My Shepherd looked like a Shar-pei
Sunday afternoon when I went for a walk with my little Myla girl to take her out, I saw that she had a swollen face. She seemed to be a little itchy, which was noticeable as she kept pushing her head into my hand. But other than that, she didn't seem to be bothered by it. She appeared to be the Happy girl she always is!
Allergic reaction
In the course of the evening the swelling also seemed to disappear again, which gave us the idea that she had a mild allergic reaction to something. Maybe a wasp sting? My partner was also stung by a wasp on Sunday. Not so strange that I thought of that. There was also a distinct bulge on her lower jaw, just near her cheek.
As is Myla's own, she didn't want me to take a closer look. As soon as we tried that, she turned her snout away, and quickly walked to another spot. It was not completely without pain or itching. That much was clear.
Because she was not short of breath, we decided to see what would happen. And before we went to sleep, everything seemed to be pretty much back to normal. The worst swelling had diminished significantly, and she looked like a shepherd again instead of a Shar-pei.
How different it was on Monday morning!
Her entire snout was swollen, and her right eye was almost closed. Myla still showed no pain, but I decided to take pictures of her to send to the vet. I knew that as long as she didn't show any signs of shortness of breath it wasn't life-threatening, but an allergic reaction can be annoying, and you want to get it fixed for her as soon as possible. An injection of corticosteroids or adrenaline can make the symptoms disappear within a few hours, or at least make them much less.
The vet called me back pretty quickly and said asked if I could see a clear spot where she would have been stung and again asked if she was short of breath. Because she wasn't short of breath, he didn't think it was necessary to come to the practice right away, especially since Myla is 13 years old and didn't seem to have any other problems. She had a swollen face, but she was just playing with Skipper and Lana outside. She even ran happily after the ball. Few signs of a sick dog. Better to just look at it and wait for the swelling to subside… which should normally happen within 24 to 48 hours.
Fortunately, Myla didn't seem to disappoint me, because even now I saw the swelling slowly decrease. So we thought we could breathe a sigh of relief!
Oh no, not again!
Until the dogs had their evening meal. Pretty soon after that, we suddenly saw that Myla's snout started to swell again. I immediately wanted to run to the vet, but my partner stopped me. He first wanted to know if I had fed Myla in the morning, before or after I saw that her snout was completely swollen. I had to think about it for a while, but then I was pretty sure I had fed her before I took the pictures. And that could indicate that Myla has developed a sudden allergy to her food.
After we had established that, my partner called the vet again. Discussed with him what is wisdom now. In any case, for the rest of this week, she won't be allowed to eat the chunks she got every day. It is possible that these chunks have changed in composition, causing Myla to develop an immediate allergy. The packaging had only just been opened ... so this is not impossible.
If we could only tell for sure what the problem is
It is also still possible that it was a wasp sting, or a bee sting. A wasp releases more venom, and humans and animals are more likely to have an allergic reaction to it. But a wasp won't let her sting. (Yes it is HER sting, only female wasps can sting. And not once but several times). A bee, on the other hand, leaves the stinger with the poison bag. The bee also dies after the sting, but the victim is left with the stinger with the poison bag. If Myla got stung by a bee, then there's a stinger with a poison bag somewhere. That can cause the recurring reaction. The sting is easy to remove with tweezers, or even by flipping the stinger up with your fingernail and removing it. But for that, your dog has to cooperate. And Myla doesn't intend to. She doesn't sit still for a second, and even when the two of us try to look back, with one of us trying to keep her face still, she still makes it quite impossible for us.
The vet has advised us to keep an eye on it, as long as Myla does not become short of breath, there is no immediate reason to intervene. The sting of a bee also comes out of the puncture wound. It just takes a little longer for her to suffer from this. IF it is at least.
There is also the other possibility that she has developed an allergy to her food.
Worries about a dog is never fun, not easy either. You want to give them the best, and if they don't feel well, you want to fix it for them as quickly as possible. But sometimes you can do so little. She herself cannot tell us what the problem is.
Cooking for the dogs
So last night I was cooking an extra meal. This time not for us, but for the dogs. Skipper and Lana are fine with it, but unfortunately Myla doesn't want to know much about it yet. Soon to the supermarket to buy some fish for the next meals. It won't be a cheap week, but sometimes you have to do something. Whatever it takes to keep my dogs happy, and to get Myla back to health, I will do for them.
They are now all getting a home-cooked meal twice a day this week. With ingredients that are NOT included in the kibble they eat every day. When Myla's allergic reaction has gone away, and we don't see any new swellings, they will get the kibble they get every day for the first time on Saturday morning.
If Myla starts to have an allergic reaction to that again, we know that she is allergic to something in the kibble. Then it's just a matter of figuring out what it is. Which is still a very long way, and an even longer way to find out what she can have, and also likes and is affordable. Because an allergic dog in the house means a change of food for 3 dogs.
But hopefully it was a sting from a wasp or bee or something like that, and it will only provide some extra inconvenience for all of us this week.
For the dogs, I want nothing but the best I can offer them.
They give me everything they can give, and that is every day plenty of love, fun, joy of life and their unconditional loyalty.
Now let's hope that Myla will recover completely soon ... The life of a dog mom is not always a bed of roses, but is varied every day.