Why is my senior dog weak and covered in ticks? Is it serious?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern! Poor Rusty! Ticks are no fun and can be quite painful when in large quantities. I would recommend using a flea and tick preventative such as Frontline, Nexgard or Bravecto. He will likely need a shampoo to help soothe his skin after the ticks die. I would recommend Douxo PS Calm shampoo, which can be easily found online. I hope this helps and that Rusty improves! Please let me know if you have any other questions / concerns!

Poor guy. : ( It sounds like he may have a severe reaction to the ticks or any number of underlying problems such as tick paralysis. He needs to go to a vet pronto for some much needed antibiotics to hopefully help stabilize his condition. I would recommend consulting with your vet for antibiotics (i.e. Doxycycline) and pain medication (i.e. Gabapentin) to help poor Max. I do hope that Max is able to fully recover from this illness soon! Best of luck moving forward. Take care.

Hello. There are just so many possibilities here that the best advice I can give would be to have her evaluated as soon as possible. A puppy should start a deworming program at 2 weeks of age. By 3 months she could have a massive number of intestinal parasites. Ticks can carry multiple diseases as well as cause anemia from blood loss, & I will just assume you have not started any vaccinations, yet. Puppies should be vaccinated starting at 7-8 weeks of age. To try & sort out what is making her so unwell, she needs a thorough evaluation soon. I hope you can do this for her & thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Oh my. It sounds like your pet may be suffering from a tick borne septic arthritis or something similar. Ticks can cause all sorts of internal problems for pets, including damaging the joints and causing low grade fevers and nausea. I would highly advise getting your pets seen by your local vet right away for much needed antibiotics and blood testing to confirm that tick borne disease is present. This will help let us know what other treatments they need to hopefully get better. I would take them in as soon as possible and also get them on a high quality flea/tick preventative such as Simparica, Firstshield, Nexgard or Bravecto. Best of luck with your pets. I hope that they get well soon. Take care.

Hello. These are ticks & ticks can carry some pretty serious diseases. You can not rule out that your dog may also be experiencing true seizures due to epilepsy, but this is a instance where you need to get the ticks off your pet & seriously use a product to keep the ticks off as best you can. Kalo should be evaluated by a veterinarian in case he has already picked up one of the tick-borne diseases & I am sure your veterinarian can recommend the best tick products that are available in your country. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Ticks can cause illness, but it is also possible that something else is wrong and the tick has nothing to do with it. I would encourage you to have her evaluated by your veterinarian soon. They may recommend an x-ray and / or blood work to help diagnose the problem. With intact females I am always concerned about a uterine infection called pyometra as well. It can cause lots of vague symptoms. I would recommend taking a fresh poop sample with you when you go to the veterinarian as well. Best of luck and I hope she improves soon. Thank you for using Pet Coach.

Hello, sorry to hear about Maicah. It sounds like she may be dealing less likely with an infectious disease and more likely with an inflammatory disease. On her bloodwork her white blood cells, which are the first responders to an infection are in the normal range, hence why I would be less suspicious of something infectious. Her red blood cells are decreased, which could occur from a chronic inflammation, loss of red blood cells, and potentially destruction of red blood cells. On the other hand, if she has erlichia this could cause joint pain and anemia. However, you tend to see other changes in the bloodwork which are not shown in the pictures you posted. Doxycycline for 3 weeks should treat an erlichia that could be present. A snap test or a PCR for erlichia could confirm this diagnosis. The weakness in her hind end could be associated with a primary orthopedic disease or neurologic disease. Some neurologic diseases in poodles can arise from degenerative inflammatory diseases. An orthopedic and neurologic examination could test for these. X-rays could also outline a primary orthopedic issue or be suggestive of a neurologic issue as well. In summary, Maicah should be thoroughly evaluated for a primary orthopedic or neurologic issue. I am a little less concerned about the erlichia at this moment due to the lack of changes in her blood, however she should have a snap test or PCR performed to confirm this. Her albumin is elevated which could be an error from the machine or she could be dehydrated. If this is an inflammatory disease, the prednisone she was prescribed may help. I hope this helps and best of luck!