tick fever

Racoon has not recovered but he is even worse compared to a week ago. Yesterday he came down two stairs to the living hall...he just fell down. He is not eating at all. He sleeps all the time and refuses to move. He is lethargic and he doesn't even have the energy to walk. His legs look so wobbly. I carried him and he is much lighter.

I am pretty unwell myself (hangover from the exhaustive week in Singapore) and mother has been a bit cranky too (weather too hot). When I saw Racoon in such condition, I went on panic mode.

Took him to the vet again. He immediately suspected tick fever. He showed all the symptoms. The lesion is healing but he has gotten worse. Infact I notice another sore around the ear. From what I read (the goodness of Google), the lesion is probably due to the tick fever which started last week but got worse now because it was not treated. Just like dengue fever.

About a month ago, I was treating him for ticks as I noticed some on his body. Didn't realise that this round the tick attack is so bad. As the ticks are hiding in the grass, we have to spray the grass with the tick poison and try to get rid of them once and for all.

Anyway...back to the vet. He gave Racoon three injections: antibiotic, something to rid off the organism caused by the ticks and iron. The last, the iron was extremely painful. Racoon yelped and growled at the vet and wanted to bite him.

I also have to force feed him as he has no appetite at all. He refuses any sort of food...I bought a variety of canned food, gave him chicken, pork, milk, bread, eggs.....totally not interested. So now I have a syringe where I dilute the can food from the vet and just force it down his throat. On top of this, I have to give him medication twice a day....antibiotics and iron pills as his red blood cells are low.

Oh my....this is a real bad week for me. Have been in the state of panic for quite a few days because I just felt so helpless looking at Racoon. What a dramatic dog.