Last night, Itzl was bitten or stung by something on his muzzle.
Within minutes, his muzzle swelled so big the hairs were standing on end and his eye was swelled shut.
I dashed him to the vet, where he didn't shake or get nervous at all. He only hates the vet when he goes in for check-ups. If he has to go for an emergency, he's fine with being there.
He was a bit judgmental about the barking dogs, but since he was whisked off to the ICU almost immediately, he didn't have long to glare at them.
The first thing the vet did was to check his teeth for an abscess, but when I said the swelling had come on in just the last 20 minutes (my vet lives really close), he abandoned the teeth to look for a stinger or something.
Itzl was struggling to breathe - wheezing - so they paused to intubate him and give him oxygen, which helped a lot.
I don't know if they found a stinger or not. I didn't ask.
He was given a steroid shot right away and a strong allergy shot.
Because his muzzle was so swollen and he needed the tube to keep his nasal passages open, he had to stay in the ICU until the swelling went down. So I stayed with him.
He got a second allergy shot at midnight.
His third allergy and second steroid shot was at 6:00 am. Shortly after that, the swelling was judged to be reduced enough to remove the tube. He breathed fine, so 2 hours later I got to take him home.
He's on pediatric benedryl - 1/4 of a chewable cherry flavored tablet. He's not too big on the flavor, but he takes it because I ask him to and then makes a face. Since his face is still swollen, the face he makes is lopsided and it's all I can do to keep from laughing at him when he makes it. He looks like he has an Elvis Presley sneer.
This is the swollen side, hours after the swelling started going down, so it doesn't look terribly swollen.
This is what his muzzle looks like when it's not swollen: