Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Bites and parasites

Many snakes have been out and about with the warm weather of late and it seems Charlie the dog may have found one of them.
Charlie was suffering from a wound on his leg, pictured 1 week after the event.

A blood test was inconclusive when taken, though showed the possible presence of venom next day.
The bite location was possibly a lucky one.
Considering snakes give "dry" bites more often than not (no venom injected), perhaps his survival was a decision of the snake.
Either way he was quite sick, though has pulled through well.
Today I found one of these guys between his toes....a tick

Using methylated spirits on the area made it back out a little, with careful removal using tweezers.
UPDATE: I have recently found out not to use metho to make the tick back out.
This old school practice has been found to make the tick deliver more toxins as it backs out.
A pen like device is available for removal of ticks that has a loop at its end that can be tightened.
Once placed around the tick ( between head and body ) removal is easier.
These devices are available at most vets and some chemists :)
A deeply embedded tick is still a task to remove though.

Seems the onset of summer can be a dogs life in Australia.

5 comments:

  1. Great picture of Charlie, David, a real Aussie!

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  2. Lucky dog (in a way).

    We had two Australian Terriers bitten by an Eastern Brown. One died and the other went blind. It's eyes went a kind of cloudy blue color.

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  3. Hi David

    I am glad you are able to look after Charlie. It is ironic that, if not for the likely snake bite, the Tick might well have been fatal for him.

    Cheers
    Denis

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  4. Hi all,

    The tick was found about a week after the bite, and we had already checked him for them...as he was displaying symptoms similar to that of a tick.
    Ticks are abundant here, though Charlie seem to show some immunity to their effects.
    I can remember visiting a mate up at Lightning Ridge who had dogs that hunted pigs...they were covered in them, and to (seemingly) no ill effect...it depends on exposure producing a desensitizing effect I suppose.
    I imagine that Charlie was bitten by a Black Snake Mosura, cause those Browns dont show much mercy when it comes to venom...interesting about the effects on the eyes...perhaps due to the sensitive tissue in that area in relation to the characteristics of the toxin that browns inject...I believe it causes hemorrhages in the cell structure.
    Heart breaking to see any animal in distress...especially a pet.

    Thanks for dropping by guys.

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  5. A great looking dog! That is sure one lucky dog to recover from both a snake bite and the tick.

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