Copperhead, barefoot, front porch ~ almost ER! Caution: Graphic Photos

[Chickerdoodle13]

From what I've read and heard, Copper head bites really aren't all that bad compared to other snakes bites. I've read that people who live in areas with lots of snakes prefer a dog is bitten by a copper head rather than any other snake! Many times hospitals won't even give you antivenom for the bite. I'm sure it's painful, but the good thing is most people probably will not die from a bite!

 

[GaNewChick]

Quote:
Really glad you looked where you walk!

I had a hound dog mix get bitten last year, but we didn't know he'd been bitten - I thought he's been stung by a bee. I gave him a Benadryl. The right side of his muzzle got swollen, but he survived the night. (I slept on the floor with him,

) That was about 10 p.m. Saturday when he was hit.

The next morning, he was on the sofa being pitiful, so I took a pic and uploaded it to the computer. While cropping it I finally saw the fang marks! Nearly had heart failure! Couldn't get the regular vet, but shot him an email, Emergency Clinic is highly expensive, 30 miles away and they said by phone that they couldn't do anything anyway.

The swelling started going down 2 days later, I just kept syringing water into his mouth. Later, the vet told me they don't keep antivenom on hand because it's so expensive and doesn't last well. All he would have done was keep the fluids going and watch for infection. He didn't really want to say if the Benadryl had helped or not.

We did find the snake and kill it. I vac-packed it and froze it, gave it to the vet's assistant on my next trip to town.

We too only kill the venomous snakes that get into the dog yard- all others slither through in peace.

So glad your dog was ok. I have 3, and they storm out the door one after another. My luck, he would have hit all 3.

If it were left to my husband, there would be no snakes ... I won't let him kill the non venomous.

 

[GaNewChick]

Quote:
I read too that they aren't deadly ~ just very painful!!!

 

[dawg53]

Yikes! You have a good eye GaNewChick,whew! I kill all snakes. I've had rat snakes eat my chicks. Also had a 5 foot long chicken snake drag my adult buff orpington off her roost and tried constricting her in the middle of the night. Luckily I hadnt gone to bed yet and heard her screaming. I ran outside to the pen with shovel in one hand and flashlight in the other. The snake had dragged her out of her house and was still trying coil around her,til I intervened and killed it. I took the buff in the house and checked her out and she was ok. I returned her to her house and she layed me an egg the next day.

 

[RM44]

Quote:
Really glad you looked where you walk!

I had a hound dog mix get bitten last year, but we didn't know he'd been bitten - I thought he's been stung by a bee. I gave him a Benadryl. The right side of his muzzle got swollen, but he survived the night. (I slept on the floor with him,

) That was about 10 p.m. Saturday when he was hit.

The next morning, he was on the sofa being pitiful, so I took a pic and uploaded it to the computer. While cropping it I finally saw the fang marks! Nearly had heart failure! Couldn't get the regular vet, but shot him an email, Emergency Clinic is highly expensive, 30 miles away and they said by phone that they couldn't do anything anyway.

The swelling started going down 2 days later, I just kept syringing water into his mouth. Later, the vet told me they don't keep antivenom on hand because it's so expensive and doesn't last well. All he would have done was keep the fluids going and watch for infection. He didn't really want to say if the Benadryl had helped or not.

We did find the snake and kill it. I vac-packed it and froze it, gave it to the vet's assistant on my next trip to town.

We too only kill the venomous snakes that get into the dog yard- all others slither through in peace.

So glad your dog was ok. I have 3, and they storm out the door one after another. My luck, he would have hit all 3. If it were left to my husband, there would be no snakes ... I won't let him kill the non venomous.

This is actually how the vet diagnosed "snake bite" on my dogs. If you have multiple dogs, one sticks their face down, gets bit, yelps, and then the other dogs come to see what the first one is barking at. The next one sticks their face down to see, and, well, you know what happens!

Yes, it is true that copperheads aren't necessarily "deadly", but why take the chance? They can be. My sister's cat died from a copperhead bite. And when both of my large dogs were bit, the vet said the bite was so close to their brains that it easily could have been lethal.

Good riddance to all copper heads. They seem to be a Georgia curse. Even our prior governor Zell Miller mentions the problem in one of his books. Folks just don't understand how overrun we are with them down here!

 

[dawg53]

We dont have copperheads down here in Camden county. We've got all the other poisonous ones though. Alot of pygmy rattlers,canebrake rattlers and cottonmouths with a couple coral snakes thrown in.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
My cocker spaniel died from a bite from one... She started to have seizures and wouldnt come out of the seizure..even with high doses of meds.. and the vet couldnt save her.
Maybe it affected her so badly because she was a smaller dog..i dont know...

 

[Fairybee]

the worst we have is the adder and al that does is give you a nasty bite and a headache i believe but we dont see many of them there not that widely spread and tend to hide from humans rather than stay and strike but i do love snakes i had an injured grass snake once we called kevin strangest thing was sitting in the garden and he kinda just fell from the sky geussing buzzard or hawk was carrying him and dropped him but i would love to go places they do have snakes and learn about them i find them fasinating glad everyone is ok though and that the dogs where not bitten

 

[Airplaneguy57]

Wife was mowing and felt what she thought was a stick. Looked down and saw a copperhead coiled ready to strike again. She cleared the 4 foot fence. I looked for the snake but it was long gone. Dr at the ER said the will give a dry bite as a warning, sometimes. That is what happened.