Vets warn ticks are landing cats and dogs in hospital for lengthy stays

Up to twelve days in hospital. It sounds extreme, but thanks to an upswing in tick numbers around Australia, that's the reality some cats and dogs could be facing.

Animal Referrer Hospital Gosford, emergency vet Dr Natashia Evans has told 9news.com.au of one family dog left on a ventilator for five days after being paralysed by a parasitic tick.

And that's not even the worst case she's seen amid this year's 15 per cent increase in tick and parasite cases.

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Mathew's cat Samson was bitten by a tick in late October, he told 9news.com.au.

He noticed the "indoor cat" was acting unusually standoffish on his bush property on the NSW Central coast.

When his cat began retching and lost the ability to move, Mathew lept into action, taking the cat to Animal Referrer Hospital Gosford.

There, vets found a "sizeable" tick lodged on the cat.

What followed was a lengthy stint in hospital that cost his owner $16,000 when all was said and done.

Since paralysed pets cannot eat, move or use the bathroom themselves, alongside administering serum that counteracts the tick's effect, vets care for the animals until they're able to be discharged.

Mathew described the cost as "astronomical," but said he loves his pets like family, so was happy to see the cost through.

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He said his cat Samson was "very lucky" to avoid going on ventilation, which could potentially increase the bill even further.

Dr Evans told 9news.com.au ticks "don't only paralyse the leg muscles, they also paralyse the esophagus which connects mouth and stomach".

"So we often see regurgitation and vomiting as a consequence of the tick paralysis," she said.

"The number one cause of death and also tick paralysis is actually that when they vomit, they get that into their lungs."

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Vets often warn that without year-round tick prevention, family pets are left vulnerable.

Owners may shy away from tick prevention treatments due to the cost, but like all forms of insurance, Dr Evans said it could create a "false economy".

Dr Evans said the most extreme case of tick paralysis she saw left a dog on a ventilator for 14 days after being bitten by the small insect, with costs quickly mounting up.

Ticks are present all along Australia's east coast, but the top hotspots around the country are the following areas:

• Noosa and Sunshine Coast
• Gold Coast
• Brisbane
• NSW Central Coast + Hunter Valley
• Canberra
• Greater Western Sydney
• NSW South Coast

While pets are at higher risk of tick-borne illness, people are vulnerable to debilitating effects of ticks too.

Jacinta, from Avalon in Sydney's Northern Beaches shared a photo of several engorged ticks she found in her house this season.

She contracted 'Australian Tick Typhus', also known as rickettsial infection, two years ago, and is one of thousands of people who have dealt with tick-transmitted disease.

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Symptoms of tick paralysis include rashes, headache, fever, flu like symptoms and tenderness of lymph nodes.

It can cause "increased weakness of the limbs and partial facial paralysis", according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Some severe symptoms of tick infection can even lead to patients developing an allergic reaction to red meat.

Despite its frequency in people, the medical understanding of how people fall sick from ticks is far from settled science.

Dr Peter Irwin from Murdoch University is leading Australia's largest inquiry into tick-borne illnesses.

When their survey of 400 people who were bitten by ticks is finished, they hope to shed more light on "debilitating symptoms complex attributed to ticks",

"The whole purpose of our research is to try and understand why some people go on to develop chronic debilitating illness."

He contends that while the bacteria in ticks that can cause Lymes disease has never been found in Australia, something in Australian ticks can cause severe illness like rickettsial infections.

They hope to shed more light on what makes Australian ticks, tick.

In the meantime you can keep an eye on local tick levels, with a newly launched PetWatch website, developed by large vet chains Petbarn and Greencross.

Users can plug in their postcode, and find the alert level for ticks and heartworm in their area, as the tick season marches on.