From Northern River Wildlife Hospital
Recently, we had the pleasure of treating this male Greater Sooty Owl.
Sooty was found on a driveway unable to stand, with clenched claws and his head flexed backwards. After a thorough examination, our veterinary team found no external or internal injuries and noted that he was in good body condition. The cause was identified as an engorged paralysis tick located beneath his eye.
Sooty was admitted for treatment, which included IV fluids, pain relief and tick antiserum. Within 24 hours, he was standing and showing aggression toward us. A 100% improvement!
After a few days in hospital care, Sooty was cleared for release and successfully returned to the location where he was found.
This is a fantastic outcome for a species listed as vulnerable in NSW.
While animals can become paralyzed and ultimately die from the neurotoxin if left untreated, it usually just causes itching or numbness in humans.
Man, props to the vets for seeing that. That tick is tiny and almost the same color as the owl’s eye lid.
To me, they looked bigger on the wiki, so I dunno if this one is just small or if it’s waaaay in there. That’s the only unusual thing I spotted, so I blew that pic up and circled it, but I’m pretty sure that’s it, as it’s the only eye pic they shared.
Yick!
Might just be young. I’ve had to remove small ticks from my dog’s eyelids like that. Luckily not paralyzing ticks. I didn’t even know those existed so now these combined with the red meat allergy ticks i’ll be wearing full hazmat suits in the woods from now on.
I feel like I’ve been a tick magnet all my life. I’d come out of the woods with other people and be the only one with them. I get so paranoid about those little buggers. It’s kept me out of the woods and tall grass more than I’d like. 🥺
TIL some ticks can cause paralysis…
And they aren’t just in Australia. This one is… but the wiki for tick paralysis says they’re kinds in Asia and the Americas also that are similar.
