Friday, July 14th, 2017 | Author:

Wookie was stung by a bee yesterday. Or more like she stepped on one. Just to back up a little…

Last week we paid for a membership to the closest dog park to us which is only a five minute drive from the house. We scoped it out the weekend before and liked that there was a separate section for little dogs. The annual membership is $50 for non-residents (it’s in a different city that borders ours) until July 1st when it’s reduced to half price.

Since purchasing the pass we’ve taken Wookie there a handful of times. The first time there was a group of dogs that met her at the gate and they ran off together which was so cute, but since then she hasn’t been entirely thrilled with the dogs she has met. She is always curious and will sniff them, but she really doesn’t like when they return the favor, and since she hasn’t really played with other dogs before she gets scared when they chase her because she doesn’t realize they aren’t trying to hurt her. In addition, she’s not very fond of male dogs in general although they really seem to like her. One in particular, a mini-Collie named Sheldon, would not leave her alone. She kept running away and finally I picked her up and put her on my lap and he was still trying to get at her. I’m hoping with time she will relax a little and learn to play instead of running away or just going off on her own to sniff around. I joked with Joe that she’s like her mommy – she thinks she wants to socialize but quickly grows weary and would rather be alone.

Overall I like the park because everyone there is friendly and the dogs are for the most part non-aggressive but they haven’t mowed it since we started visiting and the white flowering weeds attract bees. Which brings us back to yesterday. We lucked out and had the park to ourselves so Wookie could run around without being harassed. We spent a good half hour there and as we were leaving Wookie jumped up and yelped, but we didn’t see the cause. In the car she started holding up her right paw but after inspecting it twice I still didn’t see anything so I thought maybe she just sprained it. We stopped at Culvers for dinner which we decided to take home since we could tell she was not feeling well. We contemplating taking her to the vet which was literally across the street and open for another few minutes but ultimately decided against it since there wasn’t anything visibly wrong. Or so we thought.

Once we got home Joe was inspecting her paw closer, which of course she didn’t like so she was getting a little vicious with her biting (note to self: buy a muzzle for these situations). Finally he spotted a dark spot between two of her paw pads so we went upstairs into the bathroom where the lighting was better. We distracted her with treats while he spread her paw and I used tweezers to remove what we then realized was a bee stinger. It was very small, and I’m thankful she didn’t have an allergic reaction! Joe ran to Walgreens to buy some childrens Benadryl and we gave her a small dose. Within an hour she was back to her old self and even putting weight on the paw again. What a relief!

It’s always nerve-wracking trying to decide whether a vet visit is in order. If she was obviously injured it would be one thing, but in this situation we probably would have paid $100 just to have the vet do exactly what we did, so I’m glad we decided to wait and see. Today she’s acting normal except for a little diarrhea she had this morning which may be from the medicine. We gave her a smaller dose than necessary but since she’s feeling fine I don’t plan to give her any more unless her paw swells up.

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Category: Pets
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