Scary Saturday

Saturday morning we had a great time. My mom, Ryan and I went down and participated in the Color Me Rad 5K. We had a blast (there will be a recap with tons of pictures coming SOON). We had left the house around 5:45am, so the rest of the afternoon we took it easy – with a little Tigers baseball and maxin’ and relaxin’.

Around 3:30pm or so Ryan decided that he would take Walt up to the school to run him around and get some energy out before we had to crate him while we went to church. He came back probably 30 minutes later with Walt in his arms and ran in the house saying ‘Something is wrong’. Come to find out, Walt had stepped on 2 bees while he was up in the park. He threw up and then got pretty out of sorts (not to mention freaked out since Ryan was freaking out). We called one of the vets that was open nearby (our normal vet closes at 2pm on Saturdays). They said since he had thrown up and was acting lethargic that we should bring him in. We ran him over to the vet and they took him back. We had to fill out some forms, since it wasn’t our normal vet, and had to wait. The doctor came out and let us know that they had to pull 2 stingers (one that still had the full bee butt attached), give him a steroid and some Benadryl. They kept him for a bit, saying that they like to see the dog’s heart rate around 80 beats per minute and Walt’s was closer to 160. They weren’t sure if it was due to the bee sting or because he was freaked out. They told us we should probably get a cone (of shame) so that he wouldn’t bite and lick at his paw (which could lead to infection) – but we decided that we would put a sock over it instead to keep him away from it.

 

They told us that we should keep Pepcid AC on hand, since he has had a reaction (and in case it happens again they want us to be prepared) that has made him throw up. Apparently something in the bee sting triggers something in puppy stomachs that cause the acid to skyrocket, which is why they throw up. They also told us to keep Benadryl on hand for the itching (not to mention it will help him relax a bit).

We were able to get him back to the house around 6:00pm and then I ran over to the grocery store to pick up those medicines. We have never given Walt anything but his dog food and dog treats, so I wasn’t sure how he would do with cheese for the pills, but he just swallowed them down (I don’t even know if he tasted the cheese… he just seemed to gobble it down so fast).

We put a sock around his paw and taped it on with some duct tape (that way it wouldn’t slide off if he wanted to walk around the house a bit. He laid down for most of the night, but we were able to get him to eat some dinner (not sure if it was the medicines that made him hungry or the fact that he had thrown up his food earlier).

 

Thankfully when we woke up Sunday morning he seemed to be back to 100%! I think sometimes experiences like that are scary for the “parents” than the “kids”. We will be staying away from that school for a while (or at least until they cut the grass which hopefully will keep the bees away). I’d really love not going to the vet again anytime soon J.