In all my 58 yrs of age, in all my years of owning dogs of every breed size and color, I have had happen something that has NEVER EVER happened to any one of my dogs. 

Yesterday was Sasha, Samson, and Brandy Wines yearly exam and shots.  Doc went over Sasha and Samson with a fine tooth comb...including xrays of Samsons hips (we have that done every 2 yrs), and a diabetes check on Sasha (we have that done every year now since she's over 8 yrs old).  And then there is the pup...Brandy Wine is 4 yrs old now.  Fat as mud, hyper as all get out, always on the move...Doc says, Brandy is doing fantastic. 

After going over the results of Sasha and Samsons tests, weights and overall health condition, she gives each one their booster shots, rabies and Bordetella.  All is good and we go home. 

We get home, and all three run in the house and get a big drink of water.  As each one finishes they come and I put their new rabies tags on their collars, and they wait beside me.

All that didn't take even 10 minutes to do.  All of a sudden, Brandy starts flailing herself around the kitchen. Falling to the floor on her face and scooting her face all over the floor and the cabinets and standing up and doing it again only harder.

I talked to her "Brandy what are you doing that for?"  Figuring she was still excited and hyper from the vet trip (my dogs love our vet and are always anxious to go).  I put Samsons collar on and went and sat in my chair in the Livingroom and Brandy came in the room and was excreting slime from her nose and mouth.  I called her to me and look at her face, thinking a hair was in her eyes or around her nose that she couldn't get off.  She buried her head into my lap and began to push as hard as she could into my lap.  I asked "Brandy what's wrong?" and I felt her eyes, her eyes were crying as bad as a human eye can cry.  I got up and got a cold wet rag and put ice in it and laid that on her face.  She seems to settle for just a split second and then began to throw her body around again, slamming her face straight down on the floor again. 

I got her up, and looked and her muzzle was swelling huge.  OMG!!  Called my Vet and told her we were headed back in with Brandy, and told her that Brandy's face, eyes and mouth were swelling huge.

I got there in less than 8 minutes.  They took her straight back and Dr. Jones came in...(we hadn't ever seen her before, but I've been with folks that used her for their pets, so I knew she was very nice and very good)...she told the tech to get Dr. Georgia and Dr. Virginia.  Those are the 2 vets that sees my dogs.  All three Vets began to work on Brandy.  Her throat was swelling shut, her nose was huge and they felt she couldn't breathe properly.  They quickly started IV's on her, giving her steroids', and a shot that works like Benedryl.  They ran that bag of steriod into her running full blast.  Within 3 to 4 minutes that entire bag was in Brandy.  The Tech came in with another big shot, that went into Brandy's IV line...Doc said it was like a Vitamin K shot, but wouldn't stop the protection of her Lepto, Distemper or Rabies shot. 

Within about 10 minutes of getting all this into Brandy, she was settled down, and much calmer.  Though she was swelled like no ones business, and looked awful bad, her being calm and not slinging herself into walls and floors was awesome.

Now, I asked all three Vets "what the heck happened to her?"....her entire chart was in the room with us, all three going over her chart.  I figured something really bad was wrong now.  They said that Brandy either had an allergic reaction to the Lepto, the Distemper or the Rabies vaccine.  I told them "that's impossible, she's had these shots since she was 8 weeks old, and never had any reaction to any of them before."  I asked "did you change the manufacturer that you got them from?  Is it a different strain of Lepto or distemper since Texas has had that huge outbreak in the last 2 yrs?  I asked all kinds of questions and finally said "why did this happen to her?"  They said they hadn't changed any thing chemical or manufacturer and that's why they went through her file all the way back to when she was a pup and I took her health records to them when we came to Texas.  She received the exact same shots as she had gotten all her life.  They showed me her chart. 

They said had I waited 5 or 10 minutes longer to bring her back, that she would have died.  She went limp as a dish rag once in the vets office, but did open her eyes when I talked to her. 

How the heck does this happen?  Doc says some older dogs will have reaction to them, and seemed perplexed that Brandy at 4 yrs old and the picture of good health had this reaction.  All three Vets were working on her...techs were getting that breathing thing ready to be put down her throat...they worked fast, and what seemed like 30 minutes or longer was actually only about 15 minutes from the time we arrived to when Brandy felt better.  It was horrifying...I just knew when she went limp as a dish rag, my dog was dying.

