Yesterday we were having lunch in my grandparents' garden, and our dog was happily frolicking around in the grass. Suddenly we heard a piercing yelp of pain, and she began running wildly around, totally panicked.

When we managed to catch her we saw that she had been stung by a wasp on the mouth poor thing was terrified with her swollen muzzle...

Weird thing is, today she was definitely unwell. She spent her days hiding in corners and under furniture. Her mouth is not swollen anymore, but she really looks under the weather.

She's quite a small dog, only 4.5 kg, do you think a wasp sting can be somewhat poisonous????

Paracelsus said (to paraphrase), "All things are poison; it is only the dose that is lethal."

We saw in another example where a grown adult human fainted from a wasp sting. Your 4.5kg dog is also feeling some effects. IN both cases, only the individual wasps know the dose that was delivered.

If your dog is hiding then it is probably in pain and wants to be left alone. It doesn't mean you should leave it alone though. If it was my dog, I would take him to a vet for safe measure.

The same thing happened last week here with one of our cats. I suddenly heard a frightened "meeyaw!" and he ran out of the living room and hid under our bed in the bedroom. There he stayed for 10 minutes or so, and then came out, but still in a bit of a shock.

I think he was bitten in somewhere in or outside her mouth because she was swallowing and stroke her head with her paw, as to wipe the pain away. But I couldn't find any swellings. I found the wasp on the ground which was still alive and it was quite small, so maybe that was his luck. I just kept an eye on my cat for the rest of the evening and the next day he was his old self again.

How is your doglet today, Mélusine?

FYI, here is a good article on first aid for insect bites, including bee and wasp stings:

http://www.peteducation.com/article....+1681&aid=2393

When in doubt - for insect bites as well as everything else - I call my vet for advise. He can usually tell from symptoms present whether I need to bring my dog in for treatment, or not. If you have any concerns, call the vet.

(With excessive or generalized swelling, anytime swelling affects breathing, or in case of anaphylatic shock one should see the vet.)

Hope the little one is feeling better.

She feels better today, thanks. But she's somewhat scared of the grass now. I think she didn't really understand what hit her, and she somehow associated it with the grass, hence her reluctance to go in it again.

I'll bribe her with food to make her realize grass is ok and not dangerous.

Glad the pooch is feeling better :-)

Apparently animals can have an allergic reaction to wasp stings just like humans. I used to swat at those darn things (what I call yellow jackets) until I read that if I end up killing one, it could send a signal to the hive to send an army to attack me. They army would be able to pick up the pheromone of their beloved deceased on my hand, clothing etc and there would be no "innocent til proven guilty"

They're especially aggressive late summer searching for food - if one approaches, just stand still and they'll get bored and leave

Problem is, my dog thinks she's a cat she can spend hours running after flies in our place. When she saw wasps in the garden, she started doing the same, and got stung.

Worse is, when she finally catches the fly after herlong hunt, she makes a disgusted face and spits it out...

Yes, the wasps are really troublesome this time of year. My pup, Winnifred, got stung in early June back in Canada before we moved to Basel. She didn't really seem to feel the actual sting but about three hours later, she started to puff up really badly. She looked as if she had a softball in her jowls and she had golfball-sized hives all over her body. Within about an hour, she was coughing and her breathing was laboured. Obviously, she had a trip to the emergency veterinary clinic and was treated but it was a bit of a scary experience (for me, anyway, since she didn't seem to notice anything was going on other than a bit of itching and coughing). Apparently, wasp allergies are quite common in dogs and with each sting, the reaction can get progressively worse. Unfortunately, Winnifred also considers herself to be a bit of a wasp-hunter but, fortunately, she's not very good at it (at least not yet). To anyone who experiences these symptoms after a wasp bite, the best approach is to get your pet to a vet ASAP but if you can't do so within an hour, Benydryl (or another antihistamine) can be effective as first aid (followed by a trip to the vet, of course), but do check with your vet ahead of time about the proper dosage if your dog isn't human-sized!

You kill a wasp and in it's final throes of life it sends out an emergency "Mayday" to Wasp HQ to send reinforcements? I'm in deep poop if fruit flies use the same GPS messaging system; I'd have expected a squadron of B52s to have nuked my place by now.

Wasps do indeed release pheremones when they're injured/dying. But then again they also do that when they find something nice to eat (like a table full of food). There's a limited range however, and there's less chance of them attracting others if you kill them swiftly than if you leave them alone.

Animals can react badly to wasp stings. It depends where they get stung, how many times and each individual wasp can have different levels of toxicity. Usually animals are ok with it, but sometimes they can have a bad reaction, as has been said.

Our cat has been stung twice by a wasp - the first time was on the top of his paw, which he just licked for five minutes and then ignored. The second was on the pad underneath, and that made him limp for a day but otherwise he was fine.

My brother's dog on the otherhand got stung in the mouth and it looked like he had a tennis ball in his cheek.

Hornets are another matter. Especially these giant ones that seem to be quite common in Switzerland. If you see your animal get stung by one of those I would take them to the vet immediately as it will be intensely painful for them.