Quote:
Originally Posted by Newfound Resident
"...As I mentioned, an 80 plus year old friend and resident of the area had never heard of it on Newfound and he ran a sailboat marina for many years and spent hours upon hours up to his waste in the water launching and retrieving sunfish and other small sailboats. I am almost 70 and I have been in the waters around Newfound for 40 plus years and I had never heard of it either until what I thought was an isolated incident a few years ago..."
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That's a lot to wade through
he's lucky to have stayed healthy!
• But the cercariae, like last week's pine pollen, get concentrated into the shallows by winds. Wading to fetch sailboats isn't a problem until you get into the shallows. I'd expect that tubers would be rarely affected, because they exit deeper waters from a swim platform.
If you can get out of the (deeper) water at the end of your dock, you'll avoid the concentrations of cercarić. 'Worse than poison ivy...legs and ankles are largely affected—in any case, towel off immediately!
• The nearly-instant "fix" for Duck Itch is a prescription of
Triamcinolone acetonide cream, lotion or ointment. (Available nearly-instantly from your doctor even before entering the water!)
The ingredients—which are like an over-the-counter cortisone
on steroids—last a very long time in the tube. There are several trade names of similarly-compounded remedies. One may have seen this product previously as
Aristocort, Kenalog, Trymex or
Triatex. You may be prescribed something different than
all the above.
Ask for a metal tube, as mice will chew through a plastic tube to lap it up!
