An acquaintance of mine, a former Borzoi breeder, who now has a couple
of Border Terriers, let the two out for "last call" in the floodlighted
yard and a few seconds later heard a couple of canine screams. She went
running out to see a copperhead slithering away. It had bitten her male
on the TONGUE! and her bitch on the cheek. She's a vet tech.... iced
the bitch's face as well as possible and got them both to the emergency
clinic. By the time she got there, the male's tongue was so swollen as
to be "unidentifiable". They gave anti-venin (Mega-bucks), kept them
both overnight. The bitch is now at home, doing well. The male spends
the days at the clinic on IV fluids, and the nights at home with mom
syringe-feeding some baby food and water. He's on Lots of opiate pain
meds.

In a day or two now, the dead tissue on that tongue will start to
slough, and they'll be able to guess whether he'll make it with enough
tongue left to be able to eat and drink....

The bitch will probably end up with a hairless scar in the area of her
bite.

Jo

"Jo Wolf" wrote in message
...

An acquaintance of mine, a former Borzoi breeder, who now has a couple
of Border Terriers, let the two out for "last call" in the floodlighted
yard and a few seconds later heard a couple of canine screams. She went
running out to see a copperhead slithering away. It had bitten her male
on the TONGUE! and her bitch on the cheek. She's a vet tech.... iced
the bitch's face as well as possible and got them both to the emergency
clinic. By the time she got there, the male's tongue was so swollen as
to be "unidentifiable". They gave anti-venin (Mega-bucks), kept them
both overnight. The bitch is now at home, doing well. The male spends
the days at the clinic on IV fluids, and the nights at home with mom
syringe-feeding some baby food and water. He's on Lots of opiate pain
meds.

In a day or two now, the dead tissue on that tongue will start to
slough, and they'll be able to guess whether he'll make it with enough
tongue left to be able to eat and drink....

The bitch will probably end up with a hairless scar in the area of her
bite.

Jo
__________________________________________________ __________________

Jeebus, Jo! What a horrible thing. Have they considered putting the dog
down? If he's in that much pain, and his survival is still so iffy, maybe
that would be the more humane solution. A very sad one, though. I hate
****ing snakes.

Actually, the little rascal is doing quite well, and no longer seems
to be in much pain. Discoloration on his undersides and inside thighs
has faded, oral swelling is going down. Thursday AM he tried to get
into a packet of treats, so they are letting him eat now.... very liquid
soup of dog food and water.... which he really chugs his way through.
Swallowing with no problems. Still not interested in much activity, but
able to walk short distances to eliminate. Much better than the vets
expected, but it's early days yet. We're getting daily reports.

Given that my Dane, Max, was bitten on a back foot by a rattlesnake as a
10 month-old pup, back in 1976, I'm not a big fan of snakes, either.

Jo Wolf

On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 22:52:14 -0400, (Jo Wolf) wrote:

Actually, the little rascal is doing quite well, and no longer seems
to be in much pain. Discoloration on his undersides and inside thighs
has faded, oral swelling is going down. Thursday AM he tried to get
into a packet of treats, so they are letting him eat now.... very liquid
soup of dog food and water.... which he really chugs his way through.
Swallowing with no problems. Still not interested in much activity, but
able to walk short distances to eliminate. Much better than the vets
expected, but it's early days yet. We're getting daily reports.

Given that my Dane, Max, was bitten on a back foot by a rattlesnake as a
10 month-old pup, back in 1976, I'm not a big fan of snakes, either.

When I was stationed at Camp LeJeune (in North Carolina, "The
Copperhead Capital of the World"), many of us would wake up with
copperheads on or in our sleeping bags when out on bivouac.

Which is why I still wake up each morning very, very, slowly.

Guys would get bitten all the time (usually only when messing with
them), but rarely was much damage caused. They aren't really
aggressive snakes, and even less so during NC winters.

Now, Eastern Diamondbacks and Cottonmouths are a whole different
story...

--
Dogman

Yeh, my hometown in SSE Ohio had a "public square", an oval of grass in
the center of the busines district. The old fountain in the center was
repaired when I was in school, and during every dry spell in the summer
there would be a few copperheads looking for water. It was less than
half mile to the national forest.... and maybe another half mile to the
Hocking River. People would mention smelling copperheads in their
gardens.... a sort of cucumber scent, I was always told. We just
learned to leave them alone.... The USAF had a pilot forest survival
training camp just outside town, and the cadre collected rattlers and
copperheads.... and other snakes.... for their training.... and served
fried and boiled snake during the annual local festival.... after
rapelling down from the clock tower of the old 1890s school building at
the end of the "square".

Those LeJune "snekkies" just wanted a warm bed, too..... {grin}

My "field" time in the Army was with medical units. We had cots (and
usually, air mattresses) .... and were taught to hang our boots, by the
laces, from the cot frames..... scorpions and rattlers.... in Texas, and
to upend them and shake them out before we put them on. At Ft Sill, OK,
we hung 'em up because of tarantulas.... and "snekkies". Always some
sort of critter.... When I was assigned as training nurse/Chief Nurse
to a go-to-war hospital at Ft Benning, GA, one of our young troops would
catch a snake about once a year and kill it. The NCOs made their
impression on young heads full of mush by requiring the GI to skin and
cook the snake.... in his helmet (in those days, still metal).... not
even any salt.... and eat a given amount of it.... his buddies had to
eat some, too, and they always brought me some. I carried packets of
salt and pepper in a pocket until that ritual was done and over with....
Terribly bland.... tilapia has more flavor....

