Well yesterday's walk was no different than any other day. Ries spends her time walking in front of you and dodging back and forth out of the marshy areas. She'll disappear for a few seconds and then come springing back out of the woods and look at you like, "Well, come on will you? What's taking so darn long?" I captured that look in the photo above on Saturday's walk.
At the end of the walk when she sees our cabin she does an all out sprint into the lake at our small beach area. Usually, the person walking her can only hear her doing this by the big splash it makes. Once you turn the corner, though, you can get a good view of Ries lapping up a good drink of lake water and making sure that her whole underside is immersed in cool water. It always bring a smile to my face to see her because I know that she is in her absolute glory at that moment. This is her "lake experience."
Well yesterday I was in the cabin playing around on the computer and having my morning coffee while Randy and Ries were walking. I heard the splash, but honestly didn't pay much attention to the dog when she came in the cabin. She plopped down beside me at the table, and I could tell she was grooming herself or "something".
As it turns out she had gotten into something in the swampy areas or was stung by something on the walk. After a few minutes of listening to her scratch at herself, I turned to look at her and realized that her face was swelling beyond belief. If anyone has seen the movie, "Hitch", it was right out of the scene were Will Smith's face starts to swell after he has an allergic reaction to shellfish.
I screamed for my husband to come help me and by the time he got to us, her left eye was nearly swollen shut, her right eye was half swollen shut, her snout was completely swollen up, ears were swelling and a bad rash was all over her underside. I frantically had Randy look for some benedril in the cabin. We only had two 25 mg pills, but I quickly gave her one of them with peanut butter.
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I got on the Internet and found that the nearest veterinarian was about 45 minutes away from our cabin. UGH! I finally got an answer at the vet's office and he told me to keep giving her the benedril every two to four hours until I could tell that the swelling was going down. If she got so she couldn't breathe, then by all means, bring her into the office for a shot. What? Are you kidding me? If she's that bad that she is having trouble breathing, then she would most likely not even make it to the vet for a shot! Ok now......this is my baby we're talking about. I was a total nut case running around the cabin looking for more benedril and at the same time trying to comfort the dog that was becoming drowsy at this point. I'm sure to an outsider I looked like a crazy woman for sure!
After I could see that Ries was going to sleep, I put her in the kennel and drove to the nearest resort to see if they had benedril I could buy from them. Nope.....none. My only option was to drive into town and hope that they had it in there. 45 minutes there and 45 minutes back I had benedril for the rest of the day and night.
As I sat and reflected on the craziness of the day last night, I realized that we had better become a little more proactive in what medical supplies we keep at the cabin. Being out in the middle of nowhere has it's advantages for sure, but when there's an emergency you had better have your supplies on hand. Otherwise, it's a long way to town to buy just one item.
No doubt about one thing....I will never be without benedril for an emergency allergic reaction at our cabin. Lesson learned!
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