Joey’s Pet of the Week – A Troublesome Tick for Bosco

By Scott Lackenby | Dated September 25, 2015

Hey Gang!! How are you all? It was a good day here yesterday as it was Nurse Nicole’s birthday, and that meant there was cake!! You all know how much I enjoy a good cake. Truth be told, I enjoy all cake, good or bad! But because I’m on a never ending diet, I don’t get to eat nearly as much cake as I would like.

We say it a lot at this time of year, but the ticks are out and about so be sure to apply your tick prevention and do daily tick searches on your pets. Did you check out the video of Dr Helen and Nurse Jacqui performing a tick search on my good friend Gir? If not, be sure to. It gave some great tips on how to do a proper tick search. If you haven’t started your pet on their tick prevention or aren’t sure which product to use, just pop in and see us.

Keeping with the tick theme, my star this week is a new addition for some of my fave clients. Bosco, a very handsome 3month old Border Collie came in early one morning after his parents removed a very engorged paralysis tick of him. Bosco’s family had recently adopted not one but TWO Border Collie pups. Bosco’s brother, Seppe, thankfully was tick free. Unfortunately, Bosco was showing signs of tick paralysis. He had vomited, and he had laboured raspy breathing. Bosco’s Mum did the right thing and brought him straight up to us so we could start him on the tick serum. Unlike snake anti-venom, tick serum won’t reverse any of the damage that the tick toxin has already done, but stops the toxin from binding and causing more problems. For this reason, some animals actually get worse before they get better once they have had the tick serum. Luckily, Bosco was not one of those animals. He spent 4days in with us and was sent home with strict instructions to take it easy and not get too rowdy with his brother. It can take some animals quite a while to fully recover from tick paralysis and if they over do it, they can actually have a relapse. Bosco is a very good patient and is doing very well at home. I’m sure he will be much bigger by the time we see him again!

Well, better go. Have a great weekend and I’ll catch you all next week. Meows for now, love Joey xox