Ticks are bad and spreading

[Tommy Coyote]

I just read a report saying that the black legged ticks the carry Lyme are spreading. They have been mainly in the NE but gave now spread to something like 42 states.

 

One report said that one kind of tick can cause sudden paralysis in dogs. So if you have a dog the suddenly becomes paralyzed look for a tick. The dog in the article lost use of back legs first and then front legs. It can also paralyze important organs and cause death.

 

Once the tick is removed the paralysis goes away.

 

The article I read said that probably 300,000 people a year have Lyme disease. Only about 30,000 are reported. Many cases are mild and don't do much but some cases can be really serious.

[LauraV]

There was just an article about a sheltie who was going to be put down due to crazy health problems and paralysis. As a vet was comforting the dog, he felt a small bump. It was a tick. It was removed, the dog was sent home, and all is now well. Also, the rescue I got my dog from has a beautiful red merle bc who is now blind from a tick bite.

[kingfisher7151]

A friend of mine had a dog who went through that.

 

He's was a Cavalier, so when he very suddenly began having issues they assumed it was either his heart or syringomyelia. They brought him to the vet, who didn't have any answers other than "sorry, keep him comfortable". He became almost entirely paralyzed over the course of a week, and they were fully prepared for that one last trip to the vet. It was just by chance that their youngest daughter saw a report on the news about two people in Larimer county who became paralyzed after a tick bite. They went over him with a fine-toothed comb and finally found one teeny tick hiding on the underside of his tail. Once removed, he almost immediately improved, returning back to normal after two or three days. Pretty scary!

[Tommy Coyote]

They said those black legged or deer ticks are the size of a poppy seed.

 

I am hoping that keeping the dogs on flea and tick preventative will keep them safe.

 

We have had so much rain here that everything is really overgrown. Bugs are going crazy. And we have rabbits everywhere.

[Pam Wolf]

And with the warm winter we had, there wasn't much of a parasite kill off plus the heavy rains lately-so the parasite population should be high this year

[Tommy Coyote]

I saw where about 75% of the Moose calves in Minnesota or Michigan are dying from tick overloads. The warmer winters aren't killing off the ticks.

[Maralynn]

Warmer winters? I must have missed those...

 

Well, this past one was mild but before that we had a couple of long, hard ones. Ticks are pretty darn hardy buggers and I think the spread is due to migration as much as anything.

[Ttiffany20191]

Sounds like Guillian barre syndrome in humans. My area has always been bad with ticks so I'm careful about staying consistent on our preventative.