Ticks

[Reddii]

Hi all,

My little girl, Xena, had a very lucky moment this week. We were on hols on the north coast of nsw and she picked up a paralysis tick. (Wouldn't you know it - 13 days before I put her back on proban for the summer!)

I felt something strange under her chin and rolled her over to have a look, then raced her straight off to the vet when it was a tick that I didn't recognise. They just pulled it off and said that it hadn't been there that long and there would be no problems. I kept her quiet that day and then she was right as rain the following morning.

Question is - we were lucky, but how long do they 'have' before they start to show bad symptoms after getting a tick?

Any experiences?

Cheers.

Tony

[Clyde]

Usually days (3-7). Depending on the size of the attached tick and the number of ticks.

Pleased to hear your girl is fine.

Edited August 22, 2008 by Clyde

[Greytmate]

It might depend on the breed. Greyhounds can show severe symptoms within a day.

[Jed]

My vet told me 3 days. However, I had a cav which was very sick from a tick which must have been picked up the previous night - so she had it for a maximum of 15 hours.

[t-time]

Being in a very bad tick area (paralysis) I've gotten quite good at picking up on tick symptoms.

I've had one dog who went down in a matter of hours when he got a tick and one recent case where my bitch got a tick and it was fully engorged and thus had been on her at least 10 days with no symptoms whatsoever! Had to go to vet with her 'cos we came home and noticed her all wobbly in the rear end. Straight away looked for the tick and got it off within the hour. By that stage she was in a really bad way and had to undergo the whole tick treatment and hospital for 3 days . But there were no symptoms for the whole 10-11 days previous!

Interesting what Greytmate said about the greys because the dog I had who always went down fast was also a large dog - Wolfhound X so perhaps larger breeds do get affected more quickly?

All that said, after losing 2 dogs in 5 years, I did find Advantix and until recently with my bitch going down, had never had a single problem with insects again! I hadn't been applying Advantix over the Winter months but the warmer snap we had brought them out early according to my local vet.

So, even with being very experienced now, I still stuffed up :p

Check your dogs over every day!

[Clyde]

I agree T Time. My Dane X went down super quickly and passed away despite three days care at the vet and a machine breathing for him, it took us 24 hours to actually find the tick it wasn't big at all. But my Shihtzu X who also died last year from a tick related death, had a tick on him engorged, for days I suspect, before he showed symptoms.

Perhaps the Greys due to no body fat?

Edited August 22, 2008 by Clyde