Tag Archives: dog allergies

Torque’s looking a bit lumpy

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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.

It’s all his fault

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Teddy and meWe love having the opportunity to travel with our dogs. And we’re fortunate that they’re all terrific in the car.

Never utter a peep. Which is why, on my (Hope’s) recent road trip, I didn’t notice until a mid-afternoon potty break (for me and the dogs!) that Teddy had been bitten by something and his face was swelling up.

Teddy has had a couple of allergic reactions over the years, so I always have some Benadryl with me in the dog-travel-box. I gave him a dose and decided there wasn’t anything else I could do at the time, other than to continue to our destination and check him every half hour/45 minutes.

Which is why we wound up having a very difficult afternoon. It’s all Teddy’s fault.

The six-lane highway we were traveling on was completely stopped. Apparently there was an accident up ahead. All I could see was an endless line of cars and semi-trucks, all stopped dead. For over an hour.

Since we weren’t moving, I was able to check on Teddy. He was fine – breathing normal, swelling and redness next to his nose already starting to subside.

When we finally got moving again – and I have absolutely no idea why we’d stopped, because the highway was entirely clear by the time we got to wherever it had been – we motored along happily until our next Teddy check.

It wound up being only about 30 miles from our destination, but I thought it was important to check him on schedule. He was fine.

But he was also why we were where we were when we were – where I really, really, would rather not have been.

Back on the highway, a big, white SUV went racing by in the lane to the left. Then it cut me off, zooming for what he/she thought was an exit, and turned out to be a truck weigh station. He must have been going over 100 mph. When he saw it wasn’t an exit, zoomed back, cutting me off and racing down the highway – with three police cruisers now in pursuit.

I could see the police closing in and the SUV attempting to weave in and out of traffic, finally skidding out of control, hitting the center barrier, and spinning back across all three lanes of traffic. The three police cars surrounded it – stopped any which way on the highway.

Meanwhile, all the non-involved traffic (like me!) was trying to figure out which lane to be in, how slow we should be going, which lane we could creep by the debris, and how to let three lanes condense into one shoulder-creeping line without anyone else being smushed.

I saw one of the officers grab the SUV driver’s door open – but I couldn’t see anything inside other than the side air bag had deployed.

Much too much excitement – and it was all Teddy’s fault.