After an awesome snow-covered winter, yup it's time to resume daily tick checks and other strategies so we can keep enjoying the precious springtime.
About 5 years ago I started piecing together tick-smart strategies for my forest-going family (including a toddler and a dog), and some of the best advice I found was from the website of a naturopathic physician in southern VT, Dr. Alexis Chesney. She recently put it all together in a guidebook called Preventing Lyme and Other Tick-borne Diseases. This little gem covers everything from reducing tick habitat near your home to natural repellents and herbal protocols to boost immunity. Importantly, it describes the 6 steps to take if you find an embedded tick, and includes advice specific to children. There are also handy punch-out tick ID cards that come inside the book, which are useful to have in your tick removal kit (I recommend keeping one at home and one in the car, since the length of time a tick is attached is a big factor in disease transmission). Trust me it's worth being overly prepared on the prevention side, as the diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne diseases is unfortunately still murky territory in medicine.
Dr. Chesney will be giving a free online presentation through Carpenter-Carse Library on Monday 3/29 6:30-8pm, which anyone can attend and benefit from. She will share key points from the book, then spend the last 30 mins answering our questions. The session will be recorded for those who cannot attend on the 29th but would like to watch it later.
Sign up here to register for the zoom link and to submit a question in advance if you have one for Dr. Chesney:
https://www.carpentercarse.org/all-programs/tick-presentation-with-dr-alexis-chesney-1
For anyone who wants a copy of the book, I have 10 copies left from a bulk order I made last year when it first came out. I can pass those along at cost ($12 each, which is $5 off cover price). Claimed books will be placed on the bottom shelf of the library pickup cart early next week. Email me to reserve one, and have a lovely tick-safe weekend!
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