Adventures in Parenting, of a sort...

So, the boys and I spent two solid weeks at our house in Knoxville, battling spiders and weeds and overgrown crepe myrtles and wasps. We had the Orkin Man come out for an extra visit, and he found a couple of nests on the fort and killed them. He looked under the deck and said we were all clear. Dr. SmartyPants did a check when he arrived as well, because I was getting two or three (or more) wasps in the house daily. He looked under the same deck and found two nests to kill, plus one under the bay window next to the deck.

Ahem. So, anyway...

One evening, we were getting ready to have dinner with some friends, and Dr. SmartyPants let the dogs out to do their doggie bidness before we crated them. Chico, the grouchy grumpypants chihuahua ducked under our deck just long enough to enrage the wasps that had take up residence there - he came running back out with five or six following him.

We got him in the house and examined him - I found one big red lump on top of his head, but he seemed okay. I gave him a benadryl, loaded up his Kong with peanut butter and he hopped in his crate.

While I was helping Joshua find his shoes, the Smarty called me over to have a look at Senor Chico. He was standing in the crate, licking the peanut butter out of his Kong, but his feet were all pointing in different directions, and he was listing to the left.

I opened the crate and called him out and he kind of stumbled out and fell into my lap. His tongue and gums were almost white and his eyes were twitching. I called the vet and they told us to bring him in right away. (note to my Knoxville peeps - the vet tech at Cedar Bluff Animal Clinic was waiting at the front door for me - she grabbed him and headed back to start treatment immediately - fantastic people there...)

Poor guy had gone into anaphylactic shock! After an intense hour of serious veterinary care, including fluids, steroids and more benadryl, they let him come home with us. We had to watch him overnight pretty carefully, just in case the symptoms came back.

The vet found and removed four or five stingers, including one INSIDE HIS EYELID.

That's five wasp stings for a 10 pound dog.

He's doing fine now - I had started to worry, because he was being really nice to everyone, including Raikki.

But His Grumpiness has returned...now with extra venom.

Dear Orkin Man...

You're fired.