4legs Magazine · Health

A sting.
A life long.

What a single tick bite did to our wind chimpanzee Monty – and what we learned from it.

4legs Editorial Team · Reading time approx. 4 min.

Monty, our Italian Greyhound. Today he lives with the consequences of a single tick bite.

It wasn't a dramatic moment. No alarm, no warning sign. Sometime during a walk, somewhere in the grass – a tick had latched on. So tiny that it was easily overlooked. So consequential that nothing was ever the same again.

Our Italian Greyhound, Monty, didn't escape unscathed from that bite. Since then, his immune system has been attacking his own platelets – triggered by rickettsiae, a pathogen transmitted by the tick while feeding. The diagnosis: Canine Cyclic Thrombocytopenia. Monty will likely need cortisone for the rest of his life. Not because we were careless, but because we didn't realize how quickly things could progress.

What ticks do to the body

Ticks are not a pest in the classic sense – they are vectors. When feeding on blood, they release pathogens directly into the bloodstream via their saliva: bacteria such as Borrelia or Anaplasma, viruses such as the TBE virus, and also Rickettsia – pathogens that can confuse the immune system to such an extent that it begins to attack the body's own tissues.

The insidious thing is that many of these diseases only become apparent weeks later. The dog seems tired, eats less, and has a fever. These are symptoms that are easily mistaken for something else. By the time a diagnosis is made, the pathogen has often already caused considerable damage.

Left: Monty at the vet, one of many visits. Right: Hemorrhages under the skin – the first visible sign that something was wrong.

Short fur doesn't protect – it only exposes.

Short-haired breeds like the Italian Greyhound have a slight advantage: ticks are easily visible on light, short skin – they are easier to find than on dogs with thick, dark or long fur, where a tick can hide deep in the wool.

The disadvantage lies elsewhere: Short-haired dogs have hardly any protective fur. A tick finds immediate contact with their skin and attaches itself more quickly than with a dog where it would first have to work its way through dense fur. On dogs with long, dark, or double coats, however, finding ticks is really difficult – thorough checks after every walk are especially important in these cases.

Found a tick – what now?

Stay calm. A tick that is removed quickly and correctly transmits significantly fewer pathogens than one that is squeezed or twisted in a panic. The tool used is crucial.

Wrong on the left, right on the right: Place the tool close to the skin, pull it out slowly and evenly – never squeeze or pull jerkily.

Use a Tick ​​hooks or tick tweezers – No ordinary tools, no fingers. Position it as close to the skin as possible, directly at the tick's head. Then pull it out slowly and steadily. Afterwards, check that the head has been completely removed.

Then observe – and go to the vet

Removing a tick does not mean the matter is settled.Observe your dog carefully in the following weeks: loss of appetite, unusual tiredness, fever, swelling or changes in the skin can be early signs.

Which tick protection is right for your dog depends on breed, health, and region. This is a question your veterinarian is best equipped to answer – ideally before tick season, not after.

What we learned from Monty's story

Monty is alive. He's with us, he's being cared for, he has good days. But his body is no longer what it could have been. A single stab wound – and lifelong consequences.

We hope that other dog owners will go into tick season better informed than we did. Not with panic, but with respect for what such a small creature can do.