My baby got Hives from her vaccine!!!

If you even *think* there might be respiratory distress take her to the emergency vet -- the vet's handling of this is NOT good. 

Did they give her a shot of benedryl when they gave the steroid??  They should have.  They can and will exceed the 2 mg/lb dose.  She should not have boomerang-d  and gotten worse SO SOON.  Benedryl should last 6 hours in the body but depending on what the steroid was it may be wearing off. 

Respiratory distress can be labored breathing (body heaving when she breathes -- usually you can barely see their sides move).  Honestly -- don't risk it -- she broke out AGAIN ... just go to the e-vet.  And frankly?  I'd be looking for a new vet.  You don't have this kind of reaction and talk about doing next year with a 'little benedryl'. 

You can give Benedryl round the clock -- the 2 mg/lb dose - and the liquid benedryl will work far faster.  That's 1 teas. = 1/2 capsule (12.5 mg.).  But you won't sleep tonight for worrying about her and once the bronchial tubes begin to swell death honestly can be imminent. 

And btw ... I would NOT have expected the vet to charge AGAIN after their first treatment of the reaction didn't work.  They shouldn't have.  BAD call!

YOU are right -  pull titers next year. 

After you get her normalized

Don't get me started on the 7-1 shot.  That's so hard on the immune system and so totally UN NEEDED!!!
 
I completely agree with Callie.  She needs to be taken to the emergency vet RIGHT NOW.  Once you can SEE a problem, it's gonna be too late.
 
And find a good vet...this one really bothers me.

What to do now,,,, I don't know.  For sure watch her carefully,,,if she is panting a lot or swelling more she needs to be looked at again. I bet others here will add to this.  
For me,,,,I would not EVER give her that shot again...EVER!!!!   Our Dane Ollie doesn't get vaccinated anymore because he has a weakened immune system.   If you watch your dog carefully and it appears sick, the illnesses that they vaccinate against can be treated anyway.   Titering next time could help but many people (my vet included) do not feel they are reliable.   Those combo shots are terrible because you really can't be sure which was the one that caused the problem.
Lastly,,,many many vets are NOT giving the lepto shot anymore at all, that one is the one causing the most adverse reactions.  Besides,,, there are many strains of Lepto and the vaccine covers only a couple AND only for at the most 6 months...so why take a chance to give it,,,when you know its not going to last and might not cover the strain your dog could run into.  ALSO,,,all 29 (or is it 27) veterinary schools are calling for vets to change to a 3 year vaccination protocol. In other words,,,why is your vet suggesting vaccinations every year??    $$$$   
I hope your baby is okay. Lucky for me, I have no experience with what happened to you, when Ollie started having problems, he got sick to his stomach. Swelling up is bad,,,because they can have a hard time breathing. You will be able to tell if she is--just watch her carefully.  Good luck, please let us know!

Dyan, I'm gonna disagree slightly with you.  She may NOT know that the dog is in respiratory distress.
 
I've been dealing with allergies this week beyond what I normally have...the whole system wide REACTION to the allergens and have literally been EATING antihistimines and sitting around....WITH my epi pen at hand.  SWELLING and hives are the start of respiratory distress, and if I don't control those I'm in major trouble and it happens FAST.
 
PLEASE get your girl to the emergency vet, NOW.

SWELLING and hives are the start of respiratory distress,

 
You might be right, I would figure they would pant and show signs of distress if they can't breath well.   As far as hives,,,I get them a lot...my one son Ron does also. At least used to a lot.  He is the allergy son. He used to get them sometimes out of stress.  But I do think that if her dog got better after the shot and now its getting worse again, I think she should also take him in to get checked again.    I think another vet besides the one she originally went to would be the one to go to.

