[ SHOWGSD-L ] Fwd: Tick paralysis in dogs and children
- From: gsdlady28@xxxxxxx
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Germanshepherds4Show@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:25:26 -0400
Checked it out on snopes.com and apparently it is true that ticks have a
neurotoxin in their saliva.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/ataxia.asp
Chris
*~*~*
If at first you *do* succeed, try not to look surprised.
Chris Watanabe & Mamo the Siamese resigned to sharing *her* house with Latte
(that other!) Siamese
renaissance_skyes@xxxxxxxxx
Aiken, South Carolina
------ Forwarded Message
From: <SkyeTerriers2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, July 29, 2010 4:11:20 AM
Subject: [poodlelovers] Tick paralysis in dogs.
In all my years of dogs I have never heard of anything like this and think it
is
important to post to anyone with dogs.
Jan (UK)
www.petsearchers. org
________________________________
Permission to crosspost.
Subject: Tick paralysis
This past Sat. am, my 5 year old Tibbie Tami was paralyzed in her rear legs
when
she woke up. They just were collapsed under her. I rushed her to the vet & he
was able to get deep pain response from both back feet, though 1 leg just
dangled & showed no reflexes. She was knucling over on both rear feet & could
not place them flatly on the floor. She was alert & in no signs of pain. Vet
examined her & could find no injuries or sensitive areas & thought it was a
back
injury & she was put on dexamethazone 2 x daily & crate rest. There was no
improvement Sat & Sun. am she had peed in her crate & was soaked, so I gave her
a quick bath & put fans on her to dry her. Sun.nite she had a little response
in
her rear legs, but could not walk. Mon. am she stood & took 2 steps before her
rear legs collapsed. She made steady
improvement on Mon & by Mon. nite walked about 10 feet in the yard, peed,
walked
a couple more feet & had a BM. Thought she was on the mend. Tues. am her rear
was as bad as it had been Sat. am. She started showing weakness on her front
legs & between Noon & 2:00 pm her front legs became paralyzed & she started
having heart arythmias. She began drooling on the ride to the vet office. Back
to the vet, who did back Xrays = everything was normal looking. He then Xrayed
her neck - looked fine. He pulled blood & while we were waiting for the results
he told me he didn't know what was wrong & that
at the vet school 100 miles away could do an electromyleogram, MRI, etc. By
this
time it was 5:00 pm. He thought he would give her a a cortasone injection. The
bloodwork showed a high white count, pointing to infection Vet was petting her
&
feeling her all over again & couldn't understand why she was not in pain
anywhere. He found an engorged tick under her ear - its color was identical to
her coat there. Then the AHA moment - tick paralysis! In his over 30 years
practi cing, he had only seen 2 cases. His other vet who was working with him
has been a vet for about 10 years & had never seen a case. He removed the tick,
put her on amoxicillin 2 x daily & said she should be sitting up by evening &
recover. In my over 30 years in dogs I had never heard of it. My house dogs get
a few ticks every year. I get a few
ticks on me every time I mow. The tick can have a neurotoxin that is released
while feeding that causes this. It can lead to respiratory failure & even
death!
From my reading about it on the net, different sources say in the US that death
rates are 5% or 10-12%. By around 8:00 pm Tami was improving in the front legs
&
could lay upright on her front. She steadily improved overnight & could walk
wobbly this am (Wed). The vet predicts a full recovery. I don't think she would
have made it through the night without that tick being removed as the
respiratory symptoms had begun & she was rapidly deteriorating from N oon on. I
can't believe that I missed that tick, with how much I was handling her. But I
didn't comb her out before or after her bath as I didn't want to stress her any
more than I had to or to possibly injure her back. Now I will be obsessively on
tick patrol.
Permission to crosspost. I will be sending this to all the Groups I am on as I
can't remember this ever being mentioned.
Marianne Minks
Zen Tao Tibetan Spaniels
________________________________
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