I haven't written about our baby girl much lately. She is still the mutual love of our life. Grant can't imagine that the baby could possibly be cuter than Olive! She is constantly showered with hugs and kisses and has even won the right to sleep in our room - as long as she stays on her own bed. She's adjusted well to the multiple moves and likes having a playmate in my parent's dog. She is uber spoiled getting to go on off-leash walks twice a day - once by me in the morning and usually a second time with my mom in the evening. I think she is going to handle being a big sister very well - this baby will be covered in dog saliva, but I doubt there will be any hard feelings either way.
right when we got back from our walk
Anyway, last week I was walking the dogs in this wooded area we walk in everyday. They are both off-leash but stay close - Olive likes to investigate in the bushes and brush and Mickey stays at my feet usually. This morning - Olive ran back over to us kind of shaking her head and scratching at her muzzle a bit. She didn't seem that perturbed and ran back off. I didn't think much of it - figured she tried to go too deep into one of the blackberry bushes or something. Fast forward half an hour as we are walking back toward the house. I notice the left side of her muzzle is really swollen all of a sudden. It was probably a few inches thick and growing. I called the nearest vet and they said she probably got stung by a bee and to give her some benadryl. Hmm... ok. We got back to the house and I searched, but we didn't have benadryl.
the worst of it - on the way to the vet. look at all those ugly hives!
I could kick myself for leaving her and am lucky that things turned out okay, but I ran to the store to get some benadryl because I didn't think the zyrtec we had would act as quickly. When I got back poor puppy looked awful. She seriously looked like a monster and was SO distraught. She didnt' know what was happening to her. She was scratching at her face and throwing herself on the floor. I'm so lucky her throat never swelled up. Her face was completely swollen - her eyes were just little slits and she had hives on her entire body. I got an initial dose of benadryl in her and called the vet to tell them I was on my way in.
as the first dose of benadryl set in and her swelling started to subside
Poor baby - they said they don't usually see reactions this bad. They gave her an IV dose of corticosteroids and told me to keep her on the bendadryl and prednisone for several days. Happily, the swelling on most of her face and the hives were gone within a few hours. Later that evening I gave her an additional dose of benadryl and her first oral prednisone taking care of the rest of her swelling. It took her 5 or so days to get back to her normal self, but she is fine! I can't tell you how afraid I was - seriously, this dog is like my baby and I can't even think of what a mess I'd be if something happened to her. I called the vet back and asked for an EpiPen so I could dose her if she started going anaphylactic after another sting...they kind of laughed at me and said they don't prescribe EpiPens for dogs. I'm gonna keep working on it...
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