Hi all,
I don't post often, but wanted to share something that happened this
weekend.
 
My sister-in-law's grandsons were down here in North Florida to visit,
and asked to see the ferrets.  So, we put them in their travel cage in
the car and drove over to where they were staying to visit.  The two
boys and I were outside at the park with them, walking on their leashes,
and they were enjoying exploring.  An older fellow came along with an
agressive dog that he was having difficulty controling, so we picked up
the kids and headed back to the cottage.  Buster Browne started
wretching, and then vomiting.  This got worse, with him bringing up
partially digested kibble, then going limp.  The boys assured me he
hadn't eaten anything of theirs, nor anything outside.  I started getting
bitten by what turned out to be fire ants.  Apparently they were on
Buster, and transferred to me.  When he suddenly started having bloody
stools, I remembered reading on this list about similar reactions from
vaccine reactions.  No one had any benadryl, the little pharmacy had no
pediatric benadryl either, and it was Sat pm so vet.'s offices were
closed.  The nursing home was nearby, and since I had been going there
for 4 years to see my mother in law, they knew me and gave me a 25 mg cap
and a syringe.  I disolved the benadryl in 10 cc of water and gave him a
whole cc.  His tongue was blue-black.  He was so limp, the didn't fight
it.  Nor did he vomit any up.  So now I'm panicing, Did I just kill him
with an OD, as I wasn't sure of the dose.
 
I called my vet expecting to get the number of the emergency clinic in
Gainsville, more than an hour away, to find out what to do about the OD.
Luckily, this was her day to work Sat., and she changed her hours to 8am
to 2pm instead of closing at noon.  She waited for us, telling me that it
sounded as though I was correct in my diagnosisw and that I had given him
just about the correct dose of benadryl.  He is a 3.3 lb year old boy.
She gave him some O2 and had me give him some pred when we got him home.
I gave him some more Benadryl just before I went to work that night, and
called Dan a couple of times to get up and check on him,:-).  He is a bit
subdued, not demanding to go outside, and sleeping a bit more than usual,
but is eating and sleeping and pooping OK.
 
Will be sure that I take benadryl and pediapred with me on outings from
now on.  Don't need that scare again---ever!  I was so sure that I was
losing him.  Hope this helps someone else like me who was ignorant about
how dangerous those little terrorists can be.
 
Mary D.
[Posted in FML issue 4853]