Paralysis ticks are well known as a deadly summer parasite in the Blue Mountains, but did you know that they can impact your pet even in the cooler months? While adult ticks are typically most active from September to January, warmer, wetter winters mean that we are now seeing tick paralysis cases in clinic as early as July. Additionally, the warmer weather means that suburbs like Hazelbrook and Wentworth Falls, which previously did not see tick paralysis, are more habitable for ticks. With this in mind, what do pet owners need to know about ticks, how to spot them, and how to help your pet avoid them as tick season intensifies.
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The paralysis tick life cycle
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​The lifecycle of the paralysis tick takes around a year to complete and requires 2-3 mammalian hosts in this time. Native animals common to the Blue Mountains, like bandicoots and possums, are natural hosts and will often carry a large number of ticks with little to no impact on their health. Larval stage ticks (most seen in Autumn) may bite and cause some skin irritation to pets and owners. Nymphs (most seen in Winter and early Spring) can cause illness in pets, particularly if present in large numbers. Adult ticks are the most dangerous, with even a single adult tick being able to cause severe illness or death in household pets.
 
How do ticks cause paralysis, and what are the early signs to look out for?
Ticks feed on blood and are reliant on mammalian hosts to complete their lifecycle. While feeding, ticks inject neurotoxins which can lead to eventual paralysis and death of pets. During warmer months, pets should be checked daily for ticks, particularly if you or your pet has been in the bush, long grass/shrubbery or the beach. Even indoor pets can be exposed to ticks, often if they are brought inside on owners, or if the tick has crawled inside.
Early signs to look out for include vomiting, lethargy, weakness in the back legs, a change to vocalisation and inappetence.
 
What should I do if I find a tick on my pet?
First, remove the tick. Ensure you have removed the whole tick including mouth parts, not just the body. A tool like a Tick Twister can be helpful to do this, but fingers or tweezers work too! Run your fingers through your pet’s coat to feel for ticks. Often if one tick is found, more will be present. If you notice any changes in your pet’s behaviour, or are unsure you have fully removed the tick, give us a call. Sometimes, symptoms will still be observed even after a tick has been removed, as some toxin may already be in your pet’s system.
 
How to protect your pet from ticks
Ideally, year-round tick prevention should be given. For dogs, Bravecto Quantum is an annual injection which prevents ticks and eliminates the need to remember to give preventatives every few months! Alternatively, monthly and three-monthly chews from brands including Bravecto, Nexgard Spectra and Simparica Trio or six-monthly top spot treatments from Bravecto can also be used. For cats, Felpreva and Bravecto top spot treatments can be used for three-monthly protection from ticks. Staying up to date with preventatives is the best way to avoid tick paralysis for your pets, and is important year-round, not just in the summertime!

What is a zoonosis? Unfortunately, it's not a fun outing to Taronga, but instead any disease that infects or is carried by animals, which can also infect or be spread to people.
 
An estimated 60% of human infectious diseases around the world are zoonoses. And there's one that has the potential to do a lot of damage to chooks and humans: Bird flu, or Avian Influenza (AI), which has its reservoir in wild birds (they carry it without getting sick). AI comes in multiple varieties including Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, (HPAI). An example of HPAI is H5N1, which has lately smashed everything from parrots to penguins on every continent except Australia. 
 
Preparations for the worst are being made. What preparations can owners of backyard chooks make?
 
NSW has an excellent fact sheet here: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/avian-influenza.aspx
 
...with the main take-aways being that bird flu is endemic in wild birds; that is, they carry it in their bodies all the time, and may not show any symptoms or get sick from it, but when they mix with domestic birds, such as your free-ranging leghorns, or contaminate your backyard by coming down to your birdbaths or chook feed dispensers, the virus can be passed to you, not to mention your budgie or your bantam.
 
What to do? Rehome your birds? If your household has immunocompromised people in it (eg young children, the elderly, anyone on chemo or other immunosuppressing medications) this is a valid step. Not just on account of AI, but other endemic zoonoses such as psittacosis, aka parrot fever, which has frequent outbreaks in the Blue Mountains due to our love affair with feeding native species. 
 
If you've ever worked at a big poultry producer, you'll know pet birds at home aren't allowed, because of biosecurity, ie the risk that your pet bird may be invisibly carrying something nasty. Poultry farmers have had the experience of driving vehicles through troughs of disinfectant, to keep contaminated soil out, and of performing a complete shower and change of clothes when passing in or out of the buildings.
 
This kind of barrier between your kitchen and backyard may not be practical. But you can try to approximate it by regularly washing hands with soap and water, wearing coveralls, and disinfecting your gumboots before and after attending to your chooks, even if you don't go the full PPE including P2 mask.
 
If you have a birdbath, situate it well away from areas that your chickens have access to. Fully emptying and disinfecting any food and water vessels every day is ideal. Always choose water containers that can be scrubbed and sterilised over a pond or waterfall which can never be cleaned and which will attract wild waterfowl.
 
Use netting, covered water and feed dispensers, and rat-proofed coops to reduce the chances of wild bird contact and/or contamination. 
 
Be careful around wild birds - enjoy watching them but don't encourage them to land on you, come into human-frequented spaces, or share your food.
 
Love your chooks and your aviary birds but don't kiss them!
 
Keep your annual human flu vaccination up to date. This reduces the chances a bird flu virus and a human flu virus can coexist in your body, potentially swapping genetic material with each other to mutate into the superflu that causes the next pandemic.
 
And if you notice a swathe of sudden deaths, coughing and sneezing, or other symptoms in your backyard flock, refer to this Bird Life Australia handout: https://birdlife.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Avian-Influenza-Fact-Sheet-Sep-2024.pdf
 
...and AVOID, RECORD, & REPORT to the Animal Disease Hotline.

Have you had your blood pressure checked? For the humans in your household, the answer would be of course, yes. But what about your furry family members? Particularly in cats, high blood pressure or hypertension is a common disease that is easy to overlook. But this can result in catastrophic consequences such as sudden blindness, seizures, kidney damage or heart disease.

Cats with pre-exisiting kidney or thyroid disease are particularly prone to developing hypertension and dogs aren’t exempt from the problem.

Fortunately, with a little bit of cooperation, diagnosis is easy. A blood pressure cuff (similar to ours, just quite a bit smaller!) is put on the leg or tail and either using an electronic monitor or listening to the blood flow, the pressure can be measured.
We use several different devices to measure the blood pressure, as with each style their accuracy can depend on the size of the patient and how stressed they are. Oscillometric non-invasive blood pressure monitoring machines are quiet and easy but can be a little temperamental (they do use a computer after all). Doppler monitors can be a bit noisy but allow us to hear the heart beat at the same time. We use a combination of monitors for tracking our patients’ blood pressure both as outpatients or when they are undergoing anaesthesia.
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If we do detect that a pet has hypertension, the good news is that there are several medications that we can use to help control it and keep your pet safe.