My Weimeraner Duchess was bitten by a black widow late last week. I noticed over the weekend that her (lymph) glands were swelling, and by Monday they were the size of citrus fruits. I've never seen anything like it. She's been on steroids all week and the swelling finally has gone down.

Yikes, a little prednisone?

Yeppers, prednisone and Baytril (an antibiotic) to go with all of the other meds
(phenobarbital & potassium bromide for her seizures)...

:(

My Aussie is on Pheno, and was just taken off of Pred about a month ago. You'll want to get her off Pred a.s.a.p, but very slowly. I hope she feels better soon.

awwww.... poor thing. I hope the pooch gets well soon...

Juan

Cool pics, SG. I'm an insect/arachnid nut so it was interesting.
I don't dislike any of 'em, but am aware of BW and BRec. and I don't screw with them. They are both "here", but very rare and seldom seen, though I do shake out shoes and stuff in garage, before putting on.

BWs venom is a neurotoxin and BRec's is a necrotic wound and you are correct that the BRec's bite "may" chew at tissue. Both bites are very hard to diagnose and the spider in question, is really needed for ID and treatment.

We have insects and spiders up the wazoo here on the mtn, though very few flying bugs that present any prob, eg, no mosquitoes,et al. I do have lil'patience w/the ubiquitous carpenter ants, so I poke at them to "reduce" their population, lol! We could have TheJoint sprayed but Terminx uses a non-specific pesticide and it zaps Every insect it touches and only reduces the carp. ant for awhile. You can't stop theWoods from trying to take back the house area.

My late Father was bitten by a scopion when he lived in SunCityWest, back in late '98; the hosp visit lead to a dianosis of Valley Fever and then a couple of strokes and, downhill and, off to Vahalla in early '2k. My point is the scorpion bite was minimal but it lead to discovery of add'l situs.

Enough rambling...be careful there in the SouthWest, but paranoia is not necessary, lol! BR,md

I hate spiders... They're so ugly and they scare me.. We have these little things around here, I think they're called wolf spiders. They're small, gray, and hairy. We also have "daddy longlegs" which aren't really spiders but they look like them. I hear they're incredibly venomous, but their teeth are too small to get through human skin so they pose no threat. They're wierd looking little guys though.
here they are

Daddy Long Legs are venomous? Get out! I never knew that.

CJ: that venom/small teeth thing on Daddy Long Legs is an urban myth; I guarantee they Cannot bite you and have no venom. They are in animal Class Arachnid, eg spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, et al, but in the Order opilionids, which is a category they have all to themselves. Also called "wheelmen" colloquially.
BR,Ol'UncMtr

I hate bugs period.