The reason I mention this is because one of my 2011 Singer/Mickey puppies living back east was bitten by a tick and is battling the platelet attack described in this article, posted on the AKC Health Foundation facebook page. Her owner didn't even know anything was wrong until the dog started bleeding out of her nose, but she had pulled a tick off the dog a week earlier. In the majority of cases, the actual strain of tick borne disease is never identified. Even worse, if an affected bitch is bred, the tick rickettsia can be passed to offspring during the pregnancy.
Whilst we don't have deer ticks in Montana, we do have wood ticks and when my dog Ray (CNFC Bud X Maia MH) was a puppy he was bitten by a tick I never saw, and he almost died from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It also destroyed his trial career and his stamina. It's true that RMSF is very rare, but then again that four letter word is like a magnet to sporting dogs. Let's face it, we put them in harms way much more than a normal house pet, so the probability of finding those "rare" situations is significantly higher.
I was surprised to learn that the percentage of ticks carrying "bad things" was so high. This article has compelling and downright scary info reprinted from the CDC and provides food for thought if you travel with your dogs...or send out bitches for breeding to areas that have these kinds of creepy things.
I would imagine that with the increasing trend of mild winters, all the
nasties will be migrating toward us here in the buffered zone of the
rockies.
For you LOTR fans, in the words of Boromir, "It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing."
Well said, indeed!