Question
Maddy - Tibetan Spanie
I have a Tibetan Spaniel/Maltese Cross female, 11 kilos, desexed, 2 years old. Has been exposed to fleas twice and both times had a strong allergic reaction which settled after cortisone tablets, anti-histamines and bathing. However during the last episode, 15 hours after receiving a double dose of cortisone tablets from the vet, she savagely attacked my mother's small Maltese/Poodle cross dog, 5 kilos, twice within 4 hours (despite our efforts to keep them separate). She was previously very friendly with this dog who lives with us now. During this 24 hour period I also noticed my son's two male dogs showing great interest in her scent when they visited. Whenever she saw my mother's dog, she would tremble and howl. After 3 days, this behaviour passed and we reintroduced them under supervision, with my dog on a leash and muzzled. They have since become friends again with no further problems.
My question is do you think it is possible she suffered an unusual reaction to the cortisone? I have since read that Evening Primrose Oil with the anti-histamines may be sufficient should she have another episode. Also in the meantime we have administered flea prevention treatment to both dogs and removed my mother's dogs bedding etc and we are now flea free, hopefully!
Thank you for your time and assistance. Regards, Gail
Melbourne (Australia)
AnswerWhile I have not heard of that type of reaction to what I am assuming was Prednisone, it is possible to have odd reactions with any drug.
High doses of corticosteroids can make even dogs loopy, so it is entirely possible that she accidentally saw your Mom's dog as a stranger. Sometimes being at the vet's will do that itself. My own cat did the same thing recently after being brought in. She came home and hissed at her long time buddies.
Since the reaction did stop after a few days, it seems to have correlated with the doses of steroids.
Get yourself some spray with IGR in it and treat the dogs with monthly Sentinel tablets and then you won't have any more flea issues.
Topicals kill the adult but the major source of flea infestations is in the floorboards, the rugs and the furniture. The flea larvae, eggs and cocoons are what causes the flea population to come back.
The only thing that will knock that down and stop the cycle are IGRs or insect growth regulators.
This web site will tell you about it better than I can:
http://www.flea-info.com/cab/en/cat_fleas_lifecycle.shtml
This one tells you what to do:
http://www.flea-info.com/cab/en/cat_fleas.shtml
I hope that helps some. I am glad she is past this but you need to get on the flea wagon now to prevent a recurrence.
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