Snake bite in February - Page 1

Twelve days ago my  ten year old female GSD got bitten on the face by a copperhead.  Her cheek and face swelled to the size of a grapefruit.  It finally burst and drained yesterday.  Usually the fang marks are never found, but these are clearly visible in these pictures.  Three days ago, where the hair has sloughed, the fang puncture marks were the size of a pinhead.  She was bitten in the cheek just below and between her eye and ear and it swelled to literally the size of a grapefruit.  She never missed a meal and has acted like nothing happened.  She's a tough old gal....no wonder her pups and grandpups are so good.

Oh man, that looks like a nasty bite, good thing it drained.   Did you flush it out?    I'm very grateful there aren't any dangerous snakes around here.     Isn't it kind of early for the snakes to be out or is it getting warm there?

I thought it was too warm for snakes, also. But my vet says he's had a couple other snake bite cases in the past couple weeks.
The frogs have been crocking (chirping?) down in the swamp and in a pool of standing water here. I sneaked up on them a couple weeks ago, not believing they'd be out so early....I manaded to see one frog, not big enough for frog legs dinner, but it was there.
So I guess if the amphibians think it's time to come out, the copperheads do too. Oddly enough, in January, the was a big fat water moccasin in our creek, right close to where my dogs play in it. So could have been a cotton mouth (moccasin) the got her ?
she's doing fine now, the stuff pour out Sunday. But Saturday the abscess was pressing on her wind pipe, I was able to pull out about 20 or 30 CDs till she objected....it was enough to give her some relief, though. She'll probably loose some tissue due to sloughing by the looks of it.
My vet didn't tell me to flush, so I'm just keeping the openings patent.

I posted several yrs ago pics of 28 copperheads my son and I killed in my 3 acres in two weeks time..Abby got bit twice in one month and was with pups...SHE bled out and lost 4 of them but 4 survived and they were very healthy and turned out very nice...that was my last litter ..
GSDtravels was here when pups were three weeks old...lol
She tried to steal them....lol

Abhay posted many years ago the things to do for copperhead bites...

one is mega dosage     high Vit C , and the benedryl and antibotic.

YR

Couldn't count how many copper head and cotton mouth snake bites my dogs have had in the twenty years here. Haven't lost a dog yet. I did loose a dog to rattle snake bite in Fla years ago. Have not seen any rattle snakes here, but I have seen some puff adders. They look and sound dangerous, but they're harmless.

One of my beautiful males, Abbys brother got killed by a Cottom Mouth in San Antonio on a ranch in a creek bed..he hated anything that moved, even killed coyotes and his owner a Detective here in Tyler was on his 4 wheeler and tried to get to him but he was gonna kill that huge cotton mouth or else..He died in his arms because of far from the vet and on a big ranch with nothing for snake bites..He was an older man and has grieved over that male for years now...He trained that dog and was his side kick and the dog died loving him and his ranch and was just the GSD with the hunting instinct..I HAVE A  creek on my place and I freeze when the kids go near it..so My son fenced it off so no one swims in it...

Copperheads even bite us humans and we get swollen and sick but we usually recover ...Healthy dogs do too.

I think the brown recluse is more dangerous than a copperhead bite..But I have snake remedies along with every other remedy known almost..I come with  Girl Scout Motto  .....   Be PREPARED> for a lot more than a snake bite.. And also I read the Hunterhaus thread just now and am dizzy.. My  gsd have traveled for 12 hours across usa and never ever pooped in kennels...some days my were walked every 4 hours not wanting to poop..THey were anxious to get on the road and never in all my born days with sometimes 13 of my kids in kennels , concrete covered, were put inside for bad weather below 32* and never pooped in kennels...My pups were wired with trays and when they got 4 weeks old each pup had its own kennel seperated on wire with trays and MOM got them at night...BIG males and females who were working lines would at 5 weeks old get angry and pic on each other...I have never seen such abuse to any dogs..DOGs KNOW NOT TO poop when you are busy..mine did...so I do not buy any excuse..DOGS respect their masters and mine hated a messy kennel or pen and would wait forever to pee and poop...and I never leave a water bowl in a kennel for all the water to get spilled..Now OUTDOOR kennels yes, you put Stainless Steel buckets wsith cow clips on fence so not spilled...I cannot fathom anyone not keeping gsd in clean places...if it gets dusty and tracked up get a broom....I played music and kept AC and heaters ready with any weather change..NOW yes if I stayed in town one day or was late coming home  you might find one mess or a water bucket turned upside down and dirty water because they put all feet in and in five minutes after clean water in is Dirty water because of FEET>..SPCA  orgs..are over the kill and I do not trust them...never had to worry about dealing with them...I lived rural ...

lol
now back to the VIPERS...LOL

yr

 

Hey Travels

Just a warning,they hang puppy thieves in Canada

  gouda