and wish I'd never had to know. Poor old Iceman...I feel your pain, dude.
Seahorse
Yes, for some people Lyme can burrow in and be very difficult to shake. The good news is that this is actually pretty rare which is why, in a country awash with ticks and Lyme, most folks are fine.
I put up a 2001 Wall Street Journal article a few years back which the newspaper entitled, "Lyme Disease Is Hard to Catch and Easy to Halt, Study Finds" See >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2006/11/lyme-disease-hard-to-catch-and-easy-to.html
P
I think "rarity" is a very relative term, and the internet has shown that many things once considered rare are more numerous than previously thought. Just look at all those "rare" objects that are commonly found on ebay these days. I do, and now I can afford them! :)
Regarding Lyme's, my county seems to be a major hot spot for it, so my perceptions are probably skewed. When 100% of my household (of 2!) had Lyme's at the same time one summer (summer, fall and winter before it was as over as we could get it) it seemed pretty common. :) I have known many people living nearby to have battled it, too, and our local doctors are finally getting better at dx-ing, though not necessarily treating, this scourge. Too many doctors take it too casually, under-treat (hard to believe given the tendency toward over-treating everything), and going by rote rather than looking carefully case-by-case. My husband's first doctor told him we could not POSSIBLY have Lyme's at the same time, despite both of us being covered head-to-toe in the Lyme's rash, spiking huge temps, all the arthritic-type aches, etc. We fired him P.D.Q., hubby got a great doctor very quickly (mine!) and sent Dr. number one a butt-load of information he needed to read (and probably didn't). Anyway, pardon the rant, but "rare" is only so when it's not you, and when it's you, the odds are 100%.
Seahorse
Poor old Iceman, I am a bit skeptical about this (finding foot-prints of the borrelia bacteria?)
What's that?
Do you have a link to the actual news story, probably they give a better explanation of how these footprints are demonstrated to be actual borrelia effects on the "Iceman's" body.
I also believe I might suffer from Lyme Disease based on the multitude of symptoms that I'm going through, and I know quit a lot about this disease (It's not treated that easily in the early stages, some people endure sheer pain for decades without knowing they have the borrelia bacteria in their body)
~ Some never fully recover, even after long term antibiotic treatments.
Below is my Lyme Story if you want to read it -
My Lyme Story
Lyme Disease
Matei Alexandru
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