A mom in Tennessee is warning other families after a scary situation happened with her toddler.
Cayla Bailey's 2-year-old daughter, Natalie, woke up Sunday and wasn't able to stand, WRCB reported.
"When I bribed her with food and she wouldn't stand or walk, I knew that something was absolutely wrong. That's when we went straight to the emergency room," Cayla Bailey told WRCB.
Doctors couldn’t pinpoint what was happening to Natalie, but then her grandmother found a tick in the girl’s hair.
It was identified as an American dog tick.
"They kept saying that there was this new strain of tick toxin and it was causing paralysis in children in the lower extremities," Bailey told WRCB. "It would have caused paralysis all the way up her body and it would have stopped her heart."
Just hours after the tick was removed, Natalie was able to walk, WRCB reported.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the most common symptoms of tick bites are fever and chills, aches, pains and rashes. With Lyme disease, the rash can present itself as a circular rash within three to 30 days of a bite. A Rocky Mountain spotted fever rash will differ depending on who contracts it. Some who have Rocky Mountain spotted fever will not get a rash, while others will get it on the wrists, forearms and ankles before it spreads to the trunk. Other patients will get it on their palms and soles.
Tick paralysis, according to the CDC, is rare, and officials believe it can be caused by a toxin in the tick's saliva. Officials say the paralysis ends within 24 hours of removing the tick.
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