Ticked off

There are many things I miss about Australia but the one thing I certainly don't miss is tick paralysis. The Australian Paralysis Tick causes progressive ascending paralysis that starts with weakness in the back end leading to a wobbly gait which progresses to paralysis that can eventually involve the respiratory system, resulting in death due to asphyxiation (not a nice way to go). We also found that smaller dogs would more often present with a history of coughing and 'vomiting', often before any signs of leg weakness. This is actually regurgitation caused by paralysis of the muscles responsible for swallowing and can often result in pneumonia even once the initial toxicity is treated. In the US, removing the tick will often prevent further toxin release and the animal should recover. Unfortunately in Australia an anti-toxin is required to mop up any toxin in the system before it binds to receptors and causes further damage, resulting in further deterioration despite having removed the tick, which is why it is so important to administer it as early as possible.

Now it was easy enough to know what to do if the owner was aware of the high risk area in which we lived or brought the tick in to be identified, but often we would have visitors from other states who had no idea about the prevalence of tick paralysis on the east coast. Although it is relatively safe to give the anti-toxin to an animal who is not suffering tick paralysis, it is also pretty expensive and one has to think twice before giving it to a large dog. So I had to become pretty adept at spotting the difference between a 'lame' animal and one that was in the early stages of paralysis. Luckily these ticks like to hang around in specific spots on the animal, and with a bit of practice one can become pretty quick at finding the little suckers.

So when an old lab who already suffered from arthritis came in with the complaint that he had 'hurt his leg' and couldn't stand up my alarm bells started ringing. As luck would have it I found a tick while playing with his ears as I was talking to the owner, which gave me an immediate diagnosis. He was duly admitted for treatment and kept overnight for monitoring (as there was always a chance of deterioration in the 12 hours following treatment). The following morning he still was unable to rise, despite being bright and alert and gobbling down his breakfast without any trouble swallowing.

I have seen cases where the muscle weakness caused by the tick paralysis exacerbates underlying arthritis, and so gave him a shot of pain relief. My boss then carried him over to the tick bath (to ensure there were no remaining nasties) and then carted him back to his cage. Where he promptly jumped off his bed and waddled over to his food bowl. Whether it was the pain relief or the fact that a potentially full food bowl was on the other side of the cage, he'd made a spectacular recovery and I was stoked. My boss however, was not impressed that he's had to carry a 40kg lab back and forth! Cheeky bugger.