Tick Paralyzes Dog in Spokane

Yorkie Paralyzed by Tick

This week news outlets all over the country reported about a Portland-area Shetland sheep dog named Ollie the verge of euthanization due to his failing health and paralysis.

Fortunately, a student veterinarian found and removed a tick behind his ear. Ollie was fully mobile in about 10 hour after it was removed and is now fine.

I had never heard of a tick having the capability of paralyzing a dog, probably because tick paralysis is a somewhat rare condition. 

But just a couple of days after Ollie’s story was in the news, tick paralysis struck a 4-year-old Yorkie in Spokane named Tucker.

“I noticed he wasn’t able to jump up the stairs and get into the house,” says Tucker’s owner Kim Rose told KHQ. “Then I noticed his back legs were not working at all. It was like he was paralyzed.” 

Watch for These Symptoms

Like Ollie, Tucker is fine now, but their stories should be a reminder to dog owners that they need to check their dogs for ticks whenever they’ve been out in heavily wooded or grassy areas where ticks thrive.

Here is a list of symptoms to watch for if you think your dog could have tick paralysis:

• Vomiting
• Regurgitation
• Unsteadiness
• High blood pressure
• Fast heart rate and rhythm (tachyarrhythmias)
• Weakness, especially in the hind limbs
• Partial loss of muscle movements (paresis)
• Complete loss of muscle movement (paralysis), commonly seen in advanced disease state
• Poor reflexes to complete loss of reflex
• Low muscle tone (hypotonia)
• Difficulty in eating
• Disorder of voice (dysphonia)
• Asphyxia due to respiratory muscle paralysis in severely affected animals
• Excessive drooling (sialosis)
• Megaesophagus (enlarged esophagus)
• Excessive dilatation of pupil in the eye (mydriasis)

If your dog exhibits these symptoms and you find a tick on it be sure you bring it to the vet so that it can be identified and its ability to transmit disease determined. 

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