The (mis)adventures of Toby and the Tick

Poor old Toby! I couldn't bring myself to write a blog entry about him yesterday because we weren't at all sure he'd make it through the night... Yes, folks, my premonitions about him encountering nasty Australian wildlife have proved to be true!

A few days ago, heading the dire warnings about paralysis ticks, I looked up the symptoms and description on the internet and consequently we have spent the last few days searching for a tick, because Toby started panting and that's a recognised sign... Unfortunately we couldn't find the blasted thing and so we decided to keep an eye on Toby but assumed that the panting was due to the 32 degrees outside! But yesterday Patrick took him out for his second walk of the day, and came back saying Toby was having trouble walking and wasn't interested in chasing the surf, which is very unusual. Sure enough he couldn't swallow and his breathing was very laboured. We finally found the damned thing - on his nose! It wasn't visible until it was half fed and we'd checked him over SO carefully - I felt awful things had got to that state because basically we had to rush Toby to the vet hospital ($$$$$ callout fees for a late night consultation, but hey, what the hell!), and weren't sure if he'd survive.

Luckily the vet was able to tell us that Toby was improving by this morning and although he's had another night in hospital we're hoping we'll be able to bring him home tomorrow. Phew! Now, of course, we'll be checking on him twice as hard, and he's got he's got to have two anti-tick tablets every second day (he won't mind - as long as you wrap tablets in pate Toby will eat anything!). Frontline doesn't really work over here, especially if your dog swims, and there's no way Toby will be happy to stay away from the beach!