Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Lumpy Lumpy Stella

So I noticed something very strange about Stella the other morning. She was looking up at me cute as can be but her hind quarters seemed, well, bumpy. "Stella, what is wrong with your leg?" I asked. On cue, Stella twisted around and started chewing on her leg.

Upon closer inspection, I found that Stella had huge bumps all over her rear legs and bottom half. She seemed a little itchy but not overly uncomfortable and she was not having difficulty breathing, drinking, or eating. She was still playing like normal as well. Her vet was closed that day so I did some online research and then ran to the drug store to pick her up some Benedryl and Oatmeal bath.

The lumps went down after adinistering the Benedryl and the bath but did not clear up entirely. She was fine until about bed time. She became restless and uncomfortable. The next morning her hives started appearing all over her body and face, and she threw up a few times. Our vet is awesome so they saw her straight away, squeezing her in between appointments.

The vet gave Stella a shot of Benedryl and a steroid shot. They also gave her a two week supply of meds. The hives were gone by the time she got home. They told us that we had done everything right with the Benedryl tablets and oatmeal bath. If it happens again, we should do the same thing and then give them a call.

She obviously had some sort of alleric reaction. The most obvious suspect to me is the bed sheets. I usually wash the bedsheets in Woolite / Zero bc I have sensitive skin. Mark (the bf), however, washed them in Tide.

I tried to get some photos but unfortunately they did not turn out very well.

7 comments:

Pug(s) and Bugg said...

POOR STELLA!!! I always wash with Arm & Hammer sensitive skin it has no dyes or fragrances, since I get insanely itchy especially when my skin is dry (fall/winter) when we wash with normal detergent. Poor Stella seems to have the animal version, aka x100!!! I hope she's feeling better soon!

Tara said...

This happened to Quincy a while back and her whole body swelled up in hives and her face got so swollen and distorted that she looked like a Sharpei.

We got pretty much the same treatment at the vet. They gave her an injection of Benadryl and told us to go buy some liquid Bendryl and administer every so many hours.

So we feel for you, Stella. Hope you're all better soon!

Molly the Airedale said...

OMG, poor Stella! We hope you feel better soon!

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

Murphy Dogg said...

Hey Stella,
That totally sucks! Hope you feel better soon and that your mom doesn't let your dad do wash anymore. My dad always screws up Mama's wash too, so he's not allowed near it anymore. Methinks screwing it up may just be a ploy to get him out of laundry duty ...
C-ya,
Murphy Dogg

Mack said...

I sure hope Stella's itchies are clearing up fast. We don't let our dad do laundry over here either!!

Boo Casanova said...

oh stella, luckily didn't get the e-collar treatment. allergy to the bedsheet huh. i must tell mom if anything wrong with me, it might not bcoz of me!

wet wet licks

Boo

Anonymous said...

Thanks everyone for your well wishes to Stella. Fortunately she seems to be doing great and she know longer looks like a furry little Quasimoto.