Scars on belly

[lunaradius]

I took Emily for her vaccinations and that night I noticed little bumps on her belly I took her back to the vet the next morning and the vet said she must have dig up some red ants and had an allergic reaction well the vet went and popped a lot of them on her belly that was on Jan. 2 and now she has little pot scars all over she is 12 weeks so will the scars go away as she gets older?

[TrishB]

Possibly. Puppies heal very quickly and usually quite well. If not, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I would be more worried about the possible future allergic reactions to the red ants! You may want to have your home / yard treated to protect her in the future.

[rottsnroses]

If you are in Florida and there were pustules to pop on her belly, it's quite possible she got into fire ants. Their bites literally burn like fire, and they typically leave scars, at least on people they do.

They are EXTREMELY agressive once their mound is disturbed, and hoards of them will immediately emerge to attack the offender. If the populations get large enough, they have been known to take down and kill an animal as large as a cow, however, they mostly just inflict dozens of painful bites.

They were "imported" to the US by contaminated turf from South America, and have managed to spread throughout the Southern US. They are active year round, although slower in the colder weather, but become quite troublesome when it gets wet and warm. If not controlled, they will multiply rapidly.

If you have them on your property, get one of the contact poisons (like Spectracide) that you can sprinkle on the mound and water into the ground. The baits (like Amdro) remain on top of the soil and could possibly be ingested by your dog. They are not easy to kill, and unfortunately organic controls are pretty unsuccessful. There is a parasitic insect that is native to South America that they are looking at introducing here in the US as it is the fire ant's only known predator.

I've seen dogs under attack when they inadvertently stick their nose in a mound or walk through one. It's not a pretty sight.