Snake bite

My 3 year-old pointer got snake bit Wednesday in Fowlerton.
Dog ran into a snake and returned to truck with a fang puncture below the right eye. He had his Red Rock vaccination in early September.
Immediately removed collar, applied ice--muzzle began swelling within 15 minutes.

We drove back to camp and within an hour had had iv steroids, benadryl and an antibiotic in him. Vet in
Jourdanton was contacted and we discussed giving him a some anti-venom or bringing him in --she advised holding off since there ws not a lot of swelling and his resperation did not seem to elevated--recommended that we observe and bring him in at any signs of nausea, diarrhea or elevated heart rate or heavy breathing. She recommended trying to feed him something appetizing and give him plenty of water. He took the water and refused the food. Dog was somewhat listless, obviously in pain.


In the morning we saw that he had urinated blood during the evening. Off we went to the vet Thursday morning -- vet recommended and overnight stay with iv fluids and a flush of kidneys and liver. Suspected that there was some sort of interaction with chagas meds.That morning he urinated blood but then urinated clear later.

Picked him up next day -- swelling had migrated down to neck but dog was alert and wanted to go home.
He ate as soon as he was home and by next morning was playing with other dogs.

Saturday pm. he pretty much appears to have recovered.

Looks like he got a low venom bite but clearly received some venom. I think the Red Rock vaccine was beneficial and contributed to quick recovery.

BTW vet says they are seeing a good deal of chagas in their area.

Glad he is doing well I am always worried for my splnone as I have lots of rattlers at my place. I kill at least 3 to 5 a year. He has snake vaccine

Wow. Glad he is doing well.

We never saw the snake, just saw him jump back and return to the truck but it was obvious from the puncture wound and swelling that he had been bitten. There are both copperheads and rattlers in the area but because of the the habitat, I suspect it was a rattler. Dog has had two sessions of snake avoidance but was running slightly downwind with head up so probably didn't sense the snake until too late. It was @ 80 and humid and a front was moving south so snakes were active.

How is the quail population on the Briscoe or wherever you were hunting?

Glad the dog is well.

Glad he recovered well. It sounds like you and the vet did all the right things...including that early vaccination.

Slow, tall grass-- to the waist in some places-- We were doing only about 7 coveys per day. Saw only one covey of small birds, rest were adults--several of the coveys were about 15 birds. Little evidence of that late hatch the state was talking about.

Maybe it’ll get better after a good frost, and the heavy cover gets knocked down.

I hunted down there a couple of times after deer season. The buffle grass was still there but didn't seem as thick.

We got a lot of rain late--buffle is now waist high in some places. We are one of those leases that would like to see MORE cattle grazing. Briscoe always has a good inventory of grass, never overgrazes. My guess is that without buffle; or if it were burned the place would support twice the population of birds it does now. We see some buffle die back when it freezes, but it doesn't get cold enough there to really knock it back.

light it and leave

Pretty quick recovery, about as good of an outcome you could hope for if the overnight stay at vet wasnt outrageous $$

You should see the size of the rocks in the gravel road getting into and out of the lease.

Glad your dog is okay! This is a little off topic but what are the recommendations about administering Benadryl? I hunted the Chap on the opener and snakes were definitely on my mind.

Start thread on chagas medication

50-100 mg and get to the vet.

wishing yall the best Mundo.

They paved that road(Camerone) last year--it no longer swallows tanker trucks and truck recovery vehicles.