b][/b] 
(!) At Old Hall, on wednesday night, we had a good turn out for trialling and a lot of pups had their first passes and my own bitch Holly (Fairweather Friend) was used to help in this. Upon returning home, I got Holly out of the car and proceeded along the path to my house. When we were about halfway down the path, Holly let out a yelp and at first I thought I'd caught her with my foot, but I thought no more about it. Within 5 minutes of being in the house I noticed she was a bit lame so I called her to me and examined the leg. To my horror I found that she had been stung just above the stopper and her leg was swelling rapidly. As it was now way after 9pm there were no chemists open so I had to use what was to hand. I gave her Arnica tablets to ease the swelling and bruising around the site of the sting/bite and, luckily I had some "Ater-Bite" in the cupboard which I rubbed all over mark on her leg. Obviously she objected as it was very painful, but, within an hour the swelling, while still bad, had started to go down. Having had previous experience of insect bites/stings in the past I know that the vet wouldn't have done any different unless the bite/sting had occured in the mouth, causing swelling of the tongue and/or the throat. As this is the second dog at our club to have had this happen in the last few days I would urge all owners to be prepared and keep something in stock at home. As for Holly, this morning she is trotting about quite happily but as there is still some swelling as far up as her kneck glands, I suspect that the "culprit" was a hosre-fly! They are particularly nasty and it takes a while for the poison to dissipate. So, take care Fellow racers, you never know what's out there! LOL
(!) At Old Hall, on wednesday night, we had a good turn out for trialling and a lot of pups had their first passes and my own bitch Holly (Fairweather Friend) was used to help in this. Upon returning home, I got Holly out of the car and proceeded along the path to my house. When we were about halfway down the path, Holly let out a yelp and at first I thought I'd caught her with my foot, but I thought no more about it. Within 5 minutes of being in the house I noticed she was a bit lame so I called her to me and examined the leg. To my horror I found that she had been stung just above the stopper and her leg was swelling rapidly. As it was now way after 9pm there were no chemists open so I had to use what was to hand. I gave her Arnica tablets to ease the swelling and bruising around the site of the sting/bite and, luckily I had some "Ater-Bite" in the cupboard which I rubbed all over mark on her leg. Obviously she objected as it was very painful, but, within an hour the swelling, while still bad, had started to go down. Having had previous experience of insect bites/stings in the past I know that the vet wouldn't have done any different unless the bite/sting had occured in the mouth, causing swelling of the tongue and/or the throat. As this is the second dog at our club to have had this happen in the last few days I would urge all owners to be prepared and keep something in stock at home. As for Holly, this morning she is trotting about quite happily but as there is still some swelling as far up as her kneck glands, I suspect that the "culprit" was a hosre-fly! They are particularly nasty and it takes a while for the poison to dissipate. So, take care Fellow racers, you never know what's out there! LOL
