Thursday was an eventful day! First, Wally went in for his yearly checkup. The vet said he’s underweight and needs to gain at least a pound. I was already pretty sure of that – last week I had started feeding him extra at each meal. The crazy thing is that he was already eating the same as or more than Lu does and she’s maintaining her weight of 19 lbs.  All that energy he has must burn those calories ultra-fast! (Don’t I wish I had that problem!?)

Then Lu and I went off to Freestyle class. As class was starting, I noticed what looked like bug bites swelling up on Lu’s front legs. Then, I saw they were popping up on her hindquarters and I started to get nervous. I interrupted class and asked if anyone had any Benadryl, but unfortunately no one did. I had to run to the nearest grocery store for benadryl and cheese slices. By the time I got back to class 10 minutes later, Lu looked like this:

Thankfully, she had no respiratory issues and within an hour of taking the benadryl, the swelling had subsided substantially.  I can’t say for certain what caused this reaction, but a friend did some looking and found that a plant called stinging nettles could cause this type of reaction, especially in small, thin-furred dogs, like Lu.  I’ve definitely seen this stuff around our training center, but I’m not sure whether she walked through it last night or not.  I had no idea it could be toxic to dogs.

I wanted to give you all a heads up, in case you happen to see it anywhere near where you live!   This is what it looks like:

I can tell you one thing – I’m never taking her anywhere without benadryl!