Torque’s looking a bit lumpy

Do you have a first aid kit for your dogs?

When Fran got home from an agility trial about 2 p.m. Saturday, Torque’s face was all swollen. She called me at the shop and we went through the “how much of an emergency is this?” questions:

Is he breathing okay?
Did he vomit or have diarrhea?
Is he acting okay?
Did he eat his crate treats?

The list all had “he’s okay” results – so no immediate trip to the emergency vet. We know that lumpy swelling is usually a sign of an allergic reaction to some insect bite or sting, so we decided to give him a Benadryl and watch him. He was a bit lumpy the rest of the day, but the consensus among my Facebook friends (including a veterinarian or two), was to give him another dose and see how he was in the morning.

Sunday morning Torque looked and acted fine. The swelling had disappeared and he was his usual exuberant self; eating, playing, running around normally. So the entire family packed up and went to the second day of the agility trial – both Booker and Teddy were entered.

We had a fun day. Booker and Teddy didn’t qualify, but there were lots of good bits to both their performances. We got to spend time watching some wonderful dogs and people compete, spent time with friends. I took Torque around the venue to get him used to being at agility trials and even took him to play at the practice jump. He was fine.

Then we got home – about 3 p.m. And I took a look at Torque and his face was lumpy and allergical_Torqueswollen again. He was showing no other signs of trouble, so I gave him another Benadryl. I asked my long-distance veterinarian friend her advice, and she confirmed that as long as he wasn’t having any other symptoms, I could wait until this morning to take him to the vet.

The ebb and flow of the swelling and odd timing was a bit of a puzzle for them – but, as my friend had predicted for treatment, he got a steroid shot to calm his system down and three more days on Benadryl to keep it under control. We’re hoping that’s the end of this episode.

All of this got me thinking, we’re very “into” dogs and have all kinds of things of hand in case of emergency: Benadryl, hydrogen peroxide, gauze tape and pads, tweezers, antiseptic wash, flashlight, styptic powder (or corn starch) etc. Do you? How about dedicating a shelf in the medicine cabinet or a bin in the vanity for “dog stuff?” And putting a little kit together for the car. We should all be prepared, just in case of emergency.

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