Frank on a better day
This Monday has kicked my ass and it’s only 3pm. After our normal morning family routine…Brian and I wake up…we wake Frank up…we let Frank out to pee…drink coffee while we cuddle and play with Frank in the living room…talk about our days…Brian gets ready for work…Frank and I move to the office…Frank chews his bone…I do emails…Brian leaves for the office. All went according to plan. Brian left for work and Frank and I hung in the office until Frank stole some papers out of the trash can. That boy loves paper and leaves. LOVES. When I finally noticed what he had done he had eaten half an envelope. Sigh. It’s been done before. I started to clean up the paper scraps that littered our living room rug when Frank started vomiting. I immediately assumed he must be choking on paper and tried to look down his throat to see if I could get anything else out. I saw nothing. He threw up again. I pet him and told him it was going to be alright. My heart was racing. What was wrong with him? He started to hack as if he was choking and his breathing became shallow. I picked him up…and he felt warm and heavy. He couldn’t even hold his head up. Something was seriously wrong and I started to cry. I threw on shoes and ran out of the house en route for the hospital. By the time we got in the car he was limp. I called Brian screaming and crying and telling him he had to come home…that I thought Frank was dying. I seriously thought he was going to die on my lap on the way to the vet. That was the longest five minutes of my life. I parked in back and ran in with Frankie in my arms. I’m not even sure if I was making sense. They must have thought I was crazy when I walked in, in tears and dressed in pajamas and no bra. Through my tears I explained that I thought he had choked and wasn’t breathing. They whisked Frank in back to be checked by the doctor while I sat in the waiting room crying. Pleading with God that Frank would be ok. The doctor came out and led me to an examine room and said Frank was stable but was suffering from anaphylactic shock. Did I know of anything strange he had eaten? Did he eat any medicine? Was he exposed to a bee or spider? I kept bringing up the paper he eaten but he assured me this had nothing to do with paper. He led me into the back room to see him. Frank was laying in a little oxygen chamber with an IV. He looked so sad. He explained that he had given Frank a shot of adrenaline to combat the reaction and now he wanted to monitor him to see his response. He told me in the nicest of ways that I should go home and wait for his call. It was so hard to leave him. Frank isn’t just a dog he’s our family and I couldn’t love him more. I can’t stand the thought of loosing him. When Brian got home we searched the house to find the culprit. Brian finally found it…a bee…dead next to one of his piles of throw-up. So there you have it, Frank is not only allergic to bees…he goes into anaphylactic shock when stung by one. SIGH. I’m never going to want him to let him to leave the house again. So many bees outside! After a very stressful morning Frank is going to be ok. I got him to the vet in time and he reacted well to the adrenaline (THANK GOD) and he can even come home in the next hour (CAN”T WAIT). The whole experience has left me completely drained though…and scared of bees.
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Poor mama, poor Frank! I’m so happy to hear that he will be ok.
Thanks, lady. It was terrifying!
Oh no! How scary! It’s so horrible when something happens to our dogs- they can’t say what’s wrong and seem so completely helpless. I’m glad Frank is ok and that you were able to have him treated, and I’m sorry he’s allergic to bees. I don’t blame you for being afraid of them.
That must surely have been a horrifying experience. I’m glad he’s okay. It would be useful to spray Frank with an herbal insect repellent. I use “No More Bugs”, by Living Blessed. It has olive oil, citronella and pennyroyal.
that is a great piece of advice. Thank you so much! I really appreciate it…:)
Awww! That must have been so scary for you (and for Frank!)! You acted really fast so he is going to be okay. It probably won’t be the last of health scares but now you know to keep Frank away from bees. My dog has survived so many things, we call him the dog with 9 lives: almost getting swept away when he decided to go into a stream with a very strong current as a puppy, eating chocolate and mice poison, eating rabbit poop (apparently this gave him Lyme’s disease, who knew??), eating carpet fibers (this was the scariest, we thought he was going to die), falling off our boat (this only happened a few months ago, I have NEVER reacted so fast and yanked him up by his collar up onto the dock since he fell between the back of our boat and the dock where there wasn’t much room and he hates water and has never been much of a swimmer), falling down an entire flight of stairs… it’s amazing how resilient they are!
You are making me feel better with all this!! I’m happy to know this stuff happens. I felt so bad that I didn’t protect him from that bee:( After this I honestly can’t imagine having kids! Must be so overwhelming:)
I’m SO sorry you and Frank had to go through that. Anaphylactic shock is so very scary!! My dog, Sophie, tried to eat a bee when she was a puppy and had the same reaction, and like you I was lucky enough to be a short car ride from the vet. Almost 6 years later and I’m still paranoid about those things! If your vet hasn’t suggested it, ask them about assembling a bee sting kit you can have on hand. I carry injectable Benadryl (better than pills because it gets into their system faster and they can’t throw it up!) and Prednisone tablets just in case. A Junior EpiPen can also be an option, but not all vets will prescribe it, and it might not be the best course given Frank’s smaller size.
Rashelle, thank you so much for all this info! The doc did mention having Benadryl on hand but didn’t specify form. Makes total sense to have it be injectable. Good point. I’m going to look into prednisone tablets and junior epi pen thanks to you! I really appreciate you sharing it with me. Glad Sophie is ok too:)
Poor little buddy! It’s so hard and scary to see one of our “kids” suffering like that! I’m glad he’s OK. Big hug for you!
OMG that’s terrifying! I’m so glad that he’s going to be ok!
Oh no! My dog Daisy, the-always-getting-into-trouble beagle, has had so many close calls. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world to know something is wrong and your dog can’t tell you what it is. Really glad everything worked out and Frank is going to be ok!
Thank you so much Jen. It was a really scary morning. As funny as this sounds…I didn’t realize how attached I was to him until this happened! I adore that little guy and the fact I didn’t now what was wrong with him felt horrible. Hope we never have to do that again. Thanks for your sweet words;)
Oh no! Poor Frank! I’m glad he is doing better! We had a bit of a scare with our dog a few weeks ago and it really is such a scary feeling. They can’t tell you what’s wrong with them which makes it so much worse! 😦