Hard Lesson

One of my dogs is a lil' black dachund and the huntin' fellow you ever saw. When I ride the 4 wheeler to the store from the house[ bout a quarter mile] he loves to chase lizards[ we got bout a bazillion of 'em]I knew the way he lloves to hunt and as many raqttlers as we got here the inevitable would happen. On the way to the store Saturday , he was out in front a ways as usual and I saw him jump, then jump back and then jump forward again. Sure enough, ol buzztail got him on the end of the nose. The snake got in a hole before I got there so I couldnt tell how big he was, but from the fang marks [ about 3/4" apart] I could tell thank goodnes it wasnt a real big one. His nose started to swell immediately and I rushed him to where I keep my vet supplies and loaded him up with antibiotics. By nitghttime his nose and jaw was big as a softball. The vet said that was about all I could do and if he made it through the night he would probably make it. Heck my neighbor lost a big bull last week from snake bite. Yesterday his jaw and nose got even bigger and drained allot and he felt pretty rough but would eat and drink. Today the swelling has gone down some and he is a little more alert. He's learned a HARD lesson, but I bet he'll respect ol buzztail now. Anyone else on here had any experience with bites on their dogs. I know birddogs get bitten quite often. Ol Bob

I hope the dog keeps getting better. And I'm pretty sure it will avoid snakes now. I used to have all my bird dogs "snake trained." Using an avoidance/shock collar, you zap them when they notice a rattler. That teaches them to keep away from them. I repeated it every year or so. FOrtunately, I've never had a dog get bit by a snake.

By the way, read the snake bite posts up in the Survival section - a cattle prod shock is supposed to help neutralize the venom somehow.

I've trained hundreds of dogs to avoid snakes using the TriTronics method. They'll never go near a snake again when I get done. They won't even look at one!

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=teach+dogs+avoid+rattlesnakes&btnG=Google+Search

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 08-12-2003 10:56: Message edited by: Ithaca 37 ]</font>

Rick, we used to sell lotsa stunguns for snake bites. They said it broke down the protein or something in the venom. One company sold some and called them snake bite treaters. Dont know if it works or not. Of course I did not have a stungun in stock Saturday to try. Bob

At least he didn't get bit on the ASS and you had to suck the venum out

Glad your dog is doing better !!!

Sorry to hear that Bob. Hope the little feller is felling better.