Kalkan pet owners beware

[Lantana]

If you own or look after a dog or cat here in Kalkan you might be unaware that there is a very serious illness which your animal can contract caused by the bite of a tick.

We have just almost lost one of our dogs, aged just six months .  For a couple of weeks she seemed anxious and depressed and very lethargic. We took her for an initial check up, nothing appeared to be wrong, then almost overnight  she became very ill. Within 48 hours she had lost 2 kilos (she is still a puppy so this was a big weight loss) and her breathing became very rapid and strained. She had difficulty standing, could not eat and had a high temperature. She was also found to be very anaemic.

She was in the animal equivalent of intensive care for a week. After an exhaustive series of tests, she was diagnosed with canine tick disease - a similar illness to Lyme''s disease which can also infect humans.

She is now home and making progress but still unwell. She will have to be on broad spectrum antibiotics for a month and has to have a daily vitamin shot.

So if you have a dog or cat, you might want to consider treating them each month with one of the tick preventative treatments, such as Frontline, which are widely available here. Unfortunately we had been using Stronghold an excellent treatment for fleas but not effective against ticks.

We hope that in time she will make a full recovery but I feel very guilty that I didn''t know more about the very nasty effects a tick bite can have on an animal. So if this helps any other owner protect their pet, I will feel a bit better.

Lantana





Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=1796.0

[superrn]

Oh poor puppy. I do hope he/she makes a full recovery so I can meet her/him this fall!

[Cosetta]

I was using Frontline and Interceptor (Heartworm) but changed to Stronghold because it is active against heartworm, Interceptor not needed.  For ticks I use a Scalibor collar (maybe not available in Fethiye though.  Bought in Spain).

Sincerely hope your puppy recovers quickly.