We didn't get any reports on the tongue-bitten dog this weekend.....
maybe tonight. I think prompt administration of the anti-venon will
proove to be the saving grace in this case. It was less than half an
hour between bite and administration.

My friends who do field work all get their dogs vaccinated against
rattlesnake venom, now that the anti-venon is so expensive and hard to
find.... and my West Coast terrier friends take their dogs to the
rattlesnake-avoidance events. And swear by them. The terriers seem to
generalize nicely to all snakes, as several have commented that their
dogs have alerted and moved briskly away from even garter snakes in the
yard. Those workshops are starting to be offered here in the SE.... I
had to skip one in South Florida in May....

Jo

On Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:49:08 -0400, (Jo Wolf) wrote:

[...]
Those LeJune "snekkies" just wanted a warm bed, too..... {grin}

You bet!

[...]
Terribly bland.... tilapia has more flavor....

Not the way I make it. Sauteed on the top a bed of crushed garlic
(with lemon juice, butter and olive oil). LOTS of garlic. TONS of
garlic.

Of course, you can't really taste the tilapia afterwards, but if you
like garlic, and I loooooove garlic, it's a great meal.

We didn't get any reports on the tongue-bitten dog this weekend.....
maybe tonight. I think prompt administration of the anti-venon will
proove to be the saving grace in this case. It was less than half an
hour between bite and administration.

I'm surprised they had any anti-venin. I'm not a fan of rattlesnake
vaccines.

I used to have an old CBR (115 pounds of muscle) who hated snakes with
a passion. No amount of snake proofing would get him past this hatred.
He'd actively search them out if he got a whiff of one. He was bitten
many times and probably became immune to snake venom. He'd not only
kill them, but would try to maul them, too. Copperheads, rattlers,
cottonmouths, kings, garters, etc. You name it - he hated it.

He died at the ripe old age of 14, in his sleep, with nary a snake in
sight.

My friends who do field work all get their dogs vaccinated against
rattlesnake venom, now that the anti-venon is so expensive and hard to
find.... and my West Coast terrier friends take their dogs to the
rattlesnake-avoidance events. And swear by them.

Yeah, we snake-proof dogs at my place. Works really well, but you
really need to repeat the course every year or two, if you're going to
be anywhere with a lot of snakes.

--
Dogman

Yeh, I understand that the snakeproofing has to be repeated.....

Yeh-but, the NCOs didn't give our troopies the option of garlic.......
At least I had my salt and pepper..... {grin}

My boss had Pharaoh Hounds when I first knew her. Her brood bitch was
never bitten, but had a specific bark that announced snakes.... and
Marlene would send her hubby out to take care of the situation before
Wakia decided to grab it.
Wakia also kept the other dogs away from the snakes.

Jo

Added...... Is there anything more stubborn than a Chessie? Watching a
former student, who was a breeder, struggle through competition
obedience work was fascinating. She did hunt tests with her own dogs,
but sold a number of pups to working homes.

Jo

On Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:38:56 -0400, (Jo Wolf) wrote:

Added...... Is there anything more stubborn than a Chessie? Watching a
former student, who was a breeder, struggle through competition
obedience work was fascinating. She did hunt tests with her own dogs,
but sold a number of pups to working homes.

I don't think they're stubborn at all, Jo. But you definitely can't
train them the same way you would train a Lab or a Golden. You can
drill a Lab until the cows come home and they'll still beg for more.
Not so, a CBR. Once he's "got it," he figures he's got it. And then
wants to move on to something else. And luckily, we've always got
something else to work on.

Of course, this is why they don't do as well as Labs in field trials.

But I absolutely loooove Chessies. But they certainly aren't for
everyone, especially the people who expect them to behave like
Labrador retrievers.

--
Dogman

Ah-ha! I live with that "got it the first time, now don't drill me on
it" attitude. We tell first-time Border Terrier trainers that once you
bore one of these dogs with an exercise, you have to start it over using
a different approach.... Tests the ingenuity of owner and
instructor/coach. Once watched a Wisconsin friend who bred and showed
SEVEN of her own Border Ts to Utility titles trying to come up wth a new
way of working on the go-outs..... She'd goofed and bored the dog on
every method she knew. I don't recall now what she came up with.....
but I know that dog got the title; saw it in the AKC show reports within
the following year. Rally has been especially useful in getting Border
Ts through that boring-for-the-dog polishing for the CD.

BTW.... the little guy with the snake bite is doing astoundingly well.
He's not sloughing much from his tongue, and it's already healing where
it sloughed. Eating soft food now, not quite soaked into mush. His
owner says it was less than half an hour after the bite that the
anti-venin was given.... but by then his pulse was already weak and
thready, pulse rate of only 140. That emergency vet was one sharp
cookie to move so fast. The dog weighed 18 lbs.... fit and trim.

Jo Wolf