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June 14, 2009 - June 20, 2009 (about 32 weeks old)

If your device does not support Pictobrowser, you may see the pictures at Flickr: "Sophie 32" in the "Sophie" collection.

After our wonderful weekend at the pool, I thought I'd be hard pressed to take any pictures to top the sheer joy that I captured on "film" for this week. However, on Tuesday, Sophie woke up looking like this:

Hangover? Nope, Sophie's on a non-alcoholic diet!


Backyard scuffle with the neighborhood bully? Nope, we don't have any of those in our neighborhood...


Turns out that our sweet Sophie woke up with a severe allergic reaction-- (to what, we don't know, but probably a bee, wasp or spider bite...) She was crying around 5:30am, waking me up. I went down to let her out and this poor miserable swollen face is what I found. I'm not sure what we ever did without the internet. I booted up my computer and did a quick search to see if Benadryl was safe for dogs and if so, what dose was safe for her weight...

I spent the rest of the morning just holding ice packs on her poor hot squishy jowls. Once the kids were up and off to school, we went straight to the vet where she received a diagnosis of acute anyphylaxis and some IV steroids and instructions to keep giving the Benadryl at 8 hour intervals through the day. Believe it or not, she was looking better when I took these pictures! When she woke, she couldn't even open her eyes because of the swelling!

I thought I'd put the pics here, instead of in the slide set, because if anyone is searching for allergic reactions in dogs or what to do, then perhaps this page will pop up. Hopefully the links provided will save some time...

The next day, she looked a lot better--most of her facial swelling had resolved, but she couldn't keep any food or water down. As the day wore on, she became more lethargic and itchy. An early evening trip to the vet helped with her dehydration--our vet injected some fluids under the skin and he gave her some anti-nausea medication, with orders to have her rest her tummy for the remainder of the evening (no food or water...) Turns out that her vomiting was residual sensitivity as the reaction worked it's way through her system. It was a tough couple of days for all of us. Sophie was miserable and we were so worried...

In my searching for what to do, I also stumbled on a few other interesting links:

--Common foods that are harmful or fatal to dogs
--ASPCA's animal poison control center

Thankfully, when she woke on Thursday, she was able to keep her food down, still sluggish, but obviously better. It's been road to recovery since and now, happy to report, that she's back to her old self!