Chasing Sun and Wildflowers – Day 32

| Chris Riley

Mingenew to Perth

Tonight we’re in Perth. Tomorrow we will be home – and I feel a need for a Staycation. Apologies to all of you who have no choice but to stay put in your own homes, but right now, home is where I want be. We’ve travelled far to many kilometres in to short a time. I’m feeling it, Mr Tilly is feeling it, and Paul, who does all of the driving, is definitely feeling it.

I love Broome, and I love the Wildflowers, and I love road trips. We’ve been retired now for eight years though, and we still travel as if we’re making use of annual leave. I don’t know how we’re ever going to manage to slow down, but we’re going to have too. 5000 kms for the trip, plus incidental driving each day, in less than 5 weeks – madness!

Mr Tilly has his back firmly turned away from me in the car. He’s clearly, ‘not happy’. Mind you, we did nearly poison him on this holiday, and he’s still recovering. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t intentional. In fact, it was a necessity. On the Vets advice we fitted him with a Seresto collar to protect against the Kimberley Brown Tick. Most of the time that we’ve been away he hasn’t been himself, and has had an upset tummy on a few occasions, including bright red blood in his stools. We took him to the vet – the verdict was that his tummy was tender, possibly due to some chicken, nothing serious – antibiotics, and a bland diet of chicken and rice was prescribed. He improved marginally. Three days before we were due to leave he had a sort of minor fit. Paul was getting ready to take him for his regular morning walk when suddenly his eyes glazed over and he had fit of what I can only describe as uncontrolled, air humping. It was really weird, but clearly he had no control. It was definitely some sort involuntary sort of spasms.

We had been thinking he was stressed from the travel, (although we’d stayed put in Broome for three weeks), or that it was just too hot for him. Broome did seem hotter than usual this year. We both had a inkling that possibly the collar was a contributor, except the vet hadn’t even given the collar a seconds consideration. Anyway, we left two days earlier than planned, and as soon as we were far enough south we removed the collar. In less than 12 hours there was a marked improvement. He had started to eat, and his tummy seemed much more settled. He’s more of his old self again – albeit still clearly over the car trip. It was only after we’d removed the collar that I looked up possible side effects . He had almost every one of them. We both have absolutely no doubt that he reacted badly to it, including having the fit. Apparently a number of dog deaths have been attributed to it. I wonder why the vet didn’t consider the collar as a possible cause for his vomiting, lack of appetite, listlessness and the blood in his stools – these are all known side effects. I’m trusting vets less and less as time goes on……

If we go up to the Kimberley again next year, two things have to be assured. One is an alternative to the Seresto collar for Mr Tilly. I’ve been looking on line, but so far I haven’t found an alternative that looks to be conclusively effective. If anyone knows of anything, please, please let me know. And the next thing is, we have to slow it down. I don’t want to be nearing home ever again feeling exhausted from the trip. One more sleep….

13 thoughts on “Chasing Sun and Wildflowers – Day 32”

  3. Poor Mr Tilly. He must have been feeling so awful. Friends of ours have just returned from a big trip up to North QLD and they had to get special collars for their dogs because of a new and different tick. I wonder if it’s the same.

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  5. Sorry to hear you are exhausted, Chris. You need a holiday from the holiday! It has been a great experience and thanks ever so much for taking us all along for the ride. As I will never go back to WA – at least not the wild frontier that is the north – your blog posts will be the most I shall see of it.
    Now as for Mr Tilly – poor darling. Blood in the stool in not or never a good sign! Those darn collars – and also some of the flea and tick treatments are bad – Nexguard has killed some dogs too. I think Vets think that the occasional death is worth it if they save quite a few others. Poor Mr Tilly! So glad he is recovering now. We used to use Frontline but now we use Advantix. I am unsure if it works against your tick, but it works for two weeks on ours. Hope all is good from now on. Feet up and a few slow days are in order hey?

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    1. Thanks for the heads up on Adventix. We’ll look into that, as since this has happened we’ve become a little sceptical about his normal flea and tick treatment – Nexguard. He has had colitis before, and sometimes gets an upset tummy, so I’m wondering if it’s related. I’ve been going to look into alternatives.

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      1. I think even Bravecto can affect some dogs. But we have never had a problem with the Advantix. Nor the frontline – but it did lose its efficacy one year which is why we swapped to Advantix.

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      2. We use Nexguard Spectra, but he does seem to get a bit itchy, and is susceptible to upset tummies. After the reaction to the Seresto collar, I’m wondering if he’s not reacting to the Nexguard, which is similar to Bravecto. The Vet has suggested doing some allergy tests on him, so I think I’ll suggest the starting point should be the medications he’s on, (Nexguard), before they start testing for food allergies. I suspect if they test for food allergies he’ll end up on one of their bland cardboard diets of pallets. And I’m not doing that to him unless I absolutely have to. I no longer trust vets, they’re more interested in upselling whatever they can instead of doing what’s best for the dog.

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