bee stings!

Poor Sizzle is the unlucky victim to this! It has never occurs to me that my dogs will be attacked by bees!

It is a bit unusual for me to take Sing, Saturn and Sizzle out for a walk today and left the other three behind (now I thought about it, I felt lucky not to take the others with me). Not long after we got onto the Common, the episode happened. As usual, I let the boys off the lead when we step in the Common, off they went and I slowly catch them up. There were a digger in front trying to landscape an area of the Common, so I called them off the usual track and hopefully we could go around from the other side.

Sing and Saturn were with me but Sizzle off to investigate the digger. We were quite a distance from the digger, I was worried that the digger might hurt Sizzle so before Sizzle get close to the digger,I called him back to me. I can see he tried to turn back and ran towards me but he kept sitting down and biting his own leg. I thought he got thorn or prickle on his pad. I kept calling and he kinda run towards me in a funny way (limping and weird), when he got to me, he suddenly lie down, like he is collapsing. I can't figure it out why but I saw him biting his back leg, so I had a look, then I saw a few bees (maybe 6 or 7) attaching to his back leg. "Luckily" it was cold this morning, so I have my winter jacket and glove on, I tried to brush the bees off his leg but there were two seems to stuck on his leg, so I had to brush harder to get them off him. Just as I thought that was it, I saw more bees on his body, I started to get a bit panic. I tried to shoooo them off but gosh, these are bees and they were flying around us. I don't know what to do, I was so worried about Sizzle, so I quickly remove my jacket to use it to brush the bees off him. It was quite a scene. Sing and Saturn thought I was playing a game with Sizzle, they barked at us and I was panic that the bees might attacked all of us. I then quickly picked Sizzle up and ran away, Sing and Saturn were good to follow me to the edge of the Common. We then quickly walk home, of course Sing and Saturn on the lead and I have to carry Sizzle. He looked shock, shaky and tremble. Believe me, I still saw a couple of bees flying out from him when we were on our way home!

When we got home, I let Sing and Saturn got into the house, took the car key and rush Sizzle to the vet. I called Kevin on the way (I know I shouldn't call while driving but this is emergency!) so when we got there we got to see him straightaway. I think I was more shock than Sizzle when we got there. Kevin gave him the antihistamine and steriod jabs. He told me to use the hot & cold treatment to help reducing the swelling. I also asked Kevin to give him a good look at, he said the most dangerous parts are the face, throat and legs where there are not much hairs but Sizzle has a big coat, he is well protected. Good news is there is no bite on his face and throat!

I remembered reading a thread about "bee stings" in the sheltie forum, it said if you get a bee stings, put a penny on the bite for 15 minutes, it will take the sting out of the bite immediately. Well, this is apply to human, I am not sure if it works on dog but no harm giving it a try, I thought. I press a penny on Sizzle's bite for 15 minutes. I can feel the heat on his leg but I also feel the lump is getting smaller! I have heard cooper in the penny counteracts many things, well it may well conteracts the bite!

I am not sure if the jabs work or the penny works or even the "hot & cold" treatment works. The swelling in his leg is obviously gone down now. Phew!

can you see the swelling (red circle), this photo was taken after we came back from the vet

this is the similar photo to the above, just to compare the swelling leg and the normal leg

poor Sizzle, needs a lot of hugs and cuddles!!