What a scare! What a relief it all turned out ok. We’ve been there twice with Snowie, once at 2am when he woke me up and I reached out in the dark to stroke him and felt ears like stiff sponges. The vet gave us a stash of prednisone and said to administer 7 tablets immediately while the airways are open. Thankfully we’ve not had to do that yet. Both times previously we got him to the vet and he got a cortisone injection that worked wonders at bringing down the swelling. He can’t take antihistamines due to being epileptic (they appear to reduce his seizure threshold). Not all dogs have dramatic allergic responses, thankfully for those lucky ones.
No, no idea. There are lots of bees around (the entire place is filled with wild poppies at this time of year) so that’s likely. The prescription was for Prednisone to give in case of it happening again. I’ll pop in when I’m next going past and ask about an epi-pen.
What a scare! It's just as well you had antihistamine to hand - I must get some, as I haven't! Waiting for the vet to arrive must have felt as if it was taking forever. Lucky that you and J were both around too. I'm glad she was quickly back to normal (for Squidge!).
Poor girl, poor you, poor J just awful There's a lesson for all of us so thank you for posting Fiona. I hope Squidge os better today x
Well done for staying calm and reacting so fast!!! I bet you were a wreck afterwards though... Big hugs to Luna. Very odd that it was her paw AND her face...
I assume that it was something in her paw (either a bug or the sting) which she bit into and stung her on the lip. I'm pretty sure the huge swelling on her lip was the source of the facial issues, even though it spread all over her face. Poor little bean, it was horrible But... no lasting problems, she's completely over it now
I don’t think the swelling area is necessarily the actual spot of the bite or sting. I think some dogs react to an allergen by swelling up around the eyes, ears, and muzzle, and around the trachea, hence the concern for a blocked airway.
Has she ever been stung before. Most dogs don't have a big reaction to bee/wasp stings, but if she is allergic it would be very different. Our first Lab got into a yellow jacket nest on a hike and was stung many times on her face. She had a lot of local swelling but it was not life threatening. All of our dogs have tried to bite yellow jackets and apparently don't get stung when they succeed FWIW, Epi pens are very expensive (in the USA) and have a one or two year shelf life. The company that makes them here raised the price about 6x which made them very expensive for Firsts Responders to carry. You can accomplish the same thing with a hypo and bottle of epinephrine.
FWIW the dose for benadryl is 1 gram/lb of dog, so two 25g pills for a 50# dog, three for 75#. You can give that dose two or three times a day if need be. We have given it to Tilly a couple of times when she seemed to be very itchy and it worked well. We were visiting relatives in Missouri, and I don't recall whether we thought it was food related or pollen. It also is a bit of a sedative so it stopped the itching and helped her get to sleep.
Do they swallow them? I was listening to a fascinating podcast (The Health Report - ABC Radio National) about venoms, and they said if you swallow venom it won’t have the same effect as being stung with the venom - it breaks down when digested. Hence why snakes don’t die when they eat a mouse they’ve envenomated. They also said that the sting from the box jellyfish has a compound that removes arthritis! Any Aussies here willing to give that a shot?!
I don't know if they swallow them. I suspect when they bite one, they don't get stung, because they never react like they had been stung. I don't know if the rest of the world has Yellow Jackets, they are nasty critters here. They look like bright yellow bees, but they are attracted to meat and sweet things and can sting multiple times. They live in underground hives and will swarm out and attack things that disturb their hive. We don't have a lot of nasty critters in the Pacific Northwest, but Yellow Jackets are ubiquitous over most of the U.S. and some years are a nuisance here. Ginger was stung many times when she stumbled into a Yellow Jacket nest on a trail. She just stopped on the trail and covered her face with her paws as the wasps attacked her. My wife literally drug her a ways and wept the wasps off her with her hands. She only got stung once or twice but I believe Ginger got 20 or 30 stings on her face and ears. Her face and ears swelled up but it was just a local reaction and she was back to normal in a day or so. She attacked every Yellow Jacket she saw after that, but our other dogs do to and they haven't been stung so far as I know.
Would it be ok to give anti-histamines immediately in the case of an adder bite? We are going to a beach next week where there are lots of sand dunes and now I am panicking that the place with be crawling with snakes! Maybe they would lessen the impact of the venom in the system- now I've seen this thread I really want to be prepared.
It's not going to do anything to negate the venom's effect. Antihistamines work on histamines produced in the body, not on the venom itself. So if there is swelling caused, for an example, by an anaphylactic response, then antihistamines will help that. But the venom could still potentially kill you even though the swelling had gone down. If you think there is a high risk, I personally would keep my dog on a lead. Talk to local people about the actual risk and find out what vets locally carry anti-venom.
Thanks, I will not be ambling through the sand dunes, that's for sure, we will stay on the shore line. It's a good idea to talk to the locals about sightings, I hadn't thought of that.
Make lots of noise stamp about they will hear the vibrations and they usually hide. They bask in the heat on rocks and rocky areas so you can usually see them. Adder bites don't usually kill unless the dog has some underlying health issues just avoid thick scrubby areas speak to other dog walkers and if the area is new to you find the local vets telephone number. If you are unsure just keep your dog on a lead
Thanks, yes I have printed out all the local vet details and will put in my phone too. Stomping I can do very well!!
