Wasp Sting or Spider Bite

[rgiles]

My little Monkey, Ivy's girl, has swelling on her jaw.



Yea, I was terrified it was CL, but we've never had CL here, we have a closed herd, none of the other goats have any swellings, and she's only 6 weeks old. I discounted CL after panicking a bit and really checked out the swelling.



It's not in any of the places for CL or milk goitre (although she'd be a great candidate for that, the little pig) or anything like that.



The swelling was hard, hot and there was a harder hotter bit in the middle. I recognized that immediately.



We have spiders around here, imported from Europe with God knows what kind of feed (dang those WTO idiots). They are called harvestmen. In Europe they were pretty harmless, but they are related to Black Widows and Brown Recluses. Ick.



Anyway here in the northwest they have mutated and now have a slightly poisonous bite. I get bit by one or two every farming season, they like to hide in the harvest and whatnot. And their bites do exactly what happened to Monkey. I get this swelling like a bullseye, with a really hard hot bit in the middle. After a day or two (and it hurts and itches bad first) the hard bit in the middle breaks and water weeps out.



Sure enough, Monkey's bite has broken and there a tiny bit of water weeping out. Poor little thing.



Anyway, just wanted to post this. Not every swelling, even in the jaw, is CL. I will take a picture of it when I get time, not that there is much to see.



I think I might try treating this, if the swelling doesn't continue to go down (it is going down slowly) with benadryl. Any idea how much? She weighs maybe 10-12 pounds.
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FoxDog Farm

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