That really Ticks me off!

Our poor Marley was very sick a few weeks ago.  Cameron and I noticed recently that he stopped jumping on the bed and the couch.  He seemed to have hurt his leg/s somehow.  We had been really busy with all of the Mounts visiting so we didn’t notice when Marley started declining.  A day or two later we saw that Marley could no longer go down the stairs because her legs would give out, so she would take a step and roll all the way down.  It was so sad to watch. We then noticed that she hadn't eaten anything in days. I researched a lot and found that it was probably Lyme disease and it said that once the legs had been affected that there really was no turning around.  So we all set ourselves up for the worst.  Marley was going to die. 

The next day Marley was significantly worse but not in any actual pain, so I decided to take her to the vet (against everything in me that told me not to bc of the bill).  We were given meds and told it would help.  Within 3 hours Marley could not move.  She couldn’t even lift her head.  She was urinating on herself and faoming at the mouth as well.  It was so horrible to watch. I found myself crying on multiple occasions, and I am really not her biggest fan by any means J  So we decided to give her a bath as some kind of last hurrah and guess what we found!?  3 ticks!  1 huge one, and 2 very tiny ones.  We took them out and within an hour Marley could stand again and was drinking fluids.  She still went and hid under Syds bed for the nights, which she has never done, so we and the kids were crying and expecting her to still die overnight.  When we woke up however, Marley was as good as new!  Can you believe it!?  The Vet had checked for ticks and said that it could be tick paralysis but since she didn’t find any we ruled it out.  But that was exactly what it was.  Marley was paralyzed by the poisen from those nasty ticks.  Crazy huh. If we had not found them, she would have died that night, I am %100 sure of it. We are so glad she is ok, and we have a new love and appreciation for her these days.  

 This was Marley after the bath.  Daddy was holding her up to drink and she actually could do it!  These were the first smiles on the kids faces in hours. From now on, we have decided that every summer, we will now shave her and treat her with a double dose of tic repellent meds.  Those things were nasty and apparently this season had a record high or them.  Yick!