Adopting an animal means bringing happiness into your home. But there are also a number of responsibilities that come with it.
These include regularly checking the animal for ticks, fleas and other pests.
The story of the dog Belle shows what can happen if you don’t do this.
Ticks are also dangerous for animals
If we discover a tick on ourselves or our fellow human beings, we usually act immediately and remove the annoying bloodsuckers.
This should also be done with dogs and cats, as the arachnids can, in the worst case, lead to the death of the animal.
This is almost the case with our dog Belle, who is covered in hundreds of ticks, especially in sensitive areas such as her eyes and ears.
When the Area Led Pet Welfare (CLAW) finds her, she is in a terrible state.
Her face is riddled with bumps and only on closer inspection do the rescuers realise that there are countless ticks.
It seemed as if no one had looked after Belle for a long time
The dog from South Africa is covered in the arachnids.
„She doesn’t really look like a dog anymore“,
is how Epic Interesting describes it.
The ticks are gathered around Belle’s eyes and ears and suck her blood. It doesn’t take much expertise to realise that such a tick attack will eventually lead to the animal’s death.
Belle already appeared to be anaemic, suffering from anaemia and barely able to walk.
The volunteers from Area Led Pet Welfare (CLAW) immediately took her to a vet.
The ticks cannot simply be pulled out
Unimaginable what an ordeal it would be to remove every single tick with tweezers or tick tweezers. Apart from that, it would be far too dangerous as Belle would lose even more blood.
So the vet uses antiparasitic medication to paralyse the ticks, making them easier to remove.
The vet then has to replace the nutrients that Belle has lost, as she is also severely malnourished.
Belle is finally feeling better again
The difference after the treatment and recovery phase could hardly be more remarkable. It’s like having a different dog in front of you.
She looks like a normal pet again and even soon finds a woman who wants to adopt her.
Although Belle was so close to death, she can now lead a happy and contented life as a dog.
