So this is what happened yesterday when I thought Spruce had an insane amount of mosquito bites on him, before I realized that it was hives instead of bites!
We had to take him to the vet yesterday afternoon for a major allergic reaction to some mosquito bites :( And when I say some I mean between 150 and 200! Last night Scott took Spruce, Willow, and Deacon to some tennis courts by our house to get a good run in before the end of the day, and yesterday morning when I took Spruce out of his crate he was covered in big red welps. It looked like my boy was covered in tumors, I freaked out! Willow has none that we can tell, Deacon doesn't have any bites either, and Scott has only found a few since then- it was only Spruce and he is covered from head to toe! I called Kathy that morning all distraught because in the middle of the night he started coughing and wheezing too, but I gave him some Robitussin DM and I haven't heard anything else from him. The vet said it was probably due to the allergic reaction and to see if the Benadryl and steroid shot she gave him works for the cough too. Poor Spruce has bites all over his ears and lips, both inside and out, and also on his eyelids which make his eyes more red and watery than normal. I gave him an oatmeal bath too and it seemed to soothe his skin a little bit, I'm hoping between that, the Benadryl, the steroid shot, and relief spray she gave me my boy will be back to normal in no time. I hated seeing him so miserable :(
This morning I woke up and got Spruce out of his crate, and his reaction was ten times worse than it had been yesterday! It absolutely threw me for a loop, he looked like he was wrapped in bubble wrap his hives were so bad. I called the vet immediately, but of course it took them almost 2 hours to call me back. Thankfully as the day went on Spruce's hives went down and he started to feel better, but he still hasn't eaten as much as he usually does. I've continued the Benadryl every 4 hours and that has made him really sleepy, I hope that's the only reason he's been such a couch potato today. As of about 4 this afternoon I can hardly tell that he had any reaction at all, and that's a miracle compared to how bad he was this morning. Heather Rodriguez can vouch for me, she got to love on him for a minute this afternoon when I met her to get more thank-you cards :) His eyes were almost swollen shut, his ears were almost 1/2 inch thick with hives on the inside and outside, his lips were swollen and looked like he was smuggling something in his jowls, and his throat had huge hives all down where his esophagus is. Whenever he would run or play at all he would start wheezing so I tried to keep him as calm as possible, which is quite a challenge! I'm just glad he's feeling better :)
I'm frustrated with our vet though, I understand that Spruce couldn't have another prednisone injection until this afternoon because it hadn't been 24 hours since his last one, but they wouldn't give me any kind of oral anti-histamine or steroid in the meantime to make him more comfortable. And when I asked if I could get a script for prednisone to keep handy for future breakouts they said that I was supposed to use Benadryl to tide him over until I could get him seen again the next time he has a reaction. The only thing that concerns me is that each reaction he had got stronger, this morning I was genuinely concerned that his esophagus would close up and that next time I won't have time to get him the relief he needs if I don't have something on hand to help him. I really love our vet, the whole Hensley family uses them and have nothing but good things to say, but at the same time I need them to back me up when I feel like something is wrong with my boy. I'm going to try and talk to her in person sometime later this week and see if I can get an epi-pen or something like that to keep on hand in case this happens again. I truly have no idea what started this whole thing, the only thing I can think of is some sort of weed or tree that is blooming and the pollen isn't agreeing with him. Whatever it is transferred from his body to the blankets in his crate, and us making him lay on it for hours at a time only made it worse. I feel like such a bad Mama :( But because I don't know the cause I'm certain we will have another episode, I just want to be prepared for it the next time he looks like a giant roll of bubble wrap!
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