Pred and incontinence - Page 2

Trailrider, Yes, give Benadryl immediately for a bee sting. Actually, I administer Benadryl for any slight allergic reaction such as puffiness around the eyes. Stops the reaction, before it takes hold. Also, my youngster seems to be highly allergic, and I always give him a 25mg capsule with Sentinel and Frontline.

Thanks again guys!!!

Benedryl has many beneficial side effects. As LMH has said, it's good to use for an allergy prone dog in combination with other meds. When my first GSD was having chemo for his leukemia, the oncologist recommended he had 2 tabs prior to each treatment to help prevent nausea and vomiting and it worked. It was also prescribed to this same dog by a soft tissue surgeon after he had his sinuses scraped and a tumor removed. It did help to keep down the nasal discharge and postnasal drip.

Your vet saw the dog and we did not. It is a mistake to think that Benadryl or any oral medication will work quickly enough if a dog has a severe allergy, including to a bee or wasp sting. Based on your description, the dog had a severe reaction. Perhaps your vet was concerned about further swelling and airway obstruction or worse. Remember, in order for any medication to be distributed and metabolized and be useable by a dog or human, it must be given in a dose form that gets where it needs to go within a necessary time frame. Severe allergic reactions can and do shut down many bodily functions, so be careful about the thought process here and simply deciding to take the advice of people on the board vs. your vet. With severe allergic reactions, benadryl may not be the best choice. Secondly, the fact that you did not note swelling until many hours later suggests the stinger and venom sac may have been left in and later the venom was injected in, or the dog was stung again. It is hard to tell given what you have observed. Prednisone and all steroids are very powerful medications. They are naturally present in the body. Following your vets' instructions about how to administer it is my best advice. It is highly unlikely that if your dog is healthy and the medication is administered and withdrawn per the RX protocol that the vet has given you that the dog will have any long term effect. Side effects of steroids can be increased thirst and therefore, increased urination. This will likely resolve, perhaps even on the treatment. Benadryl is a very useful medication. But I would think it more rational to talk with your vet about your concerns. After all, he/she is there to see the dog. We are not. A second topic to discuss is whether you should be keeping some sort of medication, including an injectable epinephrine, around should this happen again. If the dog reacted this way this time, it may be much worse next time. Keep the dog away from the bees if at all possible. Good luck.

DO NOT just STOP giving your dog the prednisone...not unless you want to risk more serious complications than increased thirst and urinary incontinance. What your dog is experiencing is not unusual, given the dosage that is needed to address the degree of anaphylactic response she had to being stung (to have had that amount of swelling and tissue edema several days after a sting is a serious response). Yes, it's a pain in the ass to have to deal with the temporary incontinance and the increased water consumption (and please do not try to control the former by restricting her access to the latter), but you only have to deal with that dosage for another four days, and then you'll start backing it down and weaning her off the pred. Once she's tapered down to 10 mg/day, you should see the water intake and the incontinance taper off and return to normal again as well. And yes, I would definitely be discussing emergency care instructions for this dog with the vet in order to be prepared for any future incidents. Once there's been a severe adverse response to a sting, the chances that the next sting will bring on an even more severe reaction...so you'll want to have clear direction as to what to give, when to give it and how much will be needed to get the necessary effect.

Trailrider-- I'm sure now you're totally confused. Call the vet and tell her your concerns. The goal is to control the allergic response (which could go on for at least a week). Both Hodie and hexe are correct in stating that there is a potentially bigger problem for your dog if stung again. I can attest to that fact from my own personal experience, not one of my dog's. As a child and young adult, I was stung twice. No reaction other than slight tearing and pain for maybe an hour's time. Two years ago, an entirely different reaction. While walking through a resort village, I got stung on my big toe. The pain was excruciating, but I managed to get to a bench, and then felt my throat close up. I was very hot and dizzy---basically terrified, because I had a pretty good idea what was happening. Luckily, I had my pocketbook with me which held my Sudafed. I proceeded to swallow 1 1/2 tabs-the most awful, bitter taste in the world without water. Almost immediately, I was better, but the pain in my foot was still excruciating. The pain continued for two days, left for one, only to come back for another two. Horrible pain. When it finally stopped, I read up on why this time it was different. Apparently, the more times you are stung, the worse the severity. I also felt the venom was concentrated in the toe and couldn't spread out. Sudafed became my best friend for the next two weeks. Even today, I run from bees. Anyway, it would be prudent to prepare for any future episodes. Good luck.

agree not to just stop the prednisone,it must be tapered. benadry is a great drug. I keep epinephrine on hand also, you must be sure of your dose per kg. benadryl most of the time is fine but depending on the situation, a dog could die before it kicks in if it becomes a very severe reacton ,that's why I keep the epinephrine on hand, in case I can see there is not time to wait for the benadryl. ask your vet about his opinion on that. I also keep atropine on hand but that is for other emergencies.

Thanks again to all for the advice. Her swelling has gone down more since the Benadryl I gave her at noon today. I am going to give a half dose of the Pred tonight and if she continues to improve wean her off of it. My son as a 2 year old also was stung a few times by bees and would swell significantly, we had brought him to the doctor thinking we should have a bee kit but he had said we could just keep using Benydryl. Now if my son gets stung he gets just a minor reaction so I guess it is something some people grow out of... he still keeps Benadryl close at hand though because he works in the woods/wildfires alot. The wasps are especially bad this year. I hope we have a hard frost soon, that usually gets rid of them. I will also contact my vet again and ask her what I should do and have on hand if she gets stung again. Thanks again to all.

In answer to part of your original question: I've had a couple dogs on predizone though the years. Yes it can affect bladder control. I agree with the people who have recommended check with your vet before changing too far off what was given to your dog.