Look out for Tick Paralysis in Dogs | Portuguese Water Dog Magazine

The disease does not affect the ticks but affects other mammals like dogs due to the toxin secreted by the ticks. What happens, is that a tick bite can produce a flaccid paralysis, which leaves your dog with no muscular tone, feeling weak.

Not all dogs and mammals suffer from this kind of a paralysis on being bitten by ticks as only some of them bear the brunt, while some others only experience weakness in their hind legs. Since the side effects can vary, some mammals can easily fall into a critical Stateas their muscles become unable to move, especially their respiratory muscles, therefore making it difficult for the animal to breathe.

Therefore, you should always know how to distinguish the signs of paralysis caused by ticks, so that you can get the symptoms under control and remove the ticks before things turn worse.

Read on to discover how you can easily prevent a deadly situation for your pooch…

Symptoms

You willbegin noticing signs of paralysis only after 5 to 7 days after your dog has been bitten by ticks and it usually takes quite a few bites delivered at a time for paralysis to take place.

You may notice that your dog suddenly seems weaker and has poor coordination with his/her hind legs, which are the very first clues that your dog has been bit by a tick. Your pet dog may also show difficulty in breathing, chewing or even swallowing, though he may not have any fever or other symptoms.

Due to these problems like difficulty in breathing, respiratory malfunction can occur causing the death of your pet and it is thus imperative for you to take cognisance of these symptoms and take remedial action at the earliest.

Findings

Paralysis is normally diagnosed depending on the symptoms and the condition of the dog at that time. Paralysis has been known to be dependent on particular seasons, but your pet will recover swiftly as soon as the ticks are picked and removed from the body.

Constantly checking whether your pet has any ticks on specific regions of the body is a good way of being careful,[ even thoughyou may feel that you will be able to detect any symptoms of paralysis from his behavior.

Cures

There is a simple treatment for the issue, and that consists of removing any and all ticks. {You may have a hard time finding all of the ticks, or the tick, if your dog has a lot of fur, because ticks normally burrow into the skin, which means you may have to shave your dog for the time being, before they cause serious harm to your pooch.| It may be difficult for you to identify all the ticks especially if they are hidden in the thick fur of your pet’s body and you may have tocompletelyshave your pet to get at them.| Picking up all the ticks on the pet’s body may be fraught with difficulty especially if your pet is very hairy and in that case you may need to shave your pet to ensure all ticks are effectively removed.|

Once the tick is removed, most dogs will swiftly recover, but if your dog is severely affective, then he/she may require supportive care from a veterinarian, or artificial respiration may be required.

You can also administer an antitoxin injection to your pet to enable him to get well soon.

The ticks produce a poisonous substance that affects mammals like dogs and causes paralysis and in that sense, it[ is not the ticks that are affected but the dogs. What happens, is that a tick bite can produce a flaccid paralysis, which leaves your dog with no muscular tone, feeling weak.

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