Infection

This red fox was suffering from a highly infectious skin parasite called mange.

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UTI. Say that to a woman and you may get an earful about pain and misery. Mention UTI to a man and he will likely be searching his brain for which college team the initials stand for. That is because women are more likely, up to 30 times more likely, to get a urinary tract infection (a bacterial infection) than men due to a shorter urethra. A UTI can be painful and even cause fevers.

I thought about that as my wife, a registered nurse, informed me that I likely had a UTI and that was the cause of the fever and pain I was suffering. While 60 percent of women will experience a UTI in their lifetime, and likely more than once, only 12 percent of men will. I feel like I won the lottery. Not.

“An infection occurs when germs, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, yeast, prions, or other microorganisms, enter the body and begin to multiply. The body’s immune system then reacts to the germs and the toxins they produce. Infections can start anywhere in the body and spread throughout it (AI generated summary for the word, Infection).” Another key feature of infection is that it can often transfer from person to person, animal to animal, or even animal to human via contaminated food, water, insects, or transfer of bodily fluids (think sneezing or coughing).

When I think of infection, I must admit that my mind goes to injuries where bacteria can enter the wound. These infections can be serious, even deadly. My wife recounted caring for a woman when she was a nurse’s aide at the University of Utah Medical Center, a top teaching hospital. This woman had poked her arm with a needle while sewing and despite top drawer care for the time, eventually succumbed to the subsequent infection.

No one survived injuries more horrific than Hugh Glass, when he surprised a sow grizzly in 1823. Glass was horribly mauled and left for dead by his companions. To prevent gangrene from killing him, Glass let maggots eat the dead and infected flesh of his wounds while he made his way over two months and 200 miles back to Fort Kiowa, in South Dakota.

Animals can be as tough as Hugh Glass. When I was working, I saw many deer and elk that had survived losing a front or back leg to the point where I no longer felt it was right to “put it down”. I believed that they had a chance at beating the infection and that nature should run its course. Over years of hunting, my sons and I have removed broadheads, bullets and even sticks from animals, all healed over and encapsulated. I am sure when the injuries occurred, there was plenty of infection for a while, but their bodies were able to overcome the infection with time.

Infection is far more than a puss-filled injury site though. Here is a short list of infectious diseases caused by different vectors. Viruses: common cold, flu, COVID-19, stomach flu, hepatitis, polio, measles, mumps, rabies, West Nile virus, and respiratory syncytial virus also called RSV. Bacteria: strep throat, salmonella, tuberculosis, whooping cough, boils, Lyme disease, and UTI. Fungi: ringworm, fungal nail infections, and thrush. Parasites: Giardiasis, toxoplasmosis, hookworms, and pinworms.

Until recently it was easy to forget history and assume that vaccination and antibiotics had us covered and that infectious diseases were a thing of the past. Then came 2019 and a teeny virus called COVID. To date, this viral infection has killed over seven million people worldwide, including my own father. The history that we were forgetting or ignoring included the Bubonic Plague or Black Death (bacterial) of the Middle Ages, smallpox epidemics, Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 that killed 20-40 million people and the ongoing AIDS virus pandemic which has taken 40 million lives as of 2023. Infectious disease should always be taken seriously.

One of the deadliest of infections is septicemia, infection of the blood usually starting from an infection source within the body. Sepsis is the next step, a life-threatening severe reaction of your body to the septicemia and is a medical emergency. Years ago, first aid manuals called red streaks radiating up an arm or leg blood poisoning, but that is incorrect. The red streaks are an inflammation of the lymphatic system. It is still caused by bacteria or viruses entering the lymphatic system through a wound.

Although I am on an antibiotic for my UTI, all this makes me squeamish. I think I will go wash my hands—twice.

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Help Idaho Wildlife

When we traveled across the state in October 2017, most of the vehicles we saw using the wildlife management areas did not have wildlife plates. Buying wildlife plates is a great way for non-hunters and hunters alike to support wildlife-based recreation like birding.

C'mon folks, let's help Idaho's wildlife by proudly buying and displaying a wildlife license plate on each of our vehicles! 

See below for information on Idaho plates. Most states have wildlife plates so if you live outside Idaho, check with your state's wildlife department or vehicle licensing division for availability of state wildlife plates where you live. 

And tell them that you heard about it from Nature-track.com!

Wildlife License Plates

Great news! as of 2024, there are three NEW designs for license plates. They still are bluebird, cutthroat trout and elk, but they are beautiful.

Idaho Wildlife license plates provide essential funding that benefits the great diversity of native plants and wildlife that are not hunted, fished or trapped—over 10,000 species or 98% of Idaho’s species diversity. Game species that share the same habitats (such as elk, deer, antelope, sage-grouse, salmon, trout) also benefit from these specialty plates.

No state tax dollars are provided for wildlife diversity, conservation education and recreation programs. Neither are any revenues from the sale of hunting or fishing licenses spent on nongame species. Instead, these species depend on direct donations, federal grants, fundraising initiatives—and the Idaho Wildlife license plates.

Both my vehicles have Bluebird Plates. I prefer the bluebird because the nongame program gets 70 percent of the money from bluebird plates, but only 60 percent of the money from elk and trout plates - 10 percent of the money from elk plates supports wildlife disease monitoring and testing programs (to benefit the livestock industry) and 10 percent from cutthroat plates supports non-motorized boat access.

Incidentally, in 2014, the Idaho Legislature denied the Department of Fish and Game the ability to add new plates or even to change the name of the elk and cutthroat plates (very specific) to wildlife and fish plates, a move that would have allowed for changing images occasionally and generating more revenue. It would seem that they believe that we Idahoans don't want a well funded wildlife program.

I think it is time we let the Legislature know that Idahoan support wildlife funding and that we would like to see these generic plates come to fruition.