Dogs and Bees, Not an Awesome Combination
Welcome to BarkSpot from Bark PDX, a blog dedicated to our pets and our lives and adventures with them. Here we will share ideas, information, news, links, fun stories, anecdotes and basically everything pet and animal related.
Dogs and Bees, Not an Awesome Combination
image taken by Maria Corcacas
Happy Labor Day everyone (belated)! We’ve been pretty busy pet sitting since last Thursday and appreciate your patience as we were not able to update the blog recently as a result. We are back in the saddle now and excited to be writing again. So, the other day I took my dogs to a nearby field slated for future development. One of those areas that is beautiful now, but will someday be graced by 100’s of cookie cutter row houses that lack both charm and quality. Coming here with my dogs is nothing new, we probably make it here at least once daily. What is new however, is the experience I had there yesterday…
One of my dogs (Buddy) really likes to play Frisbee so he stays close by me patiently awaiting a disc toss. It’s great because when he is concentrating, his mischief level goes down considerably. Daisy, the more mature dog at 11 years old, is obsessed with digging frantically at the gopher holes. She doesn’t go too far away and is always one little whistle away from a speedy return. While playing Frisbee with Buddy I heard a “yelp” from Daisy. This is pretty uncommon so I was immediately concerned. She stated walking towards me, then again she “yelped”. As she got close enough I could see a bee lodged right between her shoulder blades. I quickly removed it, but not before poor Daisy was stung. To make matters worse, this bee wasn’t alone, Buddy unfortunately was also stung. So there I am, swatting the air like Oscar De La Hoya in training. It was a feeble attempt to liberate myself from the bee infested moment and somehow I managed to escape without being stung. I’m sure I looked pretty ridiculous, but back to the dogs…
How many of you know what you would do if your pet was stung? Would you know what to look out for? Would you recognize the warning signs of a serious reaction? Can dogs be allergic to bees? Could my dog die? These are among the questions that immediately ran through my head. I removed the stinger and the dogs appeared to be fine after all, but Buddy did have some temporary inflammation at the sting site. Luckily, everyone was ok, but bee stings could be a serious problem for dogs, at least as serious as they are for humans if there is an allergic reaction. Anyway, if you would like to share any similar experiences like this we are all ears. If you would like some additional information, follow these links: Bees Stings & Dogs also try this one: Bee Stings & Dogs 2
Thank you, much appreciated!