WARNING - Pets and Ticks

[Simon Rayfield]

WARNING to PET OWNERS

Over the past few years we have regularly taken our Golden Retriever to France with us, initially to the Med area and latterly to the SW where we have a house.

We find the occasional tick on the do g as we are in a rural area and walk the fields and woods. However, the morning of the day we were due to visit the vet for the routine pre-travel inspection last November, our dog was very slightly off her food.  That evening during the check the vet was concerned about the dog's high temperature. She subsequently took a small blood smear and checked it under a microscope, returning to tell us that the dog had a blood parasite (piraplasmose) carried by ticks.  This is not transferrable to humans.  In our case the vet remarked that it was one of the earliest diagnoses they had done.

If unchecked this parasite will multiply and quickly kill an animal.  Locals are fully aware of the symptoms - lethargy, loss of appetite, high temperature, they take their animals to the vet immediately.  The treatment is an extremely painful injection (for the dog) followed by sickness and vomiting for up to 48 hours - then normality.  Our vet wrote down all the details, treatment, etc for our UK vet in case the dog didn't recover quickly.  Thankfully she was back to normal within 24 hours.

Our vet is from Normandy working in Monflanquin, apparently this parasite is unknown in colder northen areas (including the UK) but prevalent from SW France south into Spain, etc.  Usually occurring when ticks are active during periods of wet and warm weather (spring and autumn).

It is unlikely a local vet in the UK would know about this and be able to stop the parasite before the animal became very poorly or even died.  Theoretically we shouldn't have travelled but we did and there were no further problems.

Please pass this on to other pet owners!

sr

[f1steveuk]

As we are in the SW, and our dog is regularly treated with Frontline, I was wondering if this treatment has any effect, as our vet thought that Tics were affected by Frontline?

[Frank]

Hi

We are in the Charente Maritime and our pooch is also treated monthly with Frontline combo, she also has an annual vacination for the piraplasmose virus which she has one month after the rabies/annual vaccine jab.  So far touch wood, she is fine and the frontline seems to keep on top of 'general' ticks if that makes sense. 

Jetlag  

[Patf]

Our border collie has just recovered from piroplasmosis - a similar story to Simon's. She's now nearly 6 and this is her first attack of the disease.

In spite of the fact that we use frontline and avantix alternately.

So all you can do is check regularly for ticks and look out for the symptoms.

[Kitty]

Where do they pick up these ticks?  Can they harbour in 'domestic' gardens?  I walk (run?) our dog on the beaches.

 

[Âme]

Cathy -  Ticks flourish in knee-high grass, so tick-patrol is vital after springtime tramps through the meadows.  Last spring which was long, warm and wet was great tick weather. Generally, the cats and dog don't pick them up from the short grass in the garden. Cats remove most ticks themselves, but the unreachable areas: face & neck need to be checked. I'm not sure about beaches, as I'm land-locked here.

[Bugsy]

I'm not sure if this is even sensible but following a comment from our vet I always treat the area (after the removal of a tick) with Tea-Tree Oil.

.

[Jo]

[quote user="jetlag"]

Hi

We are in the Charente Maritime and our pooch is also treated monthly with Frontline combo, she also has an annual vacination for the piraplasmose virus which she has one month after the rabies/annual vaccine jab.  So far touch wood, she is fine and the frontline seems to keep on top of 'general' ticks if that makes sense. 

Jetlag  

[/quote]So there's a vacine for the virus? Any idea why it is done separately from the others?

[Cerise]

The vaccine (according to our vet) is done separately at it's ingredients can react badly with the other vaccines.  It is not 100% effective and I can vouch for that as my Kiri had a dose of piroplasmosis despite being vaccinated and Frontlined.  However, when I arrived from UK vet advised me to go ahead with the vaccineas he said that dogs born locally had a certain amount of natural immunity and imported dogs do not.  He also told me that although he had seen vaccinated dogs have the disease he had never known a vaccinated dog to die from it, so presumably it alleviates the symptoms a bit.  My own dog made a rapid recovery after treatment even though earlier in the day she looked on her last legs.  I think the important thing is to know of its existence, check and treat the dog regularly for ticks and react quickly if the dog shows symptoms.