The Setting
You’re working out of a remote ranch on the sagebrush plains of southern Idaho. It’s early May and several of you ride and walk daily to survey herds of pronghorn as part of a research program and a master’s thesis. One of your classmates goes to bed feeling lousy and wakes up feeling worse. Knowing you have training as a Wilderness First Responder (WFR), you’re asked to take a look at this poor fellow.
SOAP Report
Subjective/Story/Summary
The patient is a 21-year-old male complaining of a headache, nausea, muscle aches, fever, and chills. These symptoms began yesterday and have persisted through the night.
Objective
Patient Exam
The patient is in his sleeping bag in the bunkhouse. He denies recent injury.
Vital Signs
| TIME | 6:30 a.m. |
| LOR | A+Ox4 |
| HR | 72, strong, regular |
| RR | 14, regular, easy |
| SCTM | Pale, warm, dry |
| BP | Radial pulses present |
| Pupils | PERRL |
| T° | 101°F (38.3°C) |
History
| Symptoms: | Dull headache, nausea, muscle aches, loss of energy and appetite. No diarrhea, vomiting, sore throat, neck stiffness, shortness of breath, cough, or sinus congestion. These symptoms began yesterday and have persisted through the night. No known cause. Other group members are not experiencing these symptoms. |
| Allergies: | Patient thinks he may be allergic to “cillin” antibiotics but does not remember a specific event causing this concern. |
| Medications: | Patient is not on any regular medications. For this illness he has been taking ibuprofen 400 mg every four hours since noon yesterday. |
| Pertinent Hx: | None |
| Last in/out: | Patient ate breakfast yesterday and a small meal last night. He has not had breakfast today. Patient states he has been trying to stay hydrated and drank three liters yesterday. He urinated clear urine this morning. Patient has not had a bowel movement today. |
| Events: | This illness began suddenly 24 hours ago.The patient reported that two days ago he found a tick imbedded in his left armpit. He didn’t think it had been there long because he was diligent about checking for ticks. |
Stop...
What is your Assessment and Plan?
Take a few minutes to figure out your own assessment and make a plan.
Don’t cheat—no reading on without answering this first!
Assessment
- Patient appears to have a flu-like illness with a high fever. It is right at the threshold for evacuation that you remember from your WFR course. The patient thinks he just has “the flu” and does not want to go see a doctor.
The Plan
- You will stay at the ranch today and allow the patient to rest and hydrate. We’ll monitor his condition and make an appropriate decision if his condition changes.
- When the local clinic (two hours away by dirt road) opens you’ll call on the sat phone and talk to the doctor or nurse for advice.
Anticipated Problems
- This illness persists or worsens and warrants an evacuation.
- The weather, which is currently fine, changes for the worse and complicates the evacuation picture.
Comments
A challenge to the wilderness leader (or anyone in a remote location) is knowing how to manage common signs and symptoms such as fever, headache, nausea, diarrhea, sore throat, cough, congestion, runny nose, etc. Are these a “stomach bug,” a “stomach flu,” a “cold” or “flu,” or a sign of a more specific illness?
In this case you’re suspicious about the tick bite, and worried about the fever. As a biologist you know the local ticks, relatives of spiders and scorpions, are the hard tick, genus Dermacentor. As with all ticks, it requires blood meals to molt from larva to nymph and from nymph to adult. The various diseases that the tick carries are transmitted to the host (possibly your patient) during the blood meal. These diseases include Tick Fever, Relapsing Fever, Spotted Fever, Tularemia, Babesiosis, and Lyme disease. Tick season in the central Rockies is April through July, although ticks are active throughout the warm months.
The ticks seem to be everywhere this spring, and it’s been common for you to find a dozen of these little buggers on you every day, especially after you walk through the sage. They’re on the horses as well.
The old hands have been touting prevention. You’ve been visually inspecting yourself morning and night (usually). Your jeans are unfortunately dark blue. The common recommendation is to wear light-colored clothing so you can see the ticks better, but even if you chose light pants, the dirt and grime would soon make them dark.
Some of the group has tried Permethrin, spraying it on their pants below their knees and on their boots. Permethrin is a contact insecticide, not a repellent. It kills ticks or other insects. It’s the same active ingredient as shampoos for head lice. It’s FDA-approved for use on skin, but is commonly used on clothing, where it binds to the fabric. Permethrin is very effective at keeping ticks from attaching.
A visual inspection of all body parts at least twice daily is recommended, as adult ticks generally stay on the body for a few hours before attaching. Even after a tick has attached itself, prompt removal may prevent the transmission of disease.
To remove a tick, grasp it as close to the skin as possible with tweezers or gloved fingers. Pull the tick out with steady pressure. Clean the bite site thoroughly with an antiseptic soap. Traditional tick removal methods (a hot match head, nail polish, or alcohol) are not recommended.
Treatment Principles
- Diagnosis of tick-caused illness in the field is difficult. If a tick bite is accompanied by a rash, fever, flu symptoms, or muscle aches and pains, the patient should be seen by a physician.
- If you have a fever without the obvious tick bite, you can try to make the patient more comfortable with acetaminophen or ibuprofen. If the fever persists for more than 48 hours, or is greater than 102°F/39°C, or is associated with a severe headache or stiff neck, the patient should be evacuated.
The Tale Continues
It takes until 1:00 p.m. for you to get through on the satellite phone to the clinic. During the day the patient’s s/s persisted and your series of vitals records an undulating fever.
Vital Signs
| TIME | 6:30 a.m. | 8:30 a.m. | 10:30 a.m. | 11:30 a.m. |
| LOR | A+Ox4 | A+Ox4 | A+Ox4 | A+Ox4 |
| HR | 72, strong, regular | 72, strong, regular | 72, strong, regular | 72, strong, regular |
| RR | 14, regular, easy | 14, regular, easy | 14, regular, easy | 14, regular, easy |
| SCTM | Pale, warm, dry | Pale, warm, dry | Pale, warm, dry | Pale, warm, dry |
| BP | Radial pulses present | Radial pulses present | Radial pulses present | Radial pulses present |
| Pupils | PERRL | PERRL | PERRL | PERRL |
| T° | 102°F (38.5°C) | 104°F (39°C) | 101°F (38°C) | 104°F (39°C) |
End of the Tale
You decided it was time to take this patient to see a doctor. He was obviously sick and the 104°F (39°C) fever triggered an evacuation threshold you remembered from your WFR. The patient didn’t argue and the doctor agreed. The drive to town was slow but uneventful and the patient ended up spending the night at the clinic with a diagnosis of probable tick fever. He was sick for a week, and weak for another week, but eventually was able to return to the ranch and finish the research project.
