I just took 5 of my dogs out and my female catahoula's face immediately swelled up like a blimp. I had her on a long leash. The other 4 dogs were loose. She had her nose stuck down to the ground on something. I am guessing she got stung by something. I noticed her right eye looked odd and within in seconds, her other eye swelled up and her whole head started swelling, she looked even worse in the minute or so it took to get in the house.

I gave her 3 benadryls, called the local vet, who was closed and went out to see if I could find what got her.

There should not be any poisonous snakes in my area.

Besides the swelling, she seems absolutely fine. Is there anything else I should treat her with or watch for. I've had lots of dogs stung, but I've never seen a reaction like this.

Keith

Face stings can really swell up on some people and critters. Probably a honeybee. If the throat is not swelling shut it should be fine but look bad for day.
Benadryl should be enough.

X2. Just make sure she has plenty of water to stay hydrated. If she's no better by tomorrow then call your vet.

Benadryl was the correct move...My golden likes watching me work with my bees, but does so now from a safe distance...

Yep, face stings are always way worse. A lot of bee keepers work bees in their T shirts and shorts but most all cover their face for this exact reason. I've had the pumpkin head thing going a time or two. Eyes so swollen shut, nobody would guess I could see a thing. Breathing is the big issue if truly allergic (as stated).

Seems kinda cold in these parts for stinging insects to be out. But I don’t have any other idea

Thanks. I searched the area again and found dozens of tiny black spiders, that were moving very fast for it being barely above 40F. I covered a large area with Sevin Dust and then redusted it with Permectrin Dust. If it was a spider bite or bites, do I need to treat her differently?

Keith

It's barely above 40F here. I think Brandy probably stuck her nose down into a hole, whatever bit or stung her was living in. There's a bunch of small black spiders running around over a 30' by 30' area. They're hopefully dead spiders now. I now suspect there was a female spider guarding an egg sack, that may have bit Brandy or that she may have ate some of the spiders and liberated the others from the sack.

Keith

Brandy looks terrible still, but much better. Her eyes were almost completely shut and her head was ballooned out more. She was much redder. The benadryl appears to be helping. She has no pain or sensitivity and seems to have normal energy. She's been wrestling her brother.



Keith

over wintering queens on their stingers there is not backward quills so she can sting and release multiple times all the venom they have

I found a live mosquito in the middle of the lake while ice fishing about 2 weeks ago.

That was probably a midge. They look like mosquitoes but aren't.

Still was surprised to see any bug on an ice covered lake this time of year!

Yeah, first time I saw them I was confused for sure.

If it was an in the ground nest it may be a yellow jacket or bubble bee sting. We have had some mild weather recently but has turned snowy once again around here. When the weather was balmy warm, we had a lot of bee and various fly activity in those few days. I am going with a bee sting more so than a spider bite.

what you saw was a Crane fly or Tapulidae they do emerge in the winter. Their larvae feed on decaying wood products.They look like a big mosq and walk about on the snow.
If it was a midge or chiromidae then you should have been fishing with some bare red hooks because the pan fish eat them like crazy when they are emerging

Still two feet of ice and we did alright as it was.

Saw a grasshopper the other day. Couldn't believe it, but there it was! Lots of cracks in the ground here from being so dry, figured one made it through the winter in one of those.

I keep a vial of prednisone or dexamethasone and an insulin syringe in my first aid kit specifically for bad allergic reactions. It came in handy when the dog tried to eat a viper a couple of years ago.

Up here there are more than 20 grasshopper species that overwinter. It is really funny when they jump off a rock shelf and land on a 4 foot snow drift, and their first flight take off lands on more snow,meanwhile their core temp drops and sometimes they have to crawl off the snow drift.