What you're seeing in these pictures are two advanced cases of tick fever. The dogs were literally bleeding internally to death. This disease is contracted from tick bites. What happens when a tick attaches itself to the dog is that first it injects a chemical into the bite site that keeps the natural coagulation from happening. This insures a continuous flow of blood to the tick. Some dogs react negatively to this chemical and develop tick fever. The chemical causes a cascade type reaction in the dog's 
system that causes the break down of the blood vessels everywhere. Without treatment the dogs literally internally bleed to death. The only current treatment available for this is 21 days of a drug called Doxycycline. The cost for a 21 day treatment is 40.00 Every dog that is over 4 months old that arrives at the Las Minitas site is treated routinely for this. It is very common and prevalent. Dogs like these in the above pictures are easy to identify….they are extremely advanced cases. This is a big hazard at spay and neuter clinics because you can’t tell immediately that the dogs have it. When a female dog is spayed there is a substantial incision and we depend on the natural coagulation to seal the breaches around the stitching. When the dog has tick fever there is a possibility that she could bleed to death. You can see the importance of tick control. There is a blood test for tick fever but it is not routinely administered because of the cost. $18.00.
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