Nilla loves to chase and eat bees in our clover-filled back yard. She’s 3 years old — you’d think she’d learn, but she’s not the brainiest pup in the pack.
Could I bee any more bloated? | Dog Shaming
Nilla loves to chase and eat bees in our clover-filled back yard. She’s 3 years old — you’d think she’d learn, but she’s not the brainiest pup in the pack.
Julie
NIlla is living dangerously… next bee sting could bring on a fatal anaphylactic reaction. Like any of us, her reaction to bee stings can escalate from something distressful and uncomfortable to something fatal. When I was a child our dachshund went from giant hives to total collapse as his sensitivity to bees increased while his understanding of their armament failed to occur. Eventually we had to keep epinephrine on hand so he wouldn’t commit suicide by bee.
Barbara
Here’s an idea – kill the clover and get rid of the bees. Not saying she won’t ever get the chance to chomp on a bee….. but wow, I’d do anything not to see one of my babies look that miserable.
Lindsay
Clover is pretty hard to get rid of, especially without taking out your entire lawn in the process.
Pibble Mommy
I expected the comments to be on the hateful side…. Because it’s easy to judge on the other side of the keyboard. Great suggestions for just making her dog stop eating bees. She can put diapers on him and never let him outside too. She should totally kill everything in her yard that attracts bees too…good suggestion. Super realistic.
Mil
You said it a lot more politely than I would have!
Pibble Mommy
There was a lot of typing and deleting since the F word is my most favorite word ever:)
Amy Williams
Mine too!!!!!!!!!!
Mea Culpa
Seriously though…
The first poster actually had a good suggestion – keeping an epi-pen on hand just in case is sound advise.
Demoing her yard is ridiculous – and that’s about what you’d have to do to eliminate bee attracting items… oh… and don’t forget to enclose it… because there is a good chance a neighbor has some sort of flowering plant and bees FLY. Should probably avoid parks and generally any place outdoors as well… yup totally viable solution.
Lindsay
That poor puppy!
novaprime
My lab greyhound mix loved bees. Flying candy. They always got him he hacked and made horrendous/hilarious faces, but he never swelled up. I thought dogs where immune to bees for the longest time as a result.
I saw the hairball get a half dozen in one bite once and no reaction.
madisonpage
My friend’s 1 year old Boxer looks just like Nilla … swollen or not. Strangely adorable. LOL!
Virginia Tilton
I had two Boxers that were allergic to stings. It was not the Honey Bees that bothered them we kept clover in the back yard for local bee keepers and the dogs did not bother the honey bees and did not get stung by them. Our Boxers would go after the more aggressive wasps and hornets these happen to be the more prevalent insect that stings and gets called bees a lot. Every Summer my husband and I would make sure that we would kill any nests in the back yard in the summer time. Our dogs would only get let out for potty and we would take them for walks or they could play under our supervision outside. One of our boxers did pass out a couple of times from stings this made get pretty diligent pretty fast. I am on my fourth boxer and it’s seems that they really like to attack wasps and hornets as a breed.
Dee
Our French Brittany has been stung twice and had terrible reactions both time. They were mostly bees who made their nests in the grass, so we did what we could to eradicate them. I don’t like to have to kill the bees, but better them than our sweet dog.
emmy
Poor baby. We used to have a retriever who reacted badly to ant bites and noting else had to dash her to the vets twice as puppy due to how severe her reaction was I do remember my dad spoon feeding her water and eggs till the swelling went down the second one taught her to avoid sniffing ant nests
Rachel Doyle
Keep the grass short. Clover to where it does not bloom. It should cut the bee down
Diane foss
I would keep some benedryl on hand,and give her some every time this happens. It might help at least until you get to the vet
Smartypants
Poor sweetie! Would a muzzle let her play freely outside while stopping her from eating bees? (Please don’t flame me, it’s a sincere question :-D).
Would love to see a follow-up pic of her when she’s back to her pretty self.
Amy Williams
That is a really good idea. 🙂
hcgree
This, plus an epi pen just in case, is the most logical idea I’ve seen. Smart thinking!
Marissa Fraley
I’m Nilla’s people shaped big sister. We try to supervise her outside time as much as possible during bee, hornet, and wasp season as well as keeping all the pests down as much as possible. I will tell you this though, my mother in law owns Nilla’s biological mama, daddy, and twin brother Frosty, and Nilla came by her bee chomping habit honestly. I will suggest to mom that we get a puppy dog epi pen, to go along with the Benadryl bottle labeled “Nilla” for sure.
tina
You can’t keep nature out of nature. That’s where they belong! And if we kill all the bees and their habitat then the whole of the plants in the world would die and we would starve. Bees are the the leading insect in the world that actively cross pollinates vegetation. Stings, bites, rashes, are going to happen. Its just life. Your dog is super cute by the way, love her face 🙂
midnightsunshineak
I was a commercial beekeeper for 16 years. Dogs eat bees. Sometimes they figure out that it’s a bad idea, sometimes, they don’t. Most times, they are like people and the more they are stung, the less sensitive they become to stings. Those lips stings hurt though. After 20 years with bees, I still swell up when one gets me in the kisser.
midnightsunshineak
And yes, that is a 2 foot long swarm of bees I’m holding in my left hand in my avatar. They’re not that big a deal. 🙂
Susan Hulett
Nilla’s mommy here! Thanks for all of the suggestions, folks. I’ll ask the vet next week at Nilla’s annual check-up about getting an epi pen. I also hadn’t thought that the wasps and yellow jackets in our vicinity might be the culprits in Nilla’s case. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were to blame for the damage. It’s been about a year since this incident and we’ve adopted another fur-baby in the meantime. Nilla’s protege, Remington, is a bossy little dachshund/pit bull mix who won’t let Nilla play with anything in the yard. As a result, we didn’t have any bloat-face incidents last summer. Who knew we would find such a strange and effective fix?
BTW, I don’t mind getting flamed — I’ve got thick skin. Pibble Mommy – you crack me up! My daughter was in the Navy and introduced me to the use of the F-word as a sentence enhancer (Sponge Bob reference!)
Dona
Oh what a sweet baby! I hope she is better now. Please give her a hug for me. Also, after my mini dachshund got stung we kept baby Benadryl on hand.
Marissa Fraley
We have a bottle of Benadryl in the cabinet with Nilla’s name on it. Literally!