Dogs are curious creatures. This is the reason why they also find themselves in harmful situations that wouldn’t have happened if they stayed away from trouble. For example, let’s talk about bee stings on dogs.
Bees are natural pollinators. They not only help plants to reproduce but also assist in the production of honey for human consumption. Bees are always close to gardens filled with plants and flowers. To a big dog, bees are small, pesky, tasty and harmless insects. Bees are venomous. When they sting a dog, it is often life-threatening to the dog. The allergic reaction that occurs when bees sting a dog can lead to nerve complications that can ultimately lead to death.
Symptoms and Signs of a Bee Sting
When you find your dog suddenly barking and is closely followed by redness in a localized area, you should find out what happened immediately. When a dog rubs or scratches a particular area of its body, it must have been stung by a bee. For dogs, one of the most common areas for the bee sting is in the facial region. Swelling, itching and redness are signs of a bee sting, and if it is mild, it will go away within a day or two without any medical intervention.
However, if you see that your dog is having trouble breathing, vomiting, collapsing while walking or drooling nonstop, it is time you sought emergency veterinary care for your dog. This is because your dog has been stung multiple times, and the level of venom from the bee stings has spread all over its body, resulting in an allergic shock. Unless proper medical care is provided within an hour or two after the sting, it could result in death for your dog.
How to Treat a Bee Sting
When there is only a single sting by the bee, all you need to do is remove the stinger. You can do this by using a flat card like an expired credit card and scrape along the skin to get rid of the stinger. Do not use tweezers; there is a venom sac attached to the stinger, and inadvertently squeezing it with tweezers will release more venom into the bloodstream of your dog.
In order to reduce the swelling associated with the bee sting, a cold compress should work wonders. It can be made by getting ice from the freezer and wrapping it in a towel or a clean cloth. You can also use a bag of frozen vegetables. To prevent your dog from licking that area, you should bandage it or, better yet, you can purchase a surgical cone for your dog and insert it around its neck to prevent the unnecessary licking of the affected area.
Preventing Your Dog from Bee Stings
If you have a curious dog that always won’t keep away from other smaller creatures like insects, keeping a close eye on its activities should be of paramount importance. If you have a garden, get rid of plants that attract bees. You can plant trees or shrubs that can self pollinate themselves to reproduce. For emergencies, it will be wise to keep an EpiPen around, so that it can be administered to your dog whenever it is stung by a bee(s).
