Those of you who are Facebook friends will already have seen this, but I had a scare with the Squidgy one last night. We’d had our evening walk quite late, getting back about 21:30, then I sorted the dogs’ dinner and we settled down to cheese and biscuits, because I simply couldn’t be bothered to cook. After she had finished eating, Luna settled down with us in the living room, but after a while started to give an occasional bark. This is quite out of character as she only normally barks through frustration. Still, we thought, she’s in season, so maybe the hormones are getting to her. Or maybe she just wanted to get on the sofa. So we ignored it, other than raising an eyebrow, but then I noticed she kept licking at her left foot. OK, I though, she might have something stuck in it. She left me look at it, and I couldn’t see anything (but she does have exceptionally hairy feet!) but then she flinched and pulled it away. Suspicions confirmed, I had another go but still couldn’t see anything wrong with it. A couple of minutes later, she jumped onto the sofa, which we thought would settle her down; it did for about twenty seconds. Then she started rubbing her face - I immediately went on high alert because she had suffered from conjunctivitis a lot as a puppy, so face rubbing is on my radar. She then leapt onto one of the dog beds, continuing to rub her face then back to the sofa, frantic in her actions. I pretty much rugby tackled her to get her to stop, and that’s when I saw her snout was swelling up before my eyes. It was already huge as I shouted to J that he needed to call the emergency vet - as he grabbed his phone and started looking for the number, Luna’s left eye started to swell. Luckily, I had some antihistamines to hand, so I quickly Googled the dosage and got those into her. Terrified that the reaction was coming on so fast and worried about her airway being affected, we bundled her into the car and started driving as I continued searching for the number. I had the vet’s regular number but it was going to answer phone and Google wasn’t bringing up any results for the emergency number. Damn these Spanish and their slow adoption of the internet! I went to the Facebook page of the local area and asked on there if anyone had a number - we were only about five minutes away, but every second could count. I had lots of responses for other vets farther afield, but none for my town, so we decided to get to the clinic where we knew the emergency number was posted outside. I know this because we had saved it previously, just in case we needed it! We just couldn’t find it in our worried state. We called the number and our vet came immediately. It still took her a while to arrive, during which time we tried to settle our frantic dog, but thankfully the antihistamine started to do its work and the swelling to her eye subsided slightly. When the vet arrived, she first checked Luna’s airway and temperature (Luna all the time trying to clean the vet’s ears) and assured us she was in no danger of the airway closing; that we had done the right thing giving her the tablets and calling her out. She gave Squidge a thorough check-over and injection before sending us on our way with a prescription for follow-up meds. Over the course of the night, the swelling subsided and she’s now completely back to normal. As normal as an eighteen month old Lab will ever be.
Oh no! Poor baby girl!! That must have been so terrifying.. I’m glad to hear she’s back to her usual self. Do you have any idea what might have caused it?
My heart was in my mouth reading this but so happy all is well now. I can't imagine how terrifying this must have been
Oh my goodness, what a fright and made worse by not being able to find a vet immediately. Thank heaven all is now well.
Do you think you could maybe sticky a post about antihistamine dosage on the health forum, in case it happens to any of us? I'm very glad to hear that Luna's ok. Maybe she got stung by a bee?
Glad she's ok. It's terrifying to watch. It happened to Moo her head swelled like a cabbage,. We were worried about her airway and like you rushed her to the vet. Just keep an eye on her do you know what she reacted too? Hope you and J are ok too.xxx
Oh that’s so frightening. I’m very glad it had a happy outcome. I really must get something like Piriton to keep in the house as Molly is a devil for going after bees.
Phew, that was a scary read. Thank goodness you recognised what was happening and acted so promptly. Could have been a very different outcome.
Gosh, how horrible. Well done for having the anti histamine and getting it into her. Did you use anti histamine for humans? Just curious as it seems we have to be prepared fir anything with our dogs. Anyway, pleased she is ok. Bet you are exhausted.
What a scare, and so good that you recognised what was happening and had such a quick reaction. Glad Luna is ok now.
That certainly was a massive scare. Now I'm thinking I need to get some antihistamine tablets in just in case. Coco is showing a passing interest in bees at the moment. Thank heavens she's back to her normal self.
Poor Squidge. Kudos to you for acting so quickly and keeping a cool head in a crisis. I would have been a useless puddle of panic.
I just used generic cetirizene hydrochloride that I had "lying around". I looked up the dosage for it first. you can also use Piriton and Benadryl - I have an infographic for that somewhere I'll dig out. I've decided I'm going to gather all my dog meds, some of which are in rather nondescript packaging, and write on them what they are for and the dosage for dogs so that, in an emergency, I don't need to look anything up.
Wow, so organised under pressure, well done you, very scary. I am getting some to put in Maisy's first aid kit, this is a reminder for us all to sort out our dog meds and a good idea to write on the packets too.
Well done you!!!! Wasps galore in UK at present. Portion at the ready. Whoops I meant piriton.good girl lunaxxx
Good time is now to stock up when the first flowering is finished... June/July there is a bit of a gap, then the bees can be a bit tetchy, depending on where you are in the world.
