My dog Conan found a rattlesnake tonight. I didn’t see the snake, but the wounds from the fangs are too wide for a copperhead and we don’t have moccasins on the mountain. Timber rattlers we definitely have.
Antivenin is expensive! But he’s my dog.
UPDATE:
The morning finds him alive and capable of standing and moving short distances under his own power. He’s drinking and shows no initial signs of organ failure or wound sepsis. He let me bathe the wounds, and the swelling is already beginning to subside. I hope that he is going to be fine in a little while; he is both young and strong.
UPDATE:
We did lose a chicken last night, because we were off at the vet instead of home to lock them up in their coop safely and their guard dog wasn't there either. This morning one of them was dead outside the door. A chicken for a dog is a good trade, but it underlines his value as a member of the family.
12 comments:
Reminds me of Marc, a husky-shepherd mix (best dog I ever had) got it in the face by a diamondback (because dogs always stick their face in close to sniff out what this thing is, the snake).
His head swelled up to twice normal size, it caught him in the cheek-snout area and the way it works is...the venom starts breaking down tissue so, he was sloughing off tissue from the inside of his mouth onto the towel we made for him to lay on...so be prepared for the nastiness of it.
The antivenom works, especially if you get it to them within an hour. We couldn't get it to Marc within an hour but he still made it through it ok.
Prayers for man's best friend.
nmewn
Unfortunately the closest emergency vet is well over an hour away. The venom was in him a while before we could get him to antivenom. He was bit three times for sure, so fast I never saw the snake though I was right with him. He may have taken those bites for me.
Dang. Prayers for the pup. Hope he's better soon.
We get rattlesnake vaccine for the dogs now, but when we first moved here one of our dogs was struck. He made it through, but it was bad. Be on a sharp lookout for brown pee, meaning the kidneys are under stress and he needs fluids IV fast. I hope the antivenin helped!
The first bite will have the largest volume of venom, the second less in terms of volume.
It was probably close to two hours before we got Marc to a vet, it was a Sunday as well and the vet was closed. The vet said it may not work because of the time lapse but Marc pulled through.
Conan appears to be larger than Marc so he has that going for him. Keep him hydrated as stated, I sat with Marc every chance I got offering a bowl of water which he sipped from then he would go back to sleep.
Hang in there Conan.
nmewn
I hope he has a quick and complete recovery.
Hope he makes a quick recovery.
I'm so glad to read your update.
The way the vaccine works is to prime the spleen to produce a lot of antivenin at the moment of the strike. No need for vet care at all, other than to guard against infection from the dirty fangs. The vaccine, which requires a booster after 30 days and then annually thereafter, is affordable and available for dogs and horses, though unfortunately not for people.
I hope you'll keep a sharp eye on him, but if the swelling is already reduced you're probably not going to have trouble with necrosis or sloughing, which is the scary part, and evidently what leads to the threat to kidneys. My dog had to have some surgery to remove damaged tissue, but it wasn't too bad and all healed up properly. The only dicey part was the kidneys, starting several days after the strike.
Apparently what you hope for is strikes to areas with mostly skin over bone, not large muscles. Faces are pretty good.
My dog never got antivenin, by the way, because we didn't realize until his symptoms got worse that it had been a rattlesnake. We didn't see it happen, and around here moccasin strikes are by far the most common. They don't amount to much beyond some swelling and pain for a couple of days, at least in dogs.
That's great news Grim. Old timers say they can smell a rattler so maybe Conan being a dog can file that (what is described to me as a pungent smell) away in his mental library and recognize it next time.
Thanks for the update!
nmewn
Glad to hear he's better.
Dogs certainly have some better senses.
My sister had a dachshund/basenji mix. We were lazing in the driveway one afternoon, and the dog dashed into the weeds beside the drive and came out shaking a foot and a half snake. We'd had no clue it was there. (She didn't want to give it up, but the deceased looked mamba-ish.)
Oh, scary stuff! Glad he's looking to be ok. Around here many people offer rattlesnake training, and I mean to have the dogs take it- especially the one that's super curious about everything! We don't ever see them around the house, but I've literally stepped over them on the trails. Perhaps someone offers such training near you.
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