Thursday, August 28, 2008

Allergies Attack!

This morning I woke up to find Theo looking like this:

The whole right side of his face was swollen! He looked like that one kid at summer camp that had so many mosquito bites, their face swelled up and their eyes swelled shut. I checked in his mouth and all along the gums and under his lips to make sure that it wasn't an infection from a cut in his mouth. All clear. He wasn't in any pain, he just was obviously uncomfortable and itchy. He was licking his feet and scratching his sides. I figured it was allergies and gave him some children's Benedryl. Awhile later the swelling around his eye went down, but his whole muzzle was still puffy. Poor guy!

He's in doggy daycare right now. We gave them instructions to call us if the swelling didn't go down so we could take him to the vet. I have no idea what he reacted to. We didn't feed him anything new yesterday. I'm guessing the construction dust from the remodel got in his sinuses or something.

Once again we have an example of Theo getting sick and possibly needing vet attention right before we leave to go out of town! Ack! Husband and I will be gone for the weekend for a funeral so Theo will be staying overnight at the facility he goes for daycare. Hopefully we won't have any problems!

Update: The daycare just called and said that the swelling wasn't going down and the other side of his face was starting to puff up. Great! Husband is on his way to take him to the vet. I'm guessing they'll just give him a shot of a stronger antihistamine, charge us an arm and leg, and send us on our way.

Update again: Husband just got done at the vet. They said they thought it was a bite, even though they couldn't find one. Husband thinks they're full of sh*t and it was construction dust. Whatever it is, they're keeping him for the afternoon, shooting a bunch of stuff in him, and charging us $300 for it. Goodness this day just gets better and better.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh no! I hope he feels better soon! Poor guy!

Jenna Z said...

Oh, gosh, yikes! My first thought was bite, because of the impressive swelling and the localization of swelling. Hope they are able to deflate him a la Willy Wonka. :)

JuLo said...

Well I don't know if I would call the swelling localized. After an hour or so his whole muzzle was swollen like that. Heh. It could have been a bug, but the vet couldn't find a bite. Plus would a bite have made his whole body itch?

For $300 they better be able to deflate him! Hehe. It sounds like we just didn't give him enough Benedryl. I wasn't sure how much would be too much, so I gave him less than a tsp and then another 1/2 tsp about an hour later. It helped the swelling go down around his eye and seems to stop the swelling from continuing to spread. I just didn't want to kill him, ya know?

Spectater said...

theo is the kid in camp with all the allergies. sounds like you need pet insurance or something.

JuLo said...

When I find a pet insurance that isn't a complete ripoff I'll consider it. Some don't cover genetic problems, some only cover them. The lifetime value of the policies are always very low. It's a bitch to file claims, etc. Does anyone have pet insurance they like?

Ivy@PaperElixir said...

So sorry to hear about his itcy situation! My friend's dog had a spider bite one time (they think) and had the same symptoms. It did resolve on its own eventually. Hope he'll get over it soon!

We actually have VPI insurance. My company gives us a small discount, and we haven't tallied up all the benefits/bills this year yet, I guess it's really just more for peace of mind for something "catastrophic" (knock on wood)...

flanthrower said...

Hope Theo feels better soon.

Sorry you're not coming to Seattle for fun but I hope you at least get to take in some of the beauty here. It's one of the big things I'll miss when I move to Chicago in a few weeks! (EEEK!) Safe travels!

JuLo said...

Even though I was there for a sad occasion, there's no way I could miss the beauty of Seattle! :) Actually I spent a lot of the time in Tacoma, but we did hit the city to pick up some smoked salmon (Husband's favorite) from the fish market and have a yummy dinner. I blog about it on my non-dog blog when I get a chance because it was such an experience!

I tell you, being up north really makes me want to move up there (Husband is open to the idea too actually!). It's so gorgeous. The food is great. The people are friendly. The food is great. Did I mention the food? Yum! Again, that's just something I'll have to save for another post, but I would love to hear what areas you like in Washington. :D

mag said...

Gosh. Poor guy. Read your other comments, I'm really glad he's fine by now and everything's swell :) (pun not intended :P). We always used to joke that doggies spend more money than a person ever would on a trip to the doc's. It's sometimes quiteee crazy.

JuLo said...

Yes, doggy vet visits definitely break the bank. I'd say that top costs easily go to human health care, but a run of the mill trip to the vet always seems to run way more than when I go to the doctor when I'm sick.