Dog Covered With Ticks
Last summer, a woman found this dog wondering the streets of Phoenix. Filthy matted hair covered his body and he smelled like garbage.
When we removed his hair, a new problem emerged. Ticks! They covered his body. It was the worst infestation I have ever seen. We used a spray to kill the ticks and then removed them with slow steady traction. As you may know, ticks carry a serious disease commonly referred to as "Tick Fever". What is the scientific name for the disease? What are the clinical signs of this disease? Scroll past the bowl of ticks to check your answer.
Diagnosis: Ehrlichiosis
Ehrlichia is the causative agent in tick fever. The organism is transmitted from animal to animal by ticks. Once in the body, Ehrlichia invades the white blood cells. Clinical signs of the disease are non-specific in the early phase: lethargy, anorexia and sometimes, a shifting leg lameness. As the disease progresses, the gums turn pale pink to white, blood may be observed in the urine or feces, bruises may occur on the body and the animal struggles for breath. Luckily for this little stray, he tested negative for Ehrlichiosis.
After three hours of work, most of the mats and ticks were gone. Even though it hurt a little when the ticks were removed, he never tried to bite. He sat on the floor and wagged his tail whenever anyone spoke to him. At this point in time, he needed a break. We placed him in a run before tackling his face. He ate, drank and curled up on a clean blanket. Later that day, he went home with the woman who found him. It was a happy ending to this a sad beginning.
When we removed his hair, a new problem emerged. Ticks! They covered his body. It was the worst infestation I have ever seen. We used a spray to kill the ticks and then removed them with slow steady traction. As you may know, ticks carry a serious disease commonly referred to as "Tick Fever". What is the scientific name for the disease? What are the clinical signs of this disease? Scroll past the bowl of ticks to check your answer.
Diagnosis: Ehrlichiosis
Ehrlichia is the causative agent in tick fever. The organism is transmitted from animal to animal by ticks. Once in the body, Ehrlichia invades the white blood cells. Clinical signs of the disease are non-specific in the early phase: lethargy, anorexia and sometimes, a shifting leg lameness. As the disease progresses, the gums turn pale pink to white, blood may be observed in the urine or feces, bruises may occur on the body and the animal struggles for breath. Luckily for this little stray, he tested negative for Ehrlichiosis.
After three hours of work, most of the mats and ticks were gone. Even though it hurt a little when the ticks were removed, he never tried to bite. He sat on the floor and wagged his tail whenever anyone spoke to him. At this point in time, he needed a break. We placed him in a run before tackling his face. He ate, drank and curled up on a clean blanket. Later that day, he went home with the woman who found him. It was a happy ending to this a sad beginning.
Wow..what a sad story..with a happy ending.
Here in rural NE Georgia, ticks are a major problem.
Several years ago, a friend of mine who runs a humane society had a litter of puppies turned in. They were found deep in the woods by her husband, huddled together, whimpering and scared.
All of them were small breed mix puppies, probably dumped by a backwoods puppy miller (which we have a lot of here).
Anyway, they were infested with fleas and ticks. Jen and I each took three puppies - she in the bathroom tub, me in the kitchen soaked those pups in flea shampoo and with our fingers, pulled out huge engorged ticks from their little boney bodies.
Some were down deep inside their ear canals. It took hours, but we got them all.
The puppies survived, got healthy and all found great homes.
We felt the pups were in such danger of dying, we didn't go to the local vet who required appointments and is not rescue friendly. We just took them home and started working on them on as fast as we could.
It took several weeks for them to warm up to people and become healthy enough for adoption.
First time I ever pulled out a tick with my bare hands. It didn't gross me out until later when I actually realized what I had done! LOL! I don't recommend that.
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One more tick story from my friend Jen.
She was at her vet with some foster pups a couple years ago when a woman brought in a beautiful Collie. It was dying.
The woman couldn't figure out why her dog had lost weight and was so sick.
The vet soon found it was infested with ticks.
The dog lived on a farm as an outside "yard dog" and the woman never put any kind of flea/tick protection on it.
By the time she brought it to the vet it couldn't walk and it was too late for the vet to do anything so they put it to sleep.
One bottle or pack of flea/tick preventative could have saved that dog's life. ..the price of a carton of cigarettes.
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Aw, Kris, what a sweet story. I am so happy that the dog is healthy and went home with the woman who found him. What is his name? Do you know anything about how is doing today? Thank you for sharing.
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Unfortunately, I do not know what the woman named him. I only worked with him for the initial clean-up and his new owner hadn't settled on a name yet. If I remember right, I called him Handsome because he looked so much better after the clip.
The last I heard, the dog was doing well in his new home. He loves life as an "inside" dog!
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