Last night, just as the presidential debate started, the dogs started going nuts on the driveway.
I went outside and found they were baying a copperhead snake.
No obvious evidence they got bit.
I crated the dogs, and while I did that, the snake slithered up a drain in the stone wall, but not before I got a decent look at it. Definitely a copperhead.
Now it was a game of wait and see.
This morning the dogs exploded out of their crates without the slightest hitch in their giddy-up, so it looks like all is well.
Copperhead bites are over-rated for lethality, but they can cause a dog some pain.
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2 comments:
We had a male cat some years ago who was bitten by copperheads numerous times, usually in the face. He'd leave hunting for days at a time, and come home with his head so big his eyes were swollen shut, yet he'd bump around until it finally subsided. Didn't bother his appetite at all, which surprised me.
In this part of MD there are only 2 poisonous snakes, copperhead and timber rattler (isolated pockets).
Our Maremma Sheepdog got bit on the paw by a snake; based upon prevalence most likely a copperhead. His paw swelled and he became very lethargic. We ran him to the e-vet and while there his temp spiked to 106 (lethal without immediate treatment). The skin sloughed off his paw and took 6 weeks to heal enough for him to go back to work.
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