Bee sting?? Mystery solved.....I hope

[chaosmom]

And the adventures of Chaos the wonderboy continue. I get a call from the barn owner tonight. Chaos is running a 102 fever and has rubbed his rump completely raw on both sides of his tail. I get there and she has showered him and has his temp down.
I take a look at his backside and it looks like the right side is just a casualty of whatever happened to the left side. Both are noticeably swollen but the left side is HUGE. With all the rubbing he's been doing I couldn't tell if there was a bite mark or sting anywhere, but that's what I'm leaning towards. Cleaned him up with betadine, put some antibiotic on it and some swat around it, and gave him a shot of bute. Sprayed him with half a bottle of Bronco, threw his fly mask on and put him in the round pen for the night. One because he'll be cooler out there than in his stall and two, because he can't do as much damage rubbing on the pipe fencing as he can on the wood in his stall.
Has anyone had a bug bite or sting cause such massive swelling??? I mean this is way beyond a welt. We're talking somewhere between a grapefruit and a football. Poor bugger.
Pam is going to check on him through the night to make sure his fever stays down. All I can think is he's having an allergic reaction.
Worms are not an issue, they are all on a great regimen and the vet recently did random checks on him and a handful of others in the barn.
Any insight or experience anyone else has would help ease my mind

[TeachU2Ride]

Ouch! I've never seen a bug bite do that kind of damage, particularly the fever. If anything, I'd be leaning towards a poisonous spider, or even snake bite (maybe while he was napping). Watch the area closely... that much swelling can cause its own complications via clotting. Did you look under his tail and down the dock to make sure there was nothing evident there?

[chaosmom]

Yep, I've looked at everything, much to his displeasure LOL. Swelling is down a little today but he's still holding at 100.5 and still looks much like a babboon from the back. Especially since Emily thought it prudent to use the pink swat on him (so we'd know it was there LOL). Poor guy, if he comes out of this without a complex I'll be amazed. I'm putting a call in to the vet to pick his brain and see if he thinks it warrants a visit or not. He's really good about answering questions. I have to tell you though, if the busy body at the barn tells me one more time that my horse has pinworms because that's what hers did when he had them, I'm going to find a new spot to keep the pitchfork.
I'm going to change Chaos' name to "Special Ed". LOL.

[chaosmom]

Just heard from the vet. Have I mentioned that I LOVE my vet? He came to the conclusion fairly quickly that Chaos has been the victim of a paper wasp. Apparently they get into the water while they are building nests, and one of two things commonly happens (at least out here). They either get it on the nose or if they tend to stand with their tails in their buckets (Chaos), the wasp will get caught up in the tail and when they swish they get nailed.
SO.....thank goodness for the other invalids in the barn already being on every med under the sun, I don't have to drive to the vets to pick anything up today. He's on a 3 day course of Tri-Hist and 2 days of prednizone to get the itching down. Vinegar baths and prevasin on the sores.
Holy high maintenance gelding LOL. Lucky guy gets to live out in the round pen for a few days too with the Golden Girls for company.
Vet is coming out this week to see another calamity critter so if there's no improvement he'll look at Chaos too. Even he is starting to giggle at the frequency of mishaps we're having. Good grief.

[Smay]

Ouch, poor Chaos! A paper wasp, huh? it just have itched/hurt a LOT for him to rub it so raw like that. Thank god that's not one of the experiences I've had!

[chaosmom]

In all my years with horses, it's a first for me too! LOL. He's much better now and what better place to try to re-grow hair than a show arab barn! Gotta love that MTG. Stinks to high heaven but it works like a charm.