dancing horses

dancing horses

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

I hate Ticks

Not the most eloquant title for a blog post I know. But ticks are becoming a serious health hazard. On the weekend I noticed that my Australian Shepherd, Belle was off her food. However, it's not unusual for her to be fussy about her diet so I didn't really think much of it. Sometimes she will hold out to see if there are any better offerings. 

I was away Sunday night through Tuesday to attend  course. On Monday I recieved a text from Ed that Belle was not only not eating, she was just laying around refusing to move. He took her to the Vet's on Tuesday who found a scab from a tick bite on her neck. She also had a high fever. The vet suspected it was a bacterial infection from the tick- specifically she was thinking it was 'Anaplasmois'. They pulled blood work and it was negative but this is, apparrently, common in the acute phase of the infection. We opted to treat it anyway. If we treated for that then we should see a response in 24-48 hours. If she didn't respond then further tests would be needed. 

Belle recieved a shot of anitbiotics and then pills for follow up. By Weds morning she was much more like her old self so it looks like that was the cause. 

Last year I treated d'Arcy for Lymes and now there's another fun thing to worry about. I do check my dogs and do preventative measures but I obviously missed one. I am going to be a lot more diligent with them and with the horses.

I'm considering advancing the chicken agenda to tackle this problem.


12 comments:

  1. Ugh. Ticks are baaaaaad here. The dogs coats are so dense the ticks have problems nesting in, but that just means I find them more often wandering around looking for me! Plus side, when they latch on to the dogs, it's usually in places I can easily find... like the middle of their foreheads.

    So disgusting, and such a danger. I wish there was a tick pill like there is a flea pill!

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  2. Ugh I hate ticks too :( Sorry you are dealing with this

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  3. Ticks are the worst! I pulled the first one off my horses in February this year :(

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  4. The war on ticks seems so hopeless sometimes. I'm glad Belle is feeling better.

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  5. The chicken agenda... too funny! I hate ticks too! They ahve been worse around here this spring too. Ugh!

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  6. Val and I have both had several bites this year. :(

    Tick diseases are so worrisome. My cousin had such a pervasive and long term case of Lyme that she recently underwent some kind of radical blood cleansing treatment which will theoretically remove the bacteria from her system.

    Luckily my jack russell terrier is on NexGard, an oral med that kills fleas and ticks. Is that available up your way?

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  7. Hate hate hate ticks! Luckily they've never been a problem for my horse but my dogs get them if I'm not vigilant!

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  8. When they did the blood work on Flash at UCDavis, it came back with very clear anaplasma -- they were SOOO excited that they asked if they could take more blood to use in course work. I guess it is difficult to get a clear reading. I'm glad Belle responded to the meds.

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  9. Ticks are nasty. We're in a particularly high risk area for Lyme's disease for humans, horses and hounds alike. No fun at all.

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  10. We have so many ticks here. It drives me crazy as I keep finding them on myself as well as the horses. Luckily, there's very little Lyme's here in CA, but I still don't want them biting me.

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  11. Do you use a topical flea repellent--like Frontline? I haven't used any on my dogs this year, and I found a tick on my lab. I hate ticks, too!!!

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  12. So glad we don't have many ticks where I live... glad the pupper will be okay!

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