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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    Mackay North Qld
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    6,446

    Default Had a close call this week!

    I have 2 dogs, a blue cattle dog bitch and a liver coloured male setter.
    The cattle dog is by far the smartest dog I have ever owned. Not so much the setter, he is dumber than a bag of hammers,but has a great temperament.

    Rosie the cattle dog often plays with sticks to amuse herself, throwing them in air and catching them before they hit the ground.

    Last Monday evening around 5pm I noticed what I thought was a stick she had thrown on to the slab near the back sliding door. However it was not a stick, as it moved when it landed.

    It was a 1.2 meter Eastern Brown snake that she had attacked and broken its neck.

    I fully expected her to have suffered a bite and rang the vet to see about treatment as it was knock off time. Even here in Mackay we have lots of traffic at the this time. It took us 35 very scary minutes to get to our vet at Walkerston some 20 kms away.

    The vet checked with a blood coagulant test and thank goodness the test was negative. The symptoms were all completely normal and we were allowed to take her home.

    Apparently Eastern browns kill a lot of dogs up here so I am very apprehensive, because it is the snake season and emboldened by this success she will undoubtedly try again. We have been here 25 years and it is the first Eastern brown we have encountered.

    Though Rosie did not get bitten it was a sobering experience.

    Had she been bitten the treatment costs would have been quite high. The anti venene is $900 dollars a bottle with 1 bottle minimum usually used for treatment on a dog.The treatment costs are pretty costly as someone has to stay after hours with the dog.

    I have since checked around on vets closer to me if they have a supply of anti venene .They all do. We were very lucky this time around.

    I thought I would throw this info out there as its best to be informed ahead of time.

    Grahame

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    moonbi nsw Aus
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    69
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    364

    Default

    The wife went to see the Doc the other day and during the consultation he mentioned that one of his dogs was bitten by a Brown but the dog didn't make the trip across town to the surgery. The Doc was somewhat down losing his favourite dog that way. Even though the Doc lives right in town, he backs onto a golf coarse so the snake could have come along way to find the dog.

    We live 4k's from the village in a rural subdivision so we are on permanent snake watch. Its amasing how many we see and then they turn into sticks or part of a garden hose. Last year we had 2. One was a Python and the other a Black. A few summers back we had 7.....I hate snakes.....I hate snakes
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
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    6,439

    Default

    Hi Grahame, Guys,

    Yes ! Snakes are nasty creatures. Fortunately the only venomous snake we have here in the UK is the Adder.

    Some years ago a dead willow tree fell over in the garden. A few years later a friend and I decided to move it !
    We very rapidly changed our minds when we discovered a nest of Adders underneath one end of it. A quite large snake and several small ones, only a few inches long. They had gone by the time winter arrived, so had the trunk of the tree. Someone had been and pinched it whilst we were away on holiday.

    I'm glad that your dog was OK !
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  4. #4
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Feb 2006
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    Perth
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    I really like taking our two dogs for walks through the bush and have taken them a few times on the limited bush trails around Perth but I always worry about snakes. One of the dogs alway walks close to me so stays on any path or trail but the other dog scouts up to 50 or metres away from the trail so I have to keep her on a leash. Scout dog is also skilled at finding all manner of horrible stuff like rotting roo carcasses to roll in.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Geelong, Australia
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    57
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    Glad it worked out OK Grahame.

    We lost one dog and almost the other a couple of years ago to a tiger snake.
    My wife came home to find the partially dismembered snake on lawn with the cocker spaniel lying on the ground intently guarding it. Unfortunately she was already dead by then.
    Thought the golden lab was OK, but rang the vet and arranged to take her down to get checked out, and it was then we noticed that she was struggling to get up.

    Anti-venom, overnight at the animal hospital and almost a week on a drip at the vet for starters - I can vouch for it being an expensive exercise.
    Pretty early on the vet wanted to give her a second dose of anti-venom, but we decided not to as there had to be some financial sensibility. In hindsight it likely would have cost less in the long run as she would have recovered more quickly.

    Steve

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
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    Wodonga Vic
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    38
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    I stepped on a good size black snake today down by the Kewia river, and good thing it was me who stepped on it, I was wearing in my work boots and trousers, my wife next to me was wearing shorts and thongs, she moved pretty quick when I said the word "snake" and pointed to the angry snake under my feet trying to get away

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    Mackay North Qld
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    Quote Originally Posted by OxxAndBert View Post
    Pretty early on the vet wanted to give her a second dose of anti-venom, but we decided not to as there had to be some financial sensibility. In hindsight it likely would have cost less in the long run as she would have recovered more quickly.
    Hi Steve
    That can be the real agony for some owners.Not all of us are able to have a reserve of funds which could save our pets. For those in such a position its a terrible choice to make.
    Fortunately in our case have a vet insurance included in our house insurance policy.