I can literally go from my ears feeling hot...my first sign....to needing the epi pen to continue to BREATH in a matter of 10 minutes.  I only ever get ONE hive.....same place always.  that's one of the big reasons I carry an epi pen.....because one lousey hive and some swelling in my face is an EMERGENCY for me, but they take that less than seriously a lot of times at the ER.

because one lousey hive and some swelling in my face is an EMERGENCY for me, but they take that less than seriously a lot of times at the ER.

 
You know your own body and that is what is important. I also get a hive in the same place all the time,,,one single hive...and I also feel my ears on fire....but I have never had any more than those symptoms,,,,so I am lucky. 

Hi. Well, I didn't take her to the vet again because my husband and my mom looked at her and thought she wasn't having trouble breathing. When my hubby got off work (he left early because of our situation) we went to my father-in-law's house. He has a min pin and a minature poodle. By the time we got there her hives had gone down, and it did her a lot of good to visit her friends. She is feeling better, but still has a few small bumps. I am going to watch her closely and if she gets worse again we are calling another vet. I am going to go ahead and give her another dose of Benadryl just to make sure that she has something in her system to fight if they come back. I just don't understand why the vet didn't do more for her. The second time we went all the did is give her cortazone and listen to her breathing. It would have made me feel better if he would have at least said bring her back in a few hours or in the morning so I can look at her. I will be looking for another vet, and I will refuse the 7 in 1 vaccine. If she ever gets a vaccine again she will get only what she needs. Thanks so much for all you comments. I will keep you informed.

Sorry to hear Angel had a hard time with the vaccines.  I never give Lepto, small dogs have a problem with this one.  Since she had a reaction to a vaccine I would make sure that it is noted on her records.  In the future they can give her an injection 30 mins before the injection of the booster.  How old is Angel?  If she is an adult you might want to consider doing titers instead.  If she is having any trouble take her to the E-vet. 
I hope Angel is back to normal tomorrow.   Keep us posted.

Been there, done that!  Four years ago last month, on Good Friday i took my then 2 1/2 year old golden retriever in for her vax, and we were the last ones in that day.  She got all her vax that day, including the rabies.  Well, 45 minutes later her eyes were swelling shut, her ears were getting "thick", she had bumps on her snout that looked like pencil erasers under the skin, her tummy was one fire engine red hive and she had bumps all over, and her temp was one slash below 107..
 
We live in a small town and at that time my vet didn't have anyone other vets in his practice so was on call 24/7.  I called his emergency number and got the answering service and they said they would page him.  While waiting on his call, we gave her benadryl and wrapped her in a wet towel and slowly poured water over it.  Got the call a few minutes later and got her right to the hospital and he was there waiting with a couple of injections.
 
When her temp dropped to 103, we brought her home.  He was about 99% sure it was the lepto, but wrote across her file folder RABIES ONLY.  She had not had a problem with her puppy shots, nor her first set of annuals the year before. 
 
Last year we had an outbreak of distemper here and since it had been 3 years I was worried about KayCee coming down with it.  Talked it over with me vet and we decided she should have distemper only.  I gave her benadryl and took her in first thing in the morning, they gave her distemper and held her in ICU til late in the after noon so if she did have a reaction, they could get right on it.  She didn't have a problem at all.
 
I always give her a couple of benadryl even before her rabies vax.  Our state, Texas, law is rabies every 3 years, but leave it up to each county and each city to set there laws.  The city overrides the county, the county overrieds the state.  Well, both our city and our county say rab ies every year--the counties on either side of us say every 3 years.  When Kase got her rabies shot a year ago, he marked it as good for 3 years and told me that the l year and the 3 year rabies are the same and if anyone gives me trouble, send them to him and he will tell them she is not a candidate for rabies every year.

These big shots are such a massive danger to our dogs.  And they DON'T need them annually.  However, most of the big combo shots use killed virus and that doesn't last as long. 
 
