Pumpkin’s owner thought his cat was ‘going to die’ after a tick was found where he’d never think to look

Pumpkin the cat had been missing from his Sunshine Coast home for three days this winter when he was found in a neighbours’ yard, struggling to stand. With movement in his front legs, his owner assumed he’d fallen from a tree and broken his back legs, but a trip to the vet revealed something far more sinister.

The 10-year-old feline was shaved down, resulting in a paralysis tick being found on his on his tail. At that moment, his owner Gary thought Pumpkin was “going to die”.

“I thought he was going to have a heart attack or stop breathing, because his breathing was really bad,” he told nine.com.au.

“He’s finally become friendly because he’s always been anti-social. In the last 12 months or so he started wanting to get picked up and patted and everything like that. I was like, ‘I feel like he’s finally become family, and now he’s going to be leaving’, but thankfully, he didn’t.”

Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) vets also found a tick crater on Pumpkin’s neck, which means there was likely a second tick. But it was the tail location that particularly surprised them, with only one per cent of tick cases usually found in that spot.

It’s just one of several unusual locations ticks are attaching themselves to, according to a study of 10,000 paralysis tick cases from veterinary hospitals in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and Sydney’s northern beaches. 

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The research has been released to coincide with Tick Awareness month this September, following a 29 per cent surge in tick cases at SASH’s New South Wales hospitals between 1 August 2025 and 28 February 2026.

Other surprising locations ticks attach themselves to are the mouth – on the gums and tongue, nostrils, external ear canals and genitalia.

This doesn’t mean owners need to change how they do their tick searches as the research also confirmed the common sites for ticks in 73 per cent of dog cases and 63 per cent of cat cases is the head, neck or ears.

Dr Tim Hopkins, Emergency Veterinarian at SASH Northern Beaches, told nine.com.au this helps vets make the most of the time they have to locate ticks and get started on life-saving treatment.

“The study is really about improving how we treat tick paralysis cases because a tick search is never 100 per cent, it’s not foolproof. We know animals that are searched over and over and over again can still have ticks on them, and it’s a source of great distress to owners and veterinary staff that we really struggle to find ticks,” he said. 

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“So letting our people know about where they can find the most value in the tick search, as in concentrating on these areas, will hopefully improve the outcomes for these patients and maybe help owners find them as well.”

However, Dr Hopkins advised pet owners the study’s findings don’t mean they should change how they search for ticks and instead encouraged them to keep on top of giving their animal preventative treatment such as NexGard SPECTRA.

“You should be using a preventative to ensure that you don’t have to tick search your pet. It’s not a reliable way of finding ticks or preventing tick paralysis,” he said.

“By the time an owner finds a tick, usually the tick has already envenomated and given the animal the toxin. The most common finding is that they find a big engorged tick that’s been feeding for days, and they’re looking for it because their animal is sick. So they’ve already missed their opportunity to prevent that animal from being potentially fatally paralysed.”

Pumpkin’s owner Gary will never forget to give his cat tick prevention again after their ordeal, which left the kitty in hospital for four days. He admitted it had slipped his mind after moving house and starting renovations.

In addition to Pumpkin’s life-threatening experience, Gary revealed the cost of his cat’s treatment was about $6000, an expense that could’ve been avoided.

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“Prevention is far better than trying to cure your pet, so I’ve just set up a reminder on my phone every month… so I don’t have to go through this again at the vet thinking that you’re going to have to put your cat down. If I just had him on prevention the whole time, cost-wise, apart from the emotional stuff, would have been far better,” Gary said.

If you have any suspicions your pet has been bitten by a tick, Dr Hopkins urges owners to head straight to the vet as it is an emergency.

“Even if you don't find the tick, you should go immediately to your closest vet and know where your 24/7 vet hospitals are. Don't delay, be proactive; finding them earlier massively increases the likelihood of a positive outcome,” he said