Hello, and thank you for the potential help you may be able to provide after reading the following:

Two nights ago my girl friend fell backwards over Crystal (11yr old pit) and she may have hit Crystal accidentally with the heel of her foot right below the eye. She was putting ornaments on the Christmas tree and was backing up to see how the tree looked and didn't realize the dog was laying down there and fell. The whole apt shook and I ran down stairs to see if they both were alright. My gf injured her arm a bit, but nothing serious. Crystal looked fine.

The next morning I noticed my dog look like the attached first pic below. Well I started to put two and two together and since have been scouring the web for help as my girlfriend just got laid off and we simply can not afford the vet.

Any suggestions on how to reduce swelling from such a injury?

I hope this is what happened, it makes more sense since there is no swelling anywhere else (kinda rules out ingestion of a toxin in my mind)

It's been almost 36 hours since this event happened and 24 hours from when I first noticed the swelling and I have taken a second pic just now (attached). Her left side of her face is so swollen that it is now starting to impede her vision. The trauma (if this is what it is actually is, and not a spider bite or something else entirely) took place below the eye, and did not damage the eye ball itself. She is not draining out of the eye any more and normal.

The lump/swollen area is hard, which conflicts with others who say a "hemotoma" is soft in nature, but lumpy. I may have understood that incorrectly though. Can anyone confirm, provide advice on how to reduce swelling? I gave her benadryl when i first noticed it, but nothing else since. She doesn't seem to be in discomfort, wags her tail and is eating fine.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

 

It could also be a tooth infection. Check out her back teeth and gums on that side.

 

Being 11 years old, her teeth have been deteriorating over the past few years. Bad breath for a while now. If that is the case, and it is an infection, would it cause such fast swelling of the face?

My girlfriend does not recall hitting the dog with her foot/heal but she doesn't recall much, it happened so fast and it's the only logical explanation. I just tried opening her jaw to look at the back teeth and maybe I tried to open to far because she let out a small yelp. I didn't see anything out of the norm. I do give her rawhides daily, so she gets plenty of chewing in.

What would be the treatment if this is trauma like I suspected?

What would be the treatment if this is an infection of the mouth?

 

I'm not a Vet, but you need to get her to one, pronto. She probably needs a tooth pulled and needs antibiotics. She's probably in a lot of pain and it's not right to let her suffer.

 

I agree, you need to get the dog to the vet. Tell them up front about your financial concerns.

 

I to say get Crystal in to the vet ASAP. If it's a hematoma, it will need to be lanced and drained and most likely a tube put in so it can heal from the inside out and antibiotics. If it's an abscess or infected tooth, she Definitely needs antibiotics as well.

For the record, any time there is sudden swelling, the next move is to the vet.

Do keep us posted.

 

Thank you guys for the advice! I got ahold of my step sister who is a vet tech, and married to a vet, and they advised me to get her a small bit of buffered aspirin and give it to her twice a day with her food. I will not do this for more than 2 days.

Since posting this her eye has improved and is looking better than either of the two above pics. I also applied a cold compress to her swollen shut eye last night (a frozen bag of peas) but it took some bribing with treats! She is in good spirits and is mothering the puppies like I had hoped she would. Attached are pics of the pups as well.

Boards like this a great help, and a vet tech and a vet in the family is a blessing. If for whatever reason it gets worse, I will be taking her to the emergency vet clinic, thanks to someone very special in my life who has helped me out emotionally/financially in the past month. This Christmas will be a good one, I hope whoever reads this has a great one as well!

The attached pic was just taken. She went from 50% visibility the day after the accident, to zero visibility in the eye last night, to 75% or so as of this minute.

I hope these pics help people in the future, but regardless, a vet should be consulted.