Bird in a Spin as Summer Arrives Early As I write this it is ridiculously, bonkers hot. Thirty six degrees C in the middle of November. Midsummer has arrived in Spring. The Christmas beetles certainly think it’s Christmas and have emerged en masse. The beetles weren’t the only creature sent loopy by the heatwave. This morning on her way to work, one of our vet nurses had to pull her car over to make sure she hadn’t imagined what she had just seen. A pigeon had landed on a whirly-bird on a house rooftop and was rotating at a fairly fast clip, doing a reasonable impression of a Dervish priest dancing on speed. A whirling bird on a whirly-bird. It stayed on for about thirty seconds then flew off, somehow, in a straight line. Soon, the crows will be flying backwards to keep the dust out of their eyes! Will this hot spell affect the tick season? Quite possibly, yes. In laboratory conditions, where paralysis ticks are cultured for research purposes, temperatures below 7 C and above 32 C tend to be fatal to some developmental stages. This seems consistent with the observation that the number of paralysis tick affected animals seen at local vet clinics tends to drop off pretty dramatically after the 35 C plus heat waves we normally get around Christmas or early January. So it might be good news for pets if this mid November hot spell knocks the tick population about. Fingers crossed that that is the case, but please don’t become complacent in your tick vigilance until your local vet advises that the season is on the wane and the risk is much lower. Remember, with paralysis ticks it only takes a single tiny tick to fatally paralyse a susceptible dog or cat. Another reminder to be very mindful of heat stress in dogs. Dogs have very limited cooling capacity compared to us. Walk in the cooler times of the day and think about wetting your dog both before and after. If panting becomes intense or more noisy, stop immediately and actively cool your dog by whatever means are available.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 01:33:39 +0000
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