Deadly ticks affect deer hunters

Deer hunters are gainful gourmands, engaged with their food from field to table. It's fresh. It's free-range. It's fabulous.
Except when it's deadly.
Rick McDowell, 58, of Onaway is a lifelong hunter. He met his wife in kindergarten. Together, they're the ultimate yin-yang of the outdoors world. "We don't hunt apart, but we do hunt often," said his wife, Jeanne, 57, a pistol-shooting champ.
McDowell might be the first documented case in northern Michigan of alpha-gal, a tick-acquired meat allergy.
Around July 1, McDowell and his wife headed home from an appointment downstate. They stopped at McDonald's but skipped the bun in an attempt to be healthy. When they got home, Rick's feet began tingling.
"The sensation came up his legs and then cut off his airway," Jeanne said. "The hospital told us he was having an allergic reaction and gave him a shot and sent us home."
The next day, hours after their venison dinner, it started again. They went to their doctor. He dispensed steroids.
"We had no idea what was causing it," Jeanne said. "I started thinking it might be the laundry detergent. We wrote down everything we did and everything he ate."
Two weeks went by on steroids.
"My mom sent me something about a meat allergy online. Rick decided to only eat chicken for a month, just in case," Jeanne said.
Rick felt fine. Finally he said he was ready to try a burger.
"I cooked a coupleready to try a burger.
What happened next was unreal. His skin looked like blister upon a blister. He passed out in the bathtub," Jeanne said.
She called 911. Rick awoke, said he was fine, and immediately lost consciousness. The ambulance got lost, so Jeanne heaved her 6-foot-3 husband into the back of the pickup and charged back to the hospital in Petoskey.
In the emergency room, Rick stopped breathing. The moment he came to, he announced: "I've been eating chicken for a month. I had a burger and this happened."
Once Rick was released, he headed to Petoskey allergist Tim Linehan, who asked him two questions: "Have you been eating meat?" and "Have you been in the South?"
The disease Linehan suspected, caused by the lone star tick, had been recognized in southern states, but not in Michigan. Linehan took a blood sample, and confirmation from the lab arrived several days later. It was alpha-gal.
The allergy is more prevalent among hunters and outdoor participants, but it can be tricky to diagnose. Symptoms might start as long as 8 hours after meat is consumed, and the allergy doesn't kick in until weeks after the initiating tick bite.
For Brenda Valentine, professional hunter, Bass Pro pro-staffer and spokeswoman for the National Wild Turkey Federation, it took 10 years to find out what was wrong.
"It started out as itching and an upset stomach," she said.
"I'd go to the doctor, and they'd say I had food poisoning or my gallbladder was out of whack. Every time, it got worse. Next thing I know, I'm in a deer stand having some horrible allergy fit, and they're rushing me to the emergency room and saying I have salmonella or food poisoning."
Finally, hours after a burger on the way home from a sports show, she cracked her head on a cast-iron bathtub. Her husband found her and thought she was dead.
"I had no pulse, no respiration. I was on my back, blood on my face, and I had vomited," Valentine said. "He thought I had choked to death. He tried CPR, turned my mouth, cleared my throat and still couldn't get a breath. He pounded on my chest and did CPR and finally got some breath. Once I got to the hospital, the doctor told me I better get that gallbladder removed."
All gallbladder tests proved negative, so Valentine was sent to an allergist.
"I would have gone to a vet at that point, it didn't matter," she said.
The allergist happened to work with a nurse who was a hunter and recently had contracted the allergy.
"He told me the only mammal that didn't contain the proteins that made me sick was primate. I didn't feel much like eating monkey meat," said Valentine, 58, from Tennessee.
Like McDowell, Valentine initially was ticked off at the prospect of a life without mammalian meat. But the spokesman for the NWTF simply increased her wild turkey take.
"It speaks well that hunter conservation efforts have restored turkey populations to the point where I can take eight turkeys a year," Valentine said. She continues to hunt deer but donates the meat.
McDowell also is hunting this season to feed his family.
Both are eager to share their stories with other hunters.
"Not only do ticks transmit Lyme disease, they can change your whole lifestyle," Valentine said. "Researchers estimate tens of thousands of victims, many of them hunters."
Sufferers might have to avoid dairy, food additives such as artificial flavors, gelatin capsules and even vaccines. For some, every day is a bit of Russian roulette.
"The first step is recognizing it," Valentine said. "Get it checked out if you even have a thought it's happening. It can be deadly."