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Pet Vet Articles (Published Weekly in the Northern Territory News)

Aggression in cats Aggressive dogs Arthritis Aural Haematomas Baby Bats Bad Habits Part 1: Coprophagy Barking Dogs Bats Beak and Feather disease Blindness Bottom dragging, worms and anal glands Calcium Deficiency in Reptiles Cancer Cane Toads and Dogs Canine cough (Kennel Cough) Cat Flu Cats & dogs living together Ceasarian Chickens as pets Christmas and Pets Coastal Carpet Pythons in Darwin Coccidia Demodex mange Desexing: an opportunity to change a life Diarrhoea Dr. Tom is leaving The Ark vet Ear infections Ear Mites Feather loss Fireworks Fishing Lure Flatulence Fleas Flying Foxes Fur Balls Goldfish Heartworm Heavy Metal Poisoning Humping Moving with Pets New Years Eve (alcohol poisoning) Obesity Overheating PAWS pets, pets for life Pets and Christmas Rabbits Riding in Utes Snake bite Snakes as pets Stress Sun Protection Tetanus in Wallabies Thunderstorms Tick Control Tick Fever (Anaplasmosis) Ticks	Your selected article: Tick Fever (Anaplasmosis) Dr Stephen Cutter B.V.Sc(hons) The build up is here again and with it again is an explosion of ticks. While ticks are certainly disgusting and can arrive in hordes, the effect they have on most dogs is rather negligible. We don’t have the deadly paralysis ticks here in the NT; it’s an east coast problem. The ticks we do have however can carry some organisms that can cause severe illness, even death occasionally. Collectively these diseases are called Tick fever. One cause is Babesia. Babesia damages the red blood cells, causing the dog to become anaemic. Anaemic dogs become depressed, lethargic, run a mild temperature and have pale gums. Fortunately the Territory strains of Babesia are farily mild compared to some overseas strains where they can be a common cause of death. Anaplasma is a much more recent discovery, it’s been in Australia for a long time but only discovered a few years ago outside of Alice Springs. It has since been discovered through out the North. It’s spread by ticks and possibly by dog lice. Anaplasma causes the dog to have problems with excessive bleeding. Infected dogs often have lots of bruises and any bleeding wounds take a long time to clot. As a result of the blood loss infected dogs become anaemic. Both types of tick fever are very variable and many dogs get better by themselves before their owner even notices that they are sick. However some dogs can become extremely sick especially pups or adult dogs that have recently moved to the Territory. Treatment varies depending on the severity of the disease, sometimes blood transfusions are necessary. Blood tests are the only way to be sure if your dog is infected with this disease. Completely protecting your dog from these diseases is not possible but good tick control products will greatly reduce the ticks and therefore the risk. Copyright © 2005-2008 Dr Stephen M Cutter May not be reproduced without written permission from the author.