Rush to the emergency vet – Take three

Well lookie where we are AGAIN.  Yup back at the emergency vet.  This time we went to our allergy specialist place which is also and emergency facility.  The poor guy looked really bad this time and after talking with the vet it sounds like it might have been our fault.  For any of you that have been following this blog for awhile now you know that we have been giving Riggs allergy shots to see if we can get his allergy issue under control. Well tonight was his scheduled night to get his shot.  Riggs has been on the shots long enough now that he is up to the full and strongest dose.  The allergens are in a vial with a mixture of saline and the allergens will separate from the saline over time.  So each time before giving his shot we flip the vial back and forth several times to mix it up well.  We think what happened is that we did not mix it up well enough and Riggs ended up getting too strong a concentration of the allergen.  Here is what the poor guy looked like about 15 mins after he got a shot of Benadryl and steroids in him.

Is Atopica the culprit?

The allergy shots have began for Riggs but at the same time Mama continues to search the internet for other possible causes and remedies for Riggs itching.  One of the medications he has been on is called Atopica.  Many of the side effects are things Riggs showed signs of when he had a severe reaction.  It is very possible that the medicine that was suppose to help his itching was instead making it into a much more severe issue.  Now it will just take some time to see if he has any more severe reactions or not.  Hoping for the best.

Riggs is allergic to...

We finally got Riggs skin bacteria infection cleared up and today was allergy test day.  Part of Riggs's chest/stomach area was shaved and his skin was pricked with various different trees, grasses, weeds, molds & smuts, house dust mite, insects, and others.  Anything that registered a 2 or higher is considered to be allergic too.  As has been the pattern with Riggs since we first got him, he was allergic to almost everything.  He did best with trees and horrible with everything else.

• Out of 20 different tree species he scored 2 or higher on 9 of them
• Out of 5 different grass species he scored 2 or higher on all 5 of them
• Out of 9 different weed species he scored 2 or higher on 8 of them
• Out of 12 different molds & smuts he scored 2 or higher on all 12 of them
• Out of 5 different house dust mite he scored 2 or higher on all 5 of them
• Out of 4 different insects species he scored 2 or higher on all 4 of them
• Out of 3 others (cat, feathers, & wool) he scored 2 or higher on all 3 of them

What is the next step you ask?  Allergy shots for the rest of Riggs' life.  Apparently dogs can not build up as strong a resistance to stuff like humans can so the shots will have to be forever.  So today we got to learn how to give Riggs a shot.

To give a dog a shot you pull up the loose skin located right behind his head and stick the shot into the pocket of space made from pulling the skin up.  We will have to give him a shot once every 3 days which will spread out to once every 10 days and eventually to once every 20 days.  Total bill today: $824.78.

Riggs shaved chest/belly area.  The little line of dots is all the various needle pricks they did testing on the various allergens.

Rushed to the emergency vet!

What a horrible stressful day today.  Riggs had to be rushed to the emergency vet tonight.  Earlier today was Riggs' yearly shots.  So we took him to his regular vet and dropped him off.  Unfortunately, we think our vet got a little behind and did not give him his shots till close to the end of the day.  We came to pick him up right as they were closing.  We were heading back to the car and could tell there was definitely something wrong with him.  Riggs started to throw up, his tongue got really pale and he was rubbing his face hardcore.  We could tell his muzzle and snout was all swollen.  Riggs was having a severe allergic reaction to his shots.  The vet was closed and told us we needed to take him to an afterhours facility (what the hell!).  We rushed over there, the poor guy was itching so bad and you could tell he was really nauseous.  The emergency vet gave Riggs a shot of a strong concentration of Benadryl and a steroid shot.  After about 30 mins, he looked much better.  Poor guy was wiped out and slept the whole rest of the night.

Only Riggs would be excited to go to the vet

It is time to take Riggs to the vet to get his next vaccination shot and he is all excited to go.  You are the only dog I know of that gets excited to go to the vet buddy.  Such a strange dog you are Riggs.

Shots

Talking about a lot of shots a puppy has to get over the first several months.  Good grief.  Today the list of shots included:

• Corona Virus Vaccine
• Distemper Parvo DAPP Vaccine
• Leptospirosis 4-way Vaccine
• Rabies Virus Vaccine