Pet Owner Reveals What She Did After Dog Began 'Swelling Up Out Of Nowhere'

A pet owner has offered a candid account of how she responded after her dog began suffering an allergic reaction.

Hailey Phillips from Sonoma County in North California recalled the panic she felt when her American bulldog "started swelling up out of nowhere." She told Newsweek: "He was completely fine, went outside and came back 20 minutes later and was so swollen."

Allergies are common enough among dogs. A 2020 study published in Scientific Reports saw researchers evaluate skin and gut microbiota, living environment, and lifestyle in 168 dog-owner pairs. Around 20 percent of the dogs involved suffered from owner-reported allergic symptoms.

Phillips suspects Gus's reaction was triggered by a weed killer. "My husband had weed-whacked the weeds in the backyard," she said. "Once he was done, we had let our dogs go out to go to the bathroom and Gus had an allergic reaction."

Phillips said she "wasn't very calm in the situation" though that's understandable. The relationship between owner and pet is, for many, on par with a parent and child. In a poll of 2,000 pet owners conducted by OnePoll on behalf of a leading pet food brand, 61 percent said they considered their pet to be their child.

So the sight of a dog in considerable pain is likely to be triggering. Phillips credits her husband, who was also there at the time, with helping keep her calm. "I was crying at first, but my husband reassured me that if his breathing was normal we didn't need to rush to the emergency vet and we should try Benadryl [an allergy relief product] first," she said.

Even so, they had to be careful to administer the right amount. So, Phillips decided to try and get Gus on the scales. "I wanted to double-check his weight to make sure we gave him the exact dosage," Phillips said. "My husband didn't want me to lift him but I wanted to see if I could lift him."

Convinced she would be unable to lift Gus, Phillips had her husband record her attempt at getting their dog on the bathroom scales. Yet, somehow, Phillips found another gear, lifting her beloved pup onto the scales with her to work out his weight. "I laugh when I'm nervous so you can hear me in the video wheezing because I'm laughing so hard," she said.

"We thought for sure I wouldn't be able to so I asked him to record it," Phillips added. "He ended up being 80 pounds so we gave him Benadryl and it ended up going away."

The footage of Phillips lifting Gus was posted to TikTok under the handle haileyseymourr where it's already been watched 2.6 million times. It ends on a close-up of Gus' puffy face, as he recovers on Phillips's bed.

"He is doing great now," Phillips said. "We have a follow-up vet visit to see if he has developed allergies now and what we can do to prevent this from happening in the future!"

In the wake of her experience, Phillips is urging other pet owners to get their dogs allergy tested. "This could have been potentially avoided if we had done that," she said. "He had not shown signs of allergies prior to this but I am learning that dogs can later develop them."

She also said it was important to "stay calm" in that kind of situation. "Thank God for my husband who is calm and rational. I have anxiety so my mind goes to the worst possible fear right away. We could have been spending a huge amount on a vet bill at the emergency vet had I been handling the situation myself if we rushed him to the ER vet."

However, she was keen to stress that in the event that your dog shows signs of "labored breathing," it's essential to take them to a vet as soon as possible and to book an appointment with one in the wake of any allergic reaction to get advice on what to do next.

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