# Poor dog - I am not buying any more syringes!



## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

JK on the syringes front, though it seems that every time I buy some to keep my stock of them up, something happens where I have to use them.

I went out to feed the goats and bloodhound this morning. I put out Maggie and Shady's food (Maggie is the bloodhound, Shady is the buckling), and fed the girls like normal. Only after milking Bree did I go to get the boy's water, and noticed that Maggie's face was easily twice as wide as it should be. Her jowls are swollen big time, her lips are even stretched pretty good. She was drooling all over the place. She couldn't pick up her food. I didn't have my phone yet, so I grabbed the water bucket she shares with my buckling and took it up to the spigot near our house, and doused it in bleach water and let it sit for a while. So I glove up (I am a germ freak, so any exam for any animal where I suspect a bite/infection/injury gets the latex glove treatment) and don't see anything right off that grabs my attention. I had my phone on me now, and I called the vet. His first thought was bug/Spider bite or wasp sting, since Maggie let me handle it without the least bit of acting ouchy. He suggested giving her benadryl, to help with the reaction. I can't find enough Benadryl here, so I go to the closest gas station and pick up some more. 

Mind you, while this had been going on, my husband was out getting hay this morning. So when I get back, he is home too. We get out there to dose her, and I think we got it all in her. 

Then I took off her collar to make sure she will be able to breathe if the swelling got worse, only to finally find the actual culprit in this situation. It wasn't bug bites or stings causing this. Needlegrass. Under her good looking coat, and especially under her collar, she had been getting needlegrass seeds stuck INTO her skin. She had numerous ones stuck in the folds around her head and the collar had forced some of the seeds fully under her skin. And those ones got infected. I pulled her out of the goat pasture so as not to chance the boy goat being exposed to any drainage from where I pulled the seeds out of her skin. Then I and my husband gave her the once over, looking (and removing) numerous other needlegrass seedheads. 

I called the vet back as soon as we had her out of the pasture, before we began removing the other needlegrass seeds. He told me I could bring her in, or if I had antibiotics on hand to give her 1.5ccs of PenG. I stupidly forgot to ask him how often I should be giving her the shots, but since it is PenG, I am guessing 2xday (will call back in a while to check). I already gave her her first dose.

I like bloodhounds. I cannot say I love them, as I am truly NOT a dog person, but a cat/catlike animal person (my herd queen is a cat in a goat's body). However, i don't think we will get another one after she passes. Those folds of skin are just too problematic when she is out in the pasture. I think what kept the goats from getting too many stuck in their coats is that I had clipped them short at the beginning of summer, so their hair wasn't near as thick or long as hers.

Provided she recoveres just fine from this (this is the same dog that got her hip dislocated by my car's bumper three months ago), she will not have a collar on so long as she is out in the pasture. Hers has to sit up in her neck folds, otherwise it slides right off her head if you go to grab it.


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## ilovegoats (Nov 27, 2013)

Awww poor baby  Must've taken a while to get all those out!


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## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

Well, after she started having bloody drool on Monday, and looked more like a bull terrier than a bloodhound from swelling on the bridge of her nose, she finally started to lose the swelling. The vet couldn't find where the blood was coming from when she was out on Tuesday, but by Tuesday her swelling was down slightly. They switched her medicines to Amoxicillin and Rimadyl. She now looks normal. She is acting normal, and even running a little (this is the dog that dislocated her hip back in May, so running is great actually).


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

problem dog! I love dogs, but I wouldn't want one with face folds. i think they're cute, but they look like too much maintenance! good luck with your Maggie! she sounds like a bit of a trouble maker....hehe.

oh, there was a bloodhound in my building who lived to be 18....in case you were wondering how much longer you had with your troublesome girl.....


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## Karen (Jun 22, 2010)

Some people get harnesses instead of collars for their bloodhounds for just that reason! She must have been sooo itchy, poor thing!


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

glad you got it figured out!!


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## Cactus_Acres (Sep 24, 2013)

Probably more like in pain instead of itchy. Needlegrass heads are close to 1/2 inch on the big seeds, and she had several of those embedded in her folds of her skin. I feel bad, because I couldn't see this going on. But then again, any behavioral signs in her (slowness, not quite lethargic but getting there in some regards) could be attributed to her age and her injury this spring. She has always been the type to lazy around until she felt like taking a solitary walk somewhere. 

She will go back out with the buckling when her antibiotic course is done, but next summer I will see about taking clippers to her and shortening/thinning her coat some.


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