Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
2 weeks ago I noticed a swelling on my GLP bitches side, it was about the size of my palm, doughnut shaped with a soft center and a slightly harder swollen area surrounding it, it didn’t seem to be causing her any difficulty and there was no obvious puncture wound or discolouration, so off to the vet. He popped a hypodermic into the mass and found it full of pink blood and serum, not ready to be drawn off, so antihistamines and keep an eye on it, most likely a bee or wasp sting.
There was no reduction in swelling, the dog was happy and healthy and on Wednesday it popped on its own, full of black blood and leaking serum. Next morning it was still swollen and leaking so back to the vet, different one this time. By now I was beginning to suspect a False widow bite, there are a lot of them about the place and this particular bitch actively hunts bees and wasps, so I wouldn’t expect her to react so dramatically to a sting.
The vet checked for puncture wounds, figuring that a thorn or piece of wire might be the problem, but found nothing and no obvious source of infection he called in a colleague and while they couldn’t confirm the cause, they couldn’t rule out a spider bite.
The picture above is the wound 2 weeks after the original swelling and a course of anti-inflammatory.
Anyone of you had anything similar?
I checked out the spiders, they’re rapidly becoming our most common urban species, so you don’t have them yet, you soon will..
