Dog gets last-chance, life-saving diagnosis
PORTLAND, Oregon (KTVU) - Ollie, a 10-year-old Sheltie from Portland, has a new lease on life after his last-chance diagnosis.
Ollie's troubles began after he returned home from a trip to the Umpqua River.
When his family returned home, Ollie's owners noticed he was acting lethargic. He seemed weak and wasn't eating unless he was hand fed. He was also struggling to walk.
According to DoveLewis animal hospital, Al and Joelle Meteney first took Ollie to their regular veterinarian who couldn't find the source of the problem.
Ollie was given medication, but continued to get worse.
As Ollie's quality of life appeared to be gone, with no hope of recovery, the Meteney family made the heartbreaking decision to put him out of his misery.
They decided to put him to sleep at DoveLewis.
As veterinarians at DoveLewis prepared to put Ollie down they took a minute to comfort him. As visiting vet student Neena Golden was scratching Ollie behind the ear, she found a lump, which was actually a tick.
The veterinarian, Dr. Adam Stone, remembered he had heard of rare condition called tick paralysis. According to DoveLewis, "I had never seen a tick paralysis case. It’s one of those things you learn about randomly in school – it’s on one slide during one presentation,” he said.
They shaved Ollie so they could make sure he didn't have any other ticks. Then, it was a waiting game.
If the true cause of Ollie's health problems were due to the tick, Dr. Stone said he should get better within three days.
About 10 hours later, the Meteneys were shocked to hear Ollie up and walking around.
Now, Ollie is healthy again and back to his active life-style.