Treating wasp stings

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by MissingAll4Seasons

I've got an email in to our vet confirming the doses for both, and whether the epi-pen could be used in an emergency if she started to go into anaphylaxis from the stings .

I was going to suggest the Clarityn "redi-tabs" I think they're called - they pretty much dissolve as soon as they hit the tongue. That's extremely useful if the dog does turn out to be allergic and has gone into shock - you can just put it way, way back on the tongue and it dissolves pretty instantly, so goes to work that much quicker.

We've got a highly allergic dog - which we found out the really hard way, poor thing. If we're ever more than a mile from home, I have a Clarityn somewhere about my person. When stung, she'll go into anaphylaxis and will then (as we discovered) "recover" only to break out in the biggest, fattest hives I've ever seen - she actually crinkled when she walked. They really do make the oddest sound. It's quite fantastic how just a little pill stops all that.

I have a human dose (I think it's a human dose, it's in a glass vial, the old fashioned kind you have to break the top off) of epinephrine in the house for her too - only to be used in the event of a rattler bite. Her "regular" anaphylaxis can just be controlled with OTC stuff.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Great idea about the redi-tabs. Normally she's not at all hard to give pills to... such a sucker for cheese or wieners or peanut butter, but she might not be able to swallow well or be responsive enough to eat anything if she's going into shock.

Our vet sai we could give her 1 1/2 human doses of benadryl or claritan because of her weight and faster metabolism, but to start with the lowest dose first and work up if she needs more. Since she was quick to recover with only 25mg of the benadryl, I'll stay there unless she builds a tolerance to the meds or a sensitivity to the wasps. He also said that the human epi-pen was fine but only if she was totally unresponsive to the benadryl or claritan and only if she was seizing or stopped breathing. he said even with the epi-pen if it got that ba, we'd probably lose her since we're so far from medical care... but I'm willing to try anything else I can before resigning myself to the pistol. Having to put down your own pets is the only real drawback to living in the boonies that's still hard for me to deal with.

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by MissingAll4Seasons

Our vet sai we could give her 1 1/2 human doses of benadryl or claritan because of her weight and faster metabolism

I should have said Little Miss Allergic is only 40-45 lbs.

Funny, I never thought of wasps being all the way up in interior Alaska.

[ESFP]

Same as the others. Benadryl. My dog likes to play with apples that fall to the ground and are often loaded with bees. He's not the sharpest tool in the shed, and never has figured out that they sting. If he gets a bad load of them, his whole face swells. Then it's a trip to the vet for shots.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

We have wasps, but not honeybees (unless they're imported). We have mason bees, bumblebees, and hornets, too. But normally none of them are a big problem except right before winter when they're looking to hole up, or if there's a nice half-rotten tree too close by. They've got plenty of space to be elsewhere and would rather leave us alone.

I've been planning to set up some honeybee hives once the garden is fully established... might have to rethink that if Ripley can't resist temptation!

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by MissingAll4Seasons

They've got plenty of space to be elsewhere and would rather leave us alone.

That's true of most insects or wildlife.

In fact, just the other day, we came across one of these in the middle of our path.

File:Micrurus tener.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Be gone", I said. Rather co-operatively, it went.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Luckily no snakes up here... just bears, moose, wolves and wolverines which she's wimpy enough to just bark ferociously at but not take off after them most of the time.