? Allergic Reaction

[MRJ]

Hi Guys

This evening we went to our local oval where heaps of people walk their dogs each night. Tonight is the second time we've taken the girls there - last night was a 'dry run' just before dark as they haven't been off lead for awhile we were wanting to test their recall before we let them go nuts with heaps of other dogs (there weren't any other dogs there at the time).

Tonight we got home from work, got changed and took the girls to the oval. Noticed nothing abnormal about the 2 of them, they were fine. Within 10 minutes Zara started drooling a bit and I've never seen her drool - thought hmmm weird, but she hasn't been around this many dogs for ages. Then about 5 minutes after that she kept picking up her front paws like they'd been stung....went over them, she didn't pull away at all, checked between toes etc and nothing seemed to be the problem - she just wanted to lick them (and the drooling had stopped). 5 minutes later when we got back to the car she was holding her paws really stiff (just the paws), and it was obvious they were really annoying her. SO I washed them down and soaked one paw at a time in a cup full of water (and she knocked the cup over in my lap so it looked like I'd wet my pants )

THEN she had a reverse sneezing fit in which I thought she was having a severe allergic reaction and was having bronchospasm (I'm not a dramatist at all - I know I know). Thanks to what's been written on here about the reverse sneezing thing I tried blowing on her nose: didn't work, gently massaging over tongue/oesophagus: didn't work, so I blocked her nose: bingo - worked, much to my relief!!!

And now an hour later: she is completely fine. One of the other owner's told me they'd fertilised the oval today - is it most likely that? She also told me that quite a few dogs got cancer from the oval there a few years ago: from the soil, and that it was all the dogs that were diggers: has anyone heard of this type of thing happening?

I don't think we'll be running there again - which stinks but I don't want her allergic to the fertiliser and this to happen when we go there. Our other pug was completely fine.

[sas]

Give the dog a wash down with just water and see if that assists. Watch for signs of skin chemical burns.

[MRJ]

Washed with water, and no signs of chemical burn: no redness, she's not licking at them, she's walking completely normally. I can't believe she was the only dog down there with a problem: there must have been 20 there at least!

[VJB]

How odd. I wonder what the cause was.

[Stitch]

Interesting you should say that as I heard the other day that an oval which had its beginnings as land fill couldn't be used by any organisation that was intending to spend a reasonable amount of time on it ie. most of the day!

You never know what you are walking on, do you!!