Paralysis Ticks…

…What is the point of them?

I spent many hours last night in hospital with my good friend and vet Miss Eudoxia (misseudoxia.blogspot.com) and my pussy cat ‘Puss’. He had a nasty case of tick poisoning and just as a nasty reaction to the anti-serum (rare).

Today he is in a stable condition, but has to stay in hospital for a while longer. I’ll keep you posted.

Anyway, back to my point:

Paralysis ticks are unique to the middle and northern part of the east Australian coast. There are nasty little bastards that climb the grass in damp warm weather (most of the time) and latch on to, then suck the blood of passing mammals. Whether it is a cat, dog, possum or human (I’ve had a few). The trouble is, native animals rarely react to the poison they pump into a victim, cats and dogs however, and in fact most livestock, can react very badly. Symptoms include wobbly legs, laboured breathing, increased heart rate and even death.

During our time watching, making sure Puss was going to be OK, we talked about the point of Ticks. They don’t eat carrion or decaying matter, we couldn’t think of anything that eats them. All they seem to do is kill mammals and breed.

So as you see we couldn’t find a decent reason and thought, maybe, just maybe, someone who knew about ticks could enlighten us to their purpose in this world of ours.