Bee Stings and other bites
It’s Spring! Dogs are frolicking in the yard and having fun! And they’re trying to eat bees!
Yes. The warm weather has arrived and so have the calls about swollen faces, spotted bellies, and itchy hives. While bees are the most common culprit, they are not the only things out there biting our pets. Black flies, horse flies/greenheads, beetles, stink bugs, and many other are all going to find ways to nail dogs whether provoked or not.
Bees cause the earliest issues since they are our feeding on the Spring flowers. Like with people, stings occur to dogs after provocation. Except, while people are usually freaking out & swatting when stung, dogs are trying to eat them. I don’t know how bees taste, but dogs clearly find them delicious because they will go back for more even after being stung. The most common result is the same as for people: urticaria. This is a general term for swelling, inflammation, and itchiness of the face. Many times, there are also hives on the body but these are hard to see unless the dog has super-short fur. Luckily, the vast majority don’t have a reaction beyond this and they can be treated with Benadryl. Most folks under-dose their dogs because dogs need a much higher amount of antihistamines than we do. Luckily, the dose is easy to remember: 1 milligram per pound. Since it comes in 25 milligram sizes, we are usually lucky enough to get pretty close to the average-sized dog that tends to get into trouble like this. If they are showing any signs of weakness or trouble breathing, this is a sign that they need to see the vet.
Another commonly mis-diagnosed bite comes from black flies. These, along with horse flies, will go for the area of least fur: the belly. While systemic reactions are low, it’s the skin reaction that ends up scaring owners with these guys. After a typical fly bite on the belly, the skin will develop a red ring with a red center… just like a Lyme bullseye on a human. So, it’s important to remember: dogs don’t get Lyme bullseyes. I wish they did. It would make our jobs easier and save owners a lot of money on lab work. But, we are stuck running tests for Lyme. In the case of these skin lesions, they can be locally itchy and will also respond to oral Benadryl, although a topical spray is usually adequate.
The last most common insect bites are to the ears. We call this fly strike and it is most common in outdoor dogs with little ability to get indoors away form biting flies. Black flies and stable flies are the usual culprits. During hot weather, they follow the dogs heat to the ear tips where much of the excess heat in the body is expelled. They will bite and suck blood recurrently until the ear tips become raw and crusted. Repellant sprays can work in some cases, but allowing dogs inside is the best remedy.