Bees & Dogs

[Artisan]

This afternoon our large labradoodle (37kg) was stung by one of my girls for the first time.
It was not near the home apiary. We think he rolled onto it in the grass while she was on the
clover and got tangled in his coat.
He was stung in the flank.

Within 4 minutes he had collapsed and become non responsive. His breathing became shallow and erratic. We threw him into the car, raised a vet and got him sorted with a few injections.

Looks like we have a dog susceptible to anaphylaxis.

I raised the thread to let everyone know, as had not seen any mention of the possibility of this on previous posts.
The Vet said that most dogs shrug stings off, but they might pant for a while.

Does anyone own a dog that has this reaction, and if so, is there any preventative or home treatment options?

Regards,

Peter

(Will be moving all the hives away tomorrow)

 

[Poly Hive]

Bees can kill dogs.

Fact.

Dinna argue with this statement please because I have two on my conscience.

Just to spell it out I have two instances of bees killing dogs on my conscience. I do not want more.

PH

 

[wondervet]

Anaphylaxis is very uncommon in dogs -much less frequent than in people. In fact I can't honestly remember seeing a convincing case in 20 years as a vet in companion animal practice so I think you are unlucky.

Very common to see stung dogs which develop hives (skin bumps) or local swelling at the sting site. Massive envenomation, as in people, is another scenario altogether.

Piriton is a human medication used quite often in dogs with allergies -you could ask your vet about that as a potential preventative although efficacy unpredictable. Treatment same as people. If your dog reacted that severely then it's worth considering getting your vet to write you a prescription for an epipen (adrenalin) which you could probably be taught to administer in an emergency. Other than that it's off to vets for intravenous drip and corticosteroids.

 

[viridens]

A dog susceptible to anaphylaxis? You are very unlucky.

Some years ago my then in-laws came to visit. Their spaniel wandered off and stuck his nose straight into the entrance of a hive before we could stop him. Not surprisingly, next came a yelp as the bees piled in. We grabbed the dog as it ran off pursued by bees, and bundled it into the porch where I spent a lively five minutes squashing the frenzied bees that were crawling through his fur.

I counted a dozen stings from muzzle to rear, there may have been more. The dog vomited, then lost control of its bowels. I don't know whether that was a reaction to the toxin or to the pain. It suffered a restless night, but made a full recovery.

The bit I didn't tell was that the in-laws were there to house sit while we went on holiday, and we had to leave in the middle of the vomiting etc to catch our plane, with our fingers crossed that it didn't get worse. - Difficult all round.

I probably don't need to say Mr doggie kept clear of the hives after that.

Last year I also saw a fox do something similar. Foxy was out late on a summer morning (probably chicken hunting) and got too close to the hives. I saw it jump, bite at its side and run off in a hurry.

 

[Artisan]

wondervet, thank you for the heads up on the piriton. Will investigate further.

Peter

 

[Erichalfbee]

Anaphylaxis is very uncommon in dogs -much less frequent than in people. In fact I can't honestly remember seeing a convincing case in 20 years as a vet in companion animal practice so I think you are unlucky.

I have seen one in 30 years.
We got him desensitised with an autogenous vaccine, you could ask about that.

 

[Artisan]

Grateful for the info Erichalfbee.


Peter

 

[pbh4]

Just to spell it out I have two instances of bees killing dogs on my conscience. I do not want more.
PH

PH,

I have heard of a couple cases of dogs being killed by bees but in both cases the dogs were chained or tied up so they could not escape. Just out of interest, was this the case these instances?

Thanks,

Paul

 

[rae]

Our German Shepherd has taken one on the nose, and being a bright dog, she has realised that 18" wooden boxes that buzz are bad news. When we are doing the bees, she goes to sleep under a tree about 50 yards away.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Our German Shepherd has taken one on the nose, and being a bright dog, she has realised that 18" wooden boxes that buzz are bad news. When we are doing the bees, she goes to sleep under a tree about 50 yards away.

Same here. My labrador usually follows about 3 inches behind me wherever I go unless I head in the direction of the hives, in which case she runs straight back to the house.

 

[Gardenbees]

I reckon dogs vary just as much as people. My previous German shepherd used to bite bumblebees and get a badly swollen mouth (like she was chewing a basketball - huge swelling) which otherwise didn't seem to bother her. My lurcher snapped at bees with impunity, then got a wasp sting one day which had her really in trouble - breathing difficulties, although she didn't collapse completely. She needed an ice pack over her throat, and vet attention.

My current dog - the German shepherd in my avatar picture - has been stung by a variety of bees and wasps and persists in snapping them up whenever she sees one, so has obviously not been scared off. She isn't allowed within 50 yards of the beehives just in case she annoys them into a mass attack.

My vet when the lurcher got stung recommended a Piriteze-related product, although in fact Amber never got stung like that again, so I never got a chance to test it out.