On Tuesday night, Ralphie was up all night pacing around the house. Occasionally, I’d hear his collar tags jingle as he scratched himself. Or, he’d let out a bark. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, because sometimes the dogs are just annoying.
I fed him breakfast around 5 or 6 as usual and he was acting the same after that. Later in the morning, he threw up his breakfast and I noticed that his ears were red and swollen and he had a rash on his abdomen. Then, he started panting. Remembering some previous incidents, I gave him some Benadryl (just before lunchtime). Unlike the previous incidents, he did not have hives on his face, so I took a wait and see approach.
By 1pm, he was about the same, so I called the vet’s office and they had me take him in. The appointment was kind of useless because they can only examine him when he’s sedated, but they got the gist of things. He wasn’t as bad off as when this happened to Lizzy and Esme, so they did not give him a shot, but he did come home with a prescription for steroids. Once the steroids kicked in, he finally went to sleep and slept for about a day (he’s not super active to begin with). The swelling and rash went away pretty quickly after that and while I wouldn’t say he’s 100% at this point, he’s close. And, much like with the other two dogs, we couldn’t figure out what caused this allergic reaction, but I’m hoping it doesn’t happen again.