Topic: Help!Just pulled a deer tick off my porch cat
lymeinhell
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4622
posted
Ok, so I was a little freaked last night. I have a cat that lives on my front porch (was a neighbor's cat. Neighbor was a hoarder with a few screws loose, house burned down last May, and we were able to adopt out 3 of 4 cats).
Scrappy is now well taken care of, has shelter, otherwise healthy. In fact, his weight has doubled since he decided to move into my rocking chair on the porch.
But I spent a bit of time with him last night, as he's seemed a little down the last few days. Low and behold, I found an embedded tick on his now very full and fluffy neck.
I calmly got my tick pullers, removed the tick and put it in a sealed bag. I know many vets say cats can't get lyme, but I lost a cat a couple yrs ago that had gotten bit - she went into complete kidney failure and I nursed her for a year.
So do I take the tick and cat to vet and demand antibiotics? The last time they were skeptical about lyme possibility, but humored me on put my other cat on Clavamox for a month.
PS - The cat is treated with Frontline regularly and I bomb my yard regularly. WTH???
-------------------- Julie _ _ ___ _ _ lymeinhell
Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed. Posts: 2258 | From a better place than I was 11 yrs ago | Registered: Sep 2003
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Pocono Lyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5939
posted
Hi Julie,
We just recently went through a similar situation.
My husband decided to go to a new vet as the old one wasn't very interested in TBIs. Well neither was the new one.
Multiple ticks found on this cat despite flea and tick collars, frontline and a couple of other products I purchased.
This vet was sympathetic and offered a "new" product as he agreed Frontline is no longer working. My husband purchased it and when he opened it to apply it, the vial inside said Frontline!!!
He applied it anyways and 3 days later, another tick. We resorted back to Sevin 5. No more ticks since. Toxic? My opinion is: So are ticks. At this point, I'm more afraid of ticks.
We have put these other products with the ticks and they crawl over it. With Sevin, DEAD. Hoping it continues to work.
Good luck. P.S. This vet wanted hundreds of dollars to test for TBIs.
-------------------- 2 Corinthians 12:9-11
9 But he said to me, �My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.� Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ�s power may rest on me. Posts: 1445 | From Poconos, PA | Registered: Jul 2004
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lymeinhell
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4622
posted
Thank you. At least my vet said he wouldn't believe the results of any lyme test that didn't culture the bacteria 'in front of his eyes'.
So he knows the tests are junk - he just didn't believe cats could get lyme.
So once again I guess I'll ask them for abx. For a cat I don't own (or so my husband likes to kid himself into believing). We feed him, give him shelter (stays in heated shed in bad weather), brush him, play with him, and take him to the vet. Um, doesn't that imply some type of ownership?
We went with less than Sevin this year at home to spare the environment, and I guess I have to go back to killing everything to keep us all safe. I don't live in tick fear, but do try to use common sense. But this cat wanders the neighborhood, so he could pick em up anywhere.
-------------------- Julie _ _ ___ _ _ lymeinhell
Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed. Posts: 2258 | From a better place than I was 11 yrs ago | Registered: Sep 2003
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