Help! Side effects of allergy injections?

[Roxy & Stella]

Hi All, our Stella was recently tested for allergies and the results were grasses, ragewwed, dust mites, etc. We opted to go with the injections after trying everything else. We finished the first vial, which is diluted, and we have started the 2 vial which is more concentrated. She has had 3 shots of the stronger vial so far. She gets the injections every other day with increasing increments starting at .1cc up to 1cc. After her 3rd injection this morning, we noticed on the back of Stella's neck there seems to be some sort of fluid buildup? It is scary because we don't know what this is and our vet is closed until Tuesday due to the Memorial holiday. Has anyone else had this or heard of this? Maybe it's a reaction to the inkections? It's very worrisome. Please help!!

[Samia Blaine]

roxy, don't you have an emergency vet in your area? i wouldn't wait around for someone to reply and then you don't know if anyone has experieced this...get her to the vet if you are worried.

[Roxy & Stella]

She is acting normal. I would know for sure if we needed to take her to emergency vet. We had an incident a month ago when we rushed her to emergency. Maybe we injected a lymph node or something. We are keeping a super close eye on her at all hours just in case. I might be overreacting (I have a tendency to do that about my babies Roxy & Stella, they are our kids since we don't have real kids.) Any advice from anyone that has done the allergy injections would help too, we have never done this so we don't know what to expect. Thanks.

[Tatiana]

Vaccinating oneself is tricky enough, but without proper experience, it's not something to be undertaken without guidance from your veterinarian... If you inject the dog subcutaneously in the wrong manner, you can cause any number of secondary problems such as an embolism, a blister, etc. and the veterinarian will probably have to drain the lump to prevent an infection. I was once traveling in a foreign country and caught a bad flue... Rather than administering oral medication, a doctor prescribed shots administered by a nurse... The nurse injected me incorrectly and it caused a huge swelling, subsequently blistered, and had to be drained. It was excruciatingly painful. Imagine what your poor dog must be going through. Granted, it's a holiday weekend, but it's always better to plan for these kinds of emergencies... When I switched my dogs from their previous topical preventative, I waited an extra two days to ensure that the veterinarian's office would be open in case of any adverse side effects... Did the vet demonstrate how to administer the serum, and where? Did he watch you practice in the office to ensure that you were doing it correctly? Seems to me that if one's going to undertake injecting their own dog, it's only logical to drive to the vet's office the first couple of times to make sure that they're doing it correctly. Good wishes your way : )

[Roxy & Stella]

Hi Tatiana, my husband was shown how to do the injection and he did it himself in the office before he came home. I have a feeling that maybe it was injected slightly wrong and the swelling happened. She has been on injections for 3 weeks so we couldn't plan for this to happen on a holiday weekend. The injections are done between the shoulder blades and my husband was shown to pull the skin up and pinch slighty. Insert the needle into pulled up skin. When the needle is in, pull the plunger back the slightest bit to ensure no blood is there. We will be calling our vet for an appt. this week to make sure what this is. My husband is the only to do injections as he can handle it, I on the other hand cannot without panicking. Thank you for your advice.