So at 4 am I hear whining from the dogs' room and a tale tell whiff of someone had an accident in their crate. I flip on the light and I see Rain had a really bad night. Barf ... poo... looking totally distressed. Figuring it was an upset stomach I let her out and start cleaning up her crate and I notice she went to the door and is just standing there trembling and just looks horrible, lethargic and just generally beside herself.

So I take her downstairs and take her out to potty hoping maybe a pee and perhaps a moment outside will help. One step... pause... gives me the saddest look in the world.... one step pause....repeat. I'm getting a little panicked at this point, she's never like this. I take her back in and offer her some water. Forlorn look was all the response I get and then she starts trembling and falls down like she just lost her balance. I give her a half tsp of karo just in case it's a blood sugar crash, take a temp which is normal, and call my vet who says give her a bit and call him back if something else happens and we'll meet at his office. So I put her in a box next to my chair and start playing vid games (so I don't lose my mind staring at her/stressing her out more) while she watches in utter misery. I glance down at her being miserable in the box and notice something new, the left side of her face is swelling up. This, I have seen before although never with these other symptoms.

The little IMP must have found a spider again. Every time she does this the reaction gets a little worse although this hands down was the worst I've ever seen her. I stuff a benedryl in her, get out an epipen just in case, and wait.... and wait... her face continued to swell up for an hour and I'm thinking I need to call the vet back and start driving in when the swelling finally started going down, it's now 9:30am and she finally is walking in a straight line again, her face is nearly normal, and showing normal dog like behavior. I'm thinking I need to talk to my vet again. I have a feeling that with this pattern we will be at the e vet next time.

I'm so glad she fouled up her crate so I knew something was wrong.

OH NO.

Any idea what kind?

The first time she ate a spider I saw her chase the little varmint down in my living room and ate it before I could say LEAVE IT!. It looked like a common brown house spider about the size of a small button. Didn't think anything of it until 2 hrs later her face looked like a cavalier king charles spaniel.

The second time she did it she was hoovering around the kitchen table as dogs are want to do. She fell asleep next to me and an hour or so later... puffy face and eyes. Didn't see the spider that time but it was August and spider season.

The third time she was running around the yard and was pouncing on something on the lawn. I saw her gulp down a black garden spider as I walked up to see what she had. Her eyes swelled shut that time.

Today was the 4th time. I didn't see a spider but I can't think of what else it could be locked in an empty crate at 10pm last night to 4 am this morning. Dinner last night was the same chicken we had the night before with no issues.

So sorry you guys had such a bad night and I hope your girl is ok.

Hopefully the vet will have some ideas on how to lessen/manage the syptoms in the future.

After looking up some natural spider repellents, it seems the vinegar and citrus essential oils seem to be repeated.

sorry to hear about your baby, My dog eats bees and hornets, grabs them right out of the air. He thinks he's got the method down but I know its just a matter of time. I wonder if your dog will build a tolorance towards them? I read this article not long ago that says humans consume up to like 10 spiders a year while they sleep. You know that awful taste in your mouth sometimes ya get when you first wake up,thats a nasty thought.

Unfortunately, it's far more likely with that swelling reaction that the reaction will increase.

Very wise, Melissa, to have that epipen.

With a reaction this severe, is a course of allergy shots an option?
Can you even do that with spiders?

I'm sure a shot series exists for individual spider venoms, no idea about the spiders themselves since she's eating them. The immune system is such a funny creature. Sometimes gradual exposure makes things better like my sister's bee allergies, and othertimes it makes you hypersensitive to the point of being reactive to everything which is how my allergy shots went.

I'm pretty concerned that next time this could put her into full on shock to the level I can't bring her back so that will be on the agenda when I call the vet back today.

Oh... I took pictures. Here's her normal face.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs029.snc4/33826_1733213330759_1251322075_1985415_7034701_n.jpg

Here's last night.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs590.ash2/154290_1752188925137_1251322075_2026004_2221072_n.jpg

Oh gosh - what a sad looking little gal! I'm really glad she is doing better but man we gotta make her hate spiders somehow...

Fake spiders on fishing line, pulled across the floor, marker training???

My Lulu has made herself the official spider announcer in our house. Unfortunately, every shadow near or on baseboards gets her going. Luckily, she doesn't eat them. She does love watching us catch/squish them, though.

The fake spiders sounds good. Our trainer (puppy classes) put rubber snakes down and we had to walk our puppies through them teaching "leave it". North Carolina has more venomous snakes than any other state. At least, that's what they tell me.