Vets called me 3 times after we got home to make sure she was ok.  Gave me things to watch for and said give her 4 benedryl every 6 hours around the clock for 2 days.  I am watching this pup so close that she thinks I'm weird...haha...this a cling on pup who can't stand to be out of the room away from me, thinks I'm weird for being right at her side, no matter where she goes. hahaha....paws on the other foot now huh? 

She seems ok this morning...still a little swollen in the muzzle area, but is eating good, drinking like crazy, and resting well.  Doc said the muzzle would be the last to reduce the swelling in. 

So beware folks...this is the first time this has ever happened to me...and let me tell you what, it scared the pants right off of me. 

OH my goodness Birdie, what an awful thing to go through.  Thankfully you are close to the vet and got her there.  On a horse forum I frequent I know there have been lots of rabies vaccine reactions with people using the exact same shot as previous years.

Maybe the combination of all the shots together somehow caused it.  Would it have helped if you had epineheprine ( sp??)  on hand?? 

I am so glad she is doing better and responded to treatment.

When my now 9 yr old dog suddenly began having violent seizures in a 24 hour period I had to watch her like a hawk too.  Exhausting for her and I.  She was 3 and in great health.  Thankfully it has never happened again and I was able to wean her off the meds( which was worse than a seizure) they prescribed after a few weeks.  She has never had another one.

I hope this was an isolated incident for Brandy.

Julie, you're very right....The doctors and I talked about how to go about her next years shots.  We will do one shot per day...separate out the Lepto and the Distemper and give as individual shots.  Means I have to go in with her for 3 days in a row, but they feel that the 2 mixed together and then the immediate rabies shot, is what caused this.  I won't take a chance of it happening again for sure.  So if it means taking her in 3 days in a row, then so be it. 

Distemper outbreaks here are huge.  Over 200 dogs in one shelter had to be put down.  They are adopting animals out that are distemper positive.  I now ask all my clients, to actually show me shot records.  I had 3 clients come in that did not tell me that their dogs had tested distemper positive before receiving the distemper shot.  I won't have that ever again.  If they are distemper positive, I won't take them.

There are 6 strains of the lepto, and only 3 strains is in their inoculation...now we have a possible outbreak of those other 3 strains of Lepto going around.  I think it's due mostly to all the sub division communities being built in the country (like the one I like in) and they don't allow any shooting, therefore the squirrels are super thick and an over infestation of any wildlife or domesticated animal is going to cause diseases.  I'll bet in the fall months we have over 1000 squirrels hanging out here.  They fight constantly.  Wild cats are absolutely every where.  Not good at all.

Brandy is doing well now.  She's having trouble controlling her kidneys.  Had 2 accidents in the house.  Which isn't like her.  Her past issues with her kidneys from the Azalea bush toxins, her kidneys are weak any way, and I think this reaction to those shots brought this on.  If it happens again she will be headed back to docs office.

Well she has been through a lot, so some bladder issues might be common after the fact.  Rabies are normally every 3 years here, so maybe it will help.  Glad she is still doing well.

Julie, here in Texas, rabies are every year.  In MO, AR, and LA they are 3 yr shots.  I wish it was that way here but it's not.

I bet it was the lepto, I know several people whose dogs have had a similar reaction to that shot. Anything can develop an allergic reaction after many years of not having any problem. I was never allergic to wasp stings until suddenly one day I was and needed an epi pen.

Glad you were able to get her to the vet so quickly.

Doc seemed more in favor of it being the Lepto as well.  Now that we will be breaking down her shots, giving 1 shot per day for 3 days, we won't leave the Vets office for awhile after she receives each one.  Doc said we'd wait and see if she had a reaction before I took her home.  Doc did say that Brandy having that immediate reaction was something that didn't happen very often.  She said sometimes those reactions takes several hours to even a full day to show up and that worries me, so I asked Doc if we could give her the Benedryl shot before I left with each one, to make sure she doesn't have that kind of reaction that could kill her.

I have always been allergic to wasp/bee stings.  I always carried the shots with me, long before they became Epi Pens.  And now, even a mosquito bite swells me up and makes huge blisters.  And these dog gone fire ants, not only do they cause huge blisters on me, they are weeks on end healing up and the itch going away. 

I have noticed that when Brandy gets a fire ant sting on her tummy, she swells up and itches something awful, sometimes they make large sores on her.  I always clean them good and put that anti itch cream on them when she gets one that's really bad.  I wonder if that should have been my signal to her allergic reaction with the shots?