I came home from work last night, and Moxie rolled up to me in the driveway looking like this.
A copperhead snake, for certain.
I got a Benadryl in her (2 mg for every pound), and she's moderately mobile and alert. Poor little thing.
Nothing to do but Benadryl, time, and prayer. Moxie weighs no more than 9 pounds, so this was a big hit.
Veterinarians will bill for fluttering about, running needless tests, putting a dog on IV fluids, etc, but there's actually nothing they can do. Benadryl is the protocol, and it's usually enough. Most dogs are bigger than this one, however.
Regular readers of the blog might remember I moved a big copperhead 5 miles away a few months ago. This was a different one. This has been a BIG year for copperheads on the East Coast.
This morning, Moxie was mobile, drank water, ate a little chicken, and jumped up on my lap. The swelling has gone down, but she still looks like she did 10 rounds with Marvin Haggler.
I'm going to load her up on amoxicillin for a few days just to make sure the puncture does not go bad, but I think she's out of it. Time will take care of the swelling, along with the second round of Benadryl administered this morning.
Note: A copperhead is NOT a rattlesnake, but even here there is a lot of veterinary chicanery. Read this post for more about that and this post, which is the one the sparked the research.
7 comments:
Moxie, please feel better soon!
Patrick, I greatly enjoy reading your posts. Thanks so much for sharing.
I read the publication by Cates, Valore, Couto, Lawson and McCabe on their mouse study. Much of the results are inconclusive. For example, when they report the 48hr survival rates for two treatment regimens as 0/15 mice vs. 0/15 mice, the point estimate for the difference in the two rates is zero but the 95% confidence interval for the difference is [-20%, 20%]. The goal is to estimate the underlying difference that exists in the target population of "all mice" by drawing a sample of 15+15 mice from the population. Based on the sample drawn, it is plausible that the difference in the target population could be as small as -20% or as large as 20%. Using these data to test the null hypothesis "the difference in the population is zero", we find that the hypothesis test is not statistically significant (i.e., the p-value is very large.) When a hypothesis test is not statistically significant, the test is entirely inconclusive and no conclusions can be drawn. This is a limitation of statistical hypothesis testing. By definition, hypothesis testing procedures are not capable of establishing that the null hypothesis is true. In contrast, confidence intervals are always more or less informative. For example, the authors report 48hr survival rates of 3/15 vs. 0/15 and report a p-value = 0.068 which is "not statistically significant" and the authors report "there was not a significant difference". However, we cannot conclude that there is no difference or no important difference in the target population. Indeed, the 95% confidence interval is [-4%, 45%] which indicates that it is plausible that there may no little or no difference, -or- there may be a very large difference. You'll notice another common mistake is made in the paper: the word "significant" is used in a way that blurs the distinction between "clinical significance" and "statistical significance". Statistical significance does not imply clinical significance, and lack of statistical significance does not imply lack of clinical significance.
--Paul Stewart, UNC-CH Biostatistics Department
Sending Moxie best wishes. Long ago I had a Yorkie who survived a rattlesnake bite, but she was a big Yorkie, almost 15 lbs. A few years later I had a lab mix, about 50 lbs., who did not. So it is individual.
Get better Moxie. Sorry girl. -- TEC
I'm sorry about Moxie's experience with the copperhead...and very relieved that she's feeling better. There really do seem to be a lot of them around here this summer. My thoughts and prayers are with you both.
Lisa
Please at least give us a title for the publication you refer to. The stats discussion is interesting, but it would be nice to have the bottom line. What was the inclusive study about?
Sending best wishes and good mojo to Moxie for a speedy recovery!
Jennifer the publication is listed at the end of this post ---
https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2015/07/snake-bit-at-veterinarians-office.html That post was mentioned in the current post.
Post a Comment