Puffy Puppy Vaccinations

Yesterday was a long day in the Schoenthaler house. Especially for our Leia Lu Bear. About a week ago, I got an e-mail reminding me to schedule Leia's three year old check up to get her annual vaccinations and such. So I took her in yesterday morning at 9:45 for an appointment at the vet, which I figured would be no big deal. Boy was I wrong. 

Do you remember a couple years ago, Leia had a bad reaction to her one year old shots? Well, if you don't remember of if you're new to "A Deeper Life", you can read about my scary mommy experience here. 

Last year,  we were in Lafayette, so we had a new vet, and I wanted to make sure she never had a reaction like that again. They gave her a Benadryl shot before they gave her anything else, and she was good as gold! No reaction. No nothing. I was pleased. 

So yesterday, we were at the vet, waiting for Leia's no fun round of shots. 

Puppy was very anxious all morning: 

"Mom. If you stuff me in your purse and sneak out the emergency exit, I promise I won't make a peep. And I'll never bark at the UPS guy ever again. Promise! Let's just get out of here!" 

Here's how our appointment went down:

1. Took Leia's weight. No lady likes to get weighed. She did lose a pound, though! 
2. Took Leia's temperature. Up her bottom. Now that was just violating. Mild fever. Nothing to worry about. 
3. Benadryl shot first thing to get it in her system before getting her other vaccinations.
4. We discovered she had an infection in her ears, so they put this gooey waxy gunk all in her ears to clean them out. Apparently it was very painful for Lulu. She whimpered. I held back the tears. 
5. Waited to get the readings from her ear gunk sample. 
6. 4 shots in the tushy and legs. Poor puppy. She was very sore.  
7. Signed up for oral operation for next Friday. They'll have to put her to sleep and work on her teeth. I'm dreading it for her. 
8. I paid my gigantic bill and headed home. 

Right when we got home, she threw up on the balcony. One HUGE puke. One medium puke. And one little puke. Back to back to back. I called the vet to see if this was normal and they said it may have just been a reaction to a stressful morning. They said her heart rate was really high and she had a mild fever, so she might have just worked herself up. I wasn't worried. 

But then she laid in her bed and whimpered and whined and moaned. She wouldn't cuddle with me or lie still. She was very antsy and obviously uncomfortable. And then I noticed she was getting puffy on her nose and chest. I called the vet and we headed back in to get her checked out. 

Her puffiness wasn't too bad at the vet. Just few puffy bumps here and there, but nothing terrible. I just didn't want it to get worse. 

So they gave her a cortisone shot (shot #6 for the day) and said to just take her home to rest. So that is exactly what we did. Look at how miserable this puppy gog is:

Notice her nose bump is getting bigger and her eyes are swollen. Jamie tucked her in really nicely on the couch, in some blankets. We tried to swaddle her a bit so that she wouldn't scratch her face.

She was so uncomfortable and so itchy:

After a while, her nose got bigger and bigger. She was swelling up all over:

Before too long, this is what she looked like:

This mama was weeping at this point. I was a mess, very upset that my baby doll was so miserable:

The vet said she'd get worse before she got better. She was spot on, because she got really bad for a couple hours before she started getting better. Poor little lady. I just cried and cried and Jamie comforted both of us. She stayed up most of the night because she was still pretty uncomfortable. I woke up with her and stayed up for about 3 hours last night, waiting for her to settle down. We both finally went to sleep around 5:00 this morning.

Hence the afternoon nap today:

Thank you, James, for the pretty sleeping picture. 

All this to say, Leia woke up this morning looking lump-free and beautiful as always. We've been giving her half a Benadryl every 8 hours to prevent anymore swelling. So far so good. The vet said from now on, we'll have to split up her shots. So that means we'll have to go to the vet 4 different times to get her vaccinations without puffing up. Fabulous.

Thank you to my family and Jamie's family for praying for our swollen little Lulu. Friends with dachshunds, be careful when getting your puppy vaccinated. It's a scary experience for us puppy mommies! 

Love you guys!