swelling of face/eyes

[jkfrench]

Hello -  My 13 week old long haired dachshund woke up this morning with her face swollen.  I have had enough animals in my time to determine it was some sort of bite (spider or bee).  We took her to our vet immediately as she is so little and they thought spider, gave her benedryl and a steriod, observed her for an hour and let her come home.  She is doing much better.  The thing is, I can't figure out when she would have been bitten.  She sleeps with us and she was fine last night.   I took her out to potty this morning and put her back in bed with my husband while I took a shower.  I got out of the shower and looked at her and her face was swollen.  Of course there could have been a spider in the bed  (ewww) however I looked everywhere and didn't find one.  Which brings me to my question....  I gave her a smoked hoof to chew on last night.  Could she have been allergic to that?  We have never given them to our dogs before but she is teething and I didn't want to give her rawhide bones.  Someone recommended the hoofs because they can't break off like the rawhides.
Just wondering....
Thanks
Jodie

[jkfrench]

Thanks for all the comments.
She is actually back at the vet this morning.  She came home yesterday, swelling was down and she ate a good lunch.  Then didn't want dinner and had diareahea from 1am - 5am.  She was also acting like her ears were driving her crazy.  Maybe the toxins are still working their way out of her system but she needed fluids so we took her back.  
I have buster cubes and she likes them for a short time.
She only had the hoove for 10 minutes and then I took it away.  I'm just perplexed because she wasn't in the grass prior to the swelling.  She just went to her puppy pad out on my back deck and came right back into bed with us.
I'm waiting for the vet to call me back.  They know us well as we have had dogs for over 20 years and we foster dogs as well.    I just want her to feel better  :(
Thanks again for the tips.
Jodie

[Ghilly]

I really don't think it had anything to do with the hoof, it definitely sounds to me like she had a run in with some type of biting insect.

One thing I would like to add, though, about giving young puppies things to chew on, is that when they are under about 6 months of age, chew toys like rawhide and hooves and other "parts" can give them diarrhea.  Remember, they have only been away from their mothers and on solid food for a few weeks, even though they no longer LOOK like the tiny puppies they were when we brought them home, they are still not really fully developed when it comes to their digestive system.  Try to give her only puppy biscuits and other cookie-type things to chew on until she is a bit older.  In order to satisfy the puppy's natural curiosity, you can buy her a toy that makes her think, like a Buster Cube or some other kind of treat ball.  You fill these with treats or morsels of food and they play with them, and as they play the food or treats fall out and reward them for their efforts.  It keeps their little minds busy while they still get things to chew and swallow until they are old enough to deal with the hooves and rawhide.

Ghilly

[Margot49]

I'm going with a probable bite also.  Yes, could have been a spider or possibly a bee or wasp in the grass or something.  Glad she didn't have a worse reaction. Years ago, a Golden pup I had got stung by a bee (was nosing around in the flower bed).  She swelled up immediately and I was off to the Vet where she had to be on IV's for 3 days.  Glad all is okay.
On the hoofs, I personally don't recommend them.  If I were you, I'd go to the butcher and him him cut up some larger beef bones or get some beef knuckle bones. You feed these raw, not cooked. When it starts to dry out, toss it and get a new one out. I keep them in the freezer.

[jkfrench]

Thanks!  I was thinking the same, although I take her to potty out on my deck off the bedroom in the morning cause I don't want to go all the way downstairs!.  She just uses the puppy pads, so I see her walk over, pee and come back in.  Who knows....I just hope it wasn't those hoofs cause she seems to like to chew on them and I don't worry as much about those as I did the rawhides.    And it wasn't painful after she got back from the vet.  She actually ate a few hours after.  Plus the swelling had gone done within those first few hours after the injections of benedryl and steriod.  
Thanks again.
Jodie

[ginger899]

It could be a tooth root infection...? Or gnawing on the hoof irritated a tooth coming through? But it would be strange for it to come up almost instantly like that. And normally if it were an infection, it would be quite painful so she probably wouldn't feel like eating for a while before. You would most likely, have noticed.
Back to the spider bite. It would be perfectly possible for her to have been bitten by a spider BEFORE she got back into bed with your husband. When she was going out to potty....when she was out there..on her way back. You might not have noticed because spiders are quick, also it wouldn't have had to be a big noticeable spider.
In the early morning, there are often webs close to the ground, in grass, or on low branches of plants or shrubs.
I know I don't live where you do but if I go out on a fine morning at first light or thereabouts, I often come back with webs on my lower legs, and my dog does too. Sometimes I also pick up a tiny spider or two.