Tick paralysis....never heard of it....glad to know...

> ----- Forwarded Message ----
> From: Jan Deojay
> Sent: Wed, July 28, 2010 11:09:16 AM
> Subject: [breeders] crosspost worth reading
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> 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 practicing, 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 Noon 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.
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> Permission to crosspost. I will be sending this to all the Groups I am on as I can't remember this ever being mentioned.
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> Marianne Minks
> Zen Tao Tibetan Spaniels
>