    Grahame

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
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    Geelong, Australia
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    Quote Originally Posted by Grahame Collins View Post
    Hi Steve
    That can be the real agony for some owners.Not all of us are able to have a reserve of funds which could save our pets. For those in such a position its a terrible choice to make.
    Fortunately in our case have a vet insurance included in our house insurance policy.

    Grahame
    No pet insurance involved in our case - thankfully we're fortunate enough to both still be working full time and able to cover it. Probably in excess of $3k when all said and done.
    Definitely something to consider as a dog owner particularly if you're in a high snake risk situation. Either have insurance, be prepared to cop the treatment cost (and still possibly a negative outcome), or know up front that if you can't - you're likely going to have to make a euthanasia call early on. Its traumatic when it happens so not the best time to be considering things rationally.

    What I didn't mention clearly in my previous post was that Bess has made a full recovery. Almost 2 weeks resident at the vet's until she was able to eat and toilet on her own then another couple of weeks resting at home on bland diet and monitoring that she was consuming enough fluids to stay hydrated. It happened early December so coincided with xmas holidays which was fortunate or one of us would have to have taken leave to look after her.
    Probably took about 6-9 months total before she was really back to her usual self.
    We're not sure how long it was between when she was bitten and when treatment started, but I'd estimate at least 4 hours - possibly up to 8. The sooner they receive anti-venom the less damage and therefore easier/quicker recovery.
    I also think that we were somewhat fortunate that we only lost one dog. Its likely that the cocker spaniel would have been first into the snake and therefore copped the brunt of the venom. That, and Bess being physically larger likely saved her.

    Hopefully yours and everyone elses 4 legged family members can stay safe and healthy

    Steve

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    Mackay North Qld
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    Thanks OxAndBert,
    Its good information that all of us who have dogs and live in snake pron areas need to be aware of.
    It prompted me to look at the RSCPA insurance which is touted on the TV often.

    On the 2nd best plan it would still cost $75 (for our 2 dogs) a month which if I look at it realistically is still less then a single phial of anti venom serum.

    Grahame

  10. #10
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Around our way the more likely scenario is what the older dog (Willow) finds to eat on our walks along the Swan River. She will eat the fresh Blowies that fisher people catch and throw into the reeds/bush. This has already happened twice at the cost of a stomach pump and Vet Hospital ON stay - Kaching!. She eats lots of other crap too. There are quite a few BBQ's I steer clear of on our walks as she sniffs out the cooked bones chucked onto the ground - she knows these places and keeps going back to them so I put her on a leash when we approach these areas. I can now get her to stop what she's eating but that relies on me seeing her pick something up to eat. Before she was trained to do this the scariest thing was watching her eat a whole box of KFC. She had dragged it under a steel framed stage that was being setup for a concert. One of the young guys putting the stage together removed part of the steel frame and crawled in to get the box away from her but by the time he did that Willow had chomped her way though the lot - we watched her closely for some time after and it didn't seem to worry her.

    Willow is an expert food stealer. She has stolen 1/2kg blocks of cheese from the fridge, chocolate bars from SWMBO's handbag, and has eaten about 1/3rd of a Xmas ham off the bone that was waiting on a Kitchen bench to be cooked. The other dog likes blister pack medication like Advil and has also cost us several trip to the vet for stomach pumps.

  11. #11
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    Sounds like she is a Lab.

    Lovely dogs but drive ya nuts as they cannot be left alone with food. Mine chewed the lid off a mini wheel bin used to store the dog pellet biscuits.

    Will it lead to a stomach pump to be built in your shed?

    Grahame

  12. #12
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Quote Originally Posted by Grahame Collins View Post
    Sounds like she is a Lab.
    Border Collies.
    Despite digging and rolling in some awful stuff from time to time I am amazed at how well they keep themselves clean.
    In this photo they have not had a bath for more than 6 months. but they do get a thorough brush ever few weeks to remove the inevitable "daags".
    IMG_3372p.jpg

    It's like living with a circus and both have working dog pedigrees.
    Li'll dog (Skye) is a tri colour and is ball obsessed. Always dropping balls at my feet and she fills the shed with balls - so much so that they become a trip hazard.
    We've tried her on sheep - she is scared of them. She's also expert at licking the burnt bits off the bottom of frypans and sauce pans. Sometimes she licks them so clean they are cleaner than the dishwasher can get them.
    Willow is completely natural on sheep (we have to hold her back a bit or she goes in for the odd nip!) she's also TV obsessed.

    Will it lead to a stomach pump to be built in your shed?
    I have given it some thought!

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