Can a tick cause a lot of pain?

[White Bryony]

I didn't see it but Woofie slipped whilst playing off the edge of the rug onto the laminate flooring and ended up with a very bad limp last night.

We examined his leg from toe to hip and nothing we did cause him to wince or show any pain but he struggled all night using his leg.  In the end I gave him a little bit of metacam and that seemed to ease it a bit.  We thought it was a strain.

However just before we went to bed we examined his leg again and found a big flat tick.  He was relucant to let us near it and it was obviously painful for him whilst we were touching it.  He was very good and let us remove it with the O Tom and we got it all out.

He struggled to get up the stairs to bed last night but this morning he is a little stiff but a lot better.

Do you think it is a strain/pulled muscle or did he bang the tick and could that have caused all the pain?

And would the tick have regurgitated its muck back into him and will that cause any problems.

I don't normally give them flea/tick treatment till April (I normally only do the spring/summer months) but will go out and buy some today.

Thanks for any advice, don't like to see my old man in any pain!

[spanielcrazy]

Ticks themselves don't cause any pain, I can tell you this from personal experience having had ticks on me, you don't even know they are there except by chance or if they are crawling  Tick borne diseases such as Lyme disease can cause painful joints. (there can be quite a time lag between a tick bite and the development of symptons) However I would imagine that Woofies limp is from the slip, and he was unaware of the tick, just didn't want his leg gone over again.

Hope he's feeling better soon, you could probably continue the metacam for a couple of days