scalebuster, did anyone witness the bite?
We didn’t witness the bite or see the snake. We didn’t believe it was a snake bite but it kept getting bigger. It was the size of half my fist when we noticed it in the pasture and grapefruit size by the time we got to the vet. When we got to the vet she smelled the ooze and said she didn’t believe it, because of the weather, but it was definitely a snake bite. She said they had as many as 5 dogs at a time in the summer with rattler bites and the venom smelled distinct.
The dog had never had the snake vaccine so I don’t know if that would have made any difference. I vaccinate mine but have heard different opinions from several different vets on the effectiveness. When I had mine vaccinated the vet told me she couldn’t tell me if it made that much difference but she gave her own dog the vaccine. She figured for $20 it couldn’t hurt.
The only dog I’ve had bitten was a pointer before they had vaccine or antivenin for dogs, at least in Crane county, and he was bitten on the head several different times. The vet just gave us some green salve to put on it.
When this lab goes in for a dead bird she’ll get down on her belly and root into the thick cover. I figure she had to have gotten right on top of him.