Hives in Guide Dog Puppy = Coccidia

Willoughby and I came back from a lunch meeting and within about an hour of the meeting I looked down at him and said....WOAH WHAT THE HECK!!!!   I thought maybe he had been stung by a bee or something.  I couldn't figure out what could have happened laying next to my feet in a meeting.   It kept getting worse and worse.  I gave an appropriate dose of benadryl and kept a close eye on him but I was really worried.  His mouth was huge and swollen beyond belief and then......

Look how big his poor little nose and mouth is.

Within about 30 minutes he looked like this and had started to whimper.  I was really starting to get scared and had no idea what had happened.   He had been with me the entire time so I know he didn't eat anything. 

Then all of a sudden these started showing up...  After some thinking, I realized that this must be what hives looks like in Dogs.   I had already call my vet and was awaiting a call back. 

I sat down with him in between patients and he just sat in my lap.  The poor thing obviously did not feel well.

I took him over to my nurse and asked her to keep him at her desk in case he had any sort of problems while I was in with patients.  I called my hubby and asked him to come get him. 

By the time I got home that night the poor guy looked like this!!!!   I was able to reach one of our leaders and when I showed her the picture she calmly said..."oh, he has coccidia. This is a bacteria that causes diarrhea in most dogs. 

Coccida?!?!?!  Why on earth would my puppy have hives all over from Coccida???  Our wonderful leader Sarah explained that it is a strange thing in GDB puppies that they get hives when they get it.  He had yet to have any diarrhea.    SO STRANGE!!!

Here you can see the hives as seen in is fur on his sides.  At this point he still has not had any diarrhea. 

I know beds are not allowed but he was so sick and I was afraid to not have him next to me in case he couldn't breath so I slept with him in my bed right next to me.   It was so obvious that this VERY energetic pup felt terrible.

The end of this sad story is that Sarah told me to take a stool sample and take him to the vet the next morning.  They emailed me data from GDB about this because apparently this is unheard of in regular dogs.  Sarah said that we may have a hard time convincing our vet that he had Cocidia.  Our vet was great!  She listened and agreed to treat him and then tested his stool.  His stool ended up being positive (it often apparently is negative for a long time).  Our vet was amazed and with in 6 hours of taking the antibiotic all of his hives were gone.   Such a strange presentation of a bacteria that causes diarrhea but I am so glad that he recovered quickly!!!