I follow the recommendations of Dr. Jean Dodds.  I vaccinate with parvo/distemper only, modified live virus, at 9 12 and between 16-20 weeks, rabies not before 24 weeks and booster at one year and that's it.  My older dogs have titers pulled when they have HW bloodwork done.  Costs me more than it would to vaccinate, BUT, it's safer for my dogs.  More shots don't boost the level of immunity.....more shots just increase the chance of a reaction, the chance of cancers......
 
WHY do vets still vaccinate for corona virus???  It can only live in parvo....so if the pup is protected against parvo, it can't get corona virus.  Duh!! This one is a no brainer.  And soooo, soooo many dogs have a bad reaction to lepto that by golly it would have to be at epidemic proportions for me to vaccinate against it.
 
Dr. Dodds didn't get to where she is today....world respected....by taking foolish chances.  I'll stick with whatever SHE says is the right thing to do.

Hey Callie,
I was under the understanding that liquid benadryl had too much alcohol content to be given (especially in the little dogs)...has your experience been different?
Personally, I don't use the benadryl because it knocks Oscar out...I use Tavahist instead but I'm always looking to learn something and I'm curious about your experience.

I'm giggling a wee bit about the alcohol in Benedryl -- if that's the case then mother's the world over have been priming their children to be alcoholics!! (Not knocking you at all ... it just struck me funny since I've been taking it since I was about 8 months old and thats well over 50 years!)
 
The alcohol (and the sugar) that is in it simply makes it absorbed faster -- so particularly in the case of an emergency I always keep the liquid on hand (even if I have to give a huge dose to a bigger dog). 
 
Personally I'm more afraid of the dye in the caplets!  And the fact that even if you try to break caplets "in half" it's a guess at best and they don't break evenly. 
 
But to specifically answer your question no, I haven't ever had a vet tell me not to give Benedryl to a small dog (and I have a small dog taking it right now -- she LIKES the liquid (go figure -- first dog I've ever had not want to spit it out!!).  So I give both depending on where I am when I have to give it.
 
I've not had good results with Tavist -- the one dog I gave it to didn't respond well to it and it caused a horrible kidney reaction in him.  In fact it triggered his decline into renal failure.  I stress that was THIS ONE dog -- he was already on his way and we didn't know it.  But it caused a massive problem for him -- and it was months before he was diagnosed in renal failure.
 
But it caused him to become almost severely dehydrated -- after taking Tavist he would literally stand at the bowl and try to drink a quart of water at once. 
 
That's an unusual reaction -- but in total honesty, it soured me on it.  And that's ME ... I think it's fine to give, but it's tough to dose for any dog under 80 pounds.  And particularly for a tiny dog.  Those pills are miniscule anyway and a 40 pound dog needs like 1/3 to 1/2 of one so it would be danged near impossible to dose Tavist for a tiny dog.
 
But dogs can take pretty close to any antihistamine a human can take BUT you ***MUST*** get the correct doseage.
 
It's all dependant on the metabolism -- some, like Benedryl, needs more than the human typical dose, and others... like Tavist ... gets a tiny dose.
 
However -- one pretty general tru-ism is that the dog WILL get used to the sleepy side effects.  After taking them for a couple of weeks they learn to deal with the sleepy symptoms and after a while it just doesn't affect them that way at all.
 
Another note -- each antihistamine works 'different' in the body.  Diphenhydramine (Benedryl) is only effective/in the body for about 6 hours.  Clemastine (Tavist) is a 12 hour drug and so is Claritin. 
 
So my point is READ UP -- even check the human Pill Book on these drugs -- it is gonna tell you a whole lot about how it 'works' in the body, what a 'bad reaction 'looks like and how to tell, etc.

Just for the sake of conversation,, we tried giving Benedryl to Ollie (Great Dane) years ago when he was having a problem with itching due to allergies. It never did a thing to him. Can't remember how many we gave him,,,but at the time I did check with everyone here at Idog,,,but he didn't get sleepy OR stop scratching either.  It did seem to make him pant a lot though,,,, it was kind of scary at the time.  We also had medication from the Vet for the same problem that didn't do a thing either.