Anyone have a dog get bitten by a venomous snake?
My daughter's 1 yr old pit bull got bit last night. They took him to the I-20 animal hospital in Arlington,Tx.
After checking him out my daughter calls me in tears around midnight. Freaked me out....I thought he had died. Turns out she was in tears over the price to treat him. They said that he would need one to two viles of antivenin and the stuff costs $3000.00 per vile!!!
After researching the best I could find is it's $300.00-$1000.00 per vile. I suspect these folks knew that they had em over a barrel so they decided to bleed em dry. Also read that rattlesnakes and corral snakes require antivenin but copper heads and cottonmouths generally do not. I'm guessing that it was not a rattler (we've never seen one on this property but have seen plenty of copper/cottons) but they didn't even know he was bitten until his face started swelling. That's when they noticed the two fang marks. They were about 1/2" apart.
Anyway I ended up putting the bill on my credit card and starting with one vile. She had 2 dogs killed a little over 1 yr ago by a train, I could see her go through that again.

 

yes, I have many BIG french bardeaux dogs and one of our females got her paw bite on top just at the ankle area. It kills the flesh and leaves a wound like none you'll ever see again. The dog will recover but the area around the bite will decay and fall off, leave a gapping wound all the way to the tendons and muscles, which you will have to wrap morning and night with sulfa-based antibiotic cream and a cover to keep it clean, you'll keep the dog quiet the whole time, they will lay around and not do much, you need to be tough.
The vet can supply some other drugs but not the antivenom which will assist in recovery. Our's took over 3 months to get back walking and the wound still has a nasty looking scar.
I have pictures of the whole process from start to finish if you're interested in seeing the real deal.

 

So was the antivenin that expensive for you?

 

we didnt go the route of anti-venom, we didn't really find out it was a rattlesnake bite until 2 days later, and by that time it was too late to use any the vewt said. I think it was around a grand$$. She's BIG, like 180# BIG and would have taken 2-3.

 

A guy I know in Arizona his dog got bit and the treatment was right around $1000 bucks, dogs fine no rotting leg or nothing.

 

That's a little more palatable. Not sure the final cost today but it was 3000 down last night to get the first vile in him. Was probably money wasted since I've never seen a rattler on this property but since we don't know for sure we had to go that route.

 

That just aint right them charging you that much. I have been Edit over by a vet overcharging for regular shots and ran a test that was questionably needed. It's probably done and over but you might just call a few other vets in the area to just get a quote. Hope the pooch makes it.

 

I Read in Popular Science that we are running out of anti-venom for several species, one of which is the Coral snake. It seems one woman has been supplying ALL the anti-venom for the Coral Snake all these years and she has retired, no one has yet stepped up to produce it.

There are other losses in manufacture as well for several other species so expect the cost to sky rocket or for it not to be available at all in some areas.

Any snake milkers out there? looks like a job opportunity if you are also a lab technician

 

Here's what I know for sure - Rattlesnakes, Mocassins, Copperheads and the like are all pit vipers, and have similar venom. Coral Snakes are different. I'm no scientist, but the coral snakes have more of an affect on your nervous system.

That said, I've had dogs bitten by snakes throughout the years, and I just pen them up, give them benadryl, and keep an eye on them, and never had one die. They'll end up looking horrible for a week or so, but always make a full recovery with no rotting flesh or anything. Worst I ever had was one bit on the foot and it busted open from the swelling, but healed up completely.

If you feel where the snake bite is, it has a ton of fever in it. The Benadryl keeps that fever down, and ususally makes the dog less hyper too. And I NEVER bandage a wound on my dogs - they can keep it cleaner themselves than anything I can wrap it with.

Keep in mind these are working dogs, not lap dogs, so my approach may not be the most popular, but again, all my dogs are healthy and have never had one die of anything other than old age and goodyears.

 

Agree. My Mastiff got tagged by a Copperhead and after rushing her to the Vet and spending $200, he said that basically a dog will die or live without any medicine. He told me that he could be there and administer the antivenom and they still might die so next time for us to get some anitbiotics and benedryl and keep an eye on them. If they get hit in an artery I don't think there is anything you can do to help them.

 

my greyhound died from a rattlesnake bite. they have very little body fat so drugs/anasthesia/ and apparently snake venom affect them worse

my buddy's dog got bit and it was around $1000.

i have an uncle who is a dr. and he claims he avoids anti venom use on people as its usually unnecessary. he also said one dose cost $10,000 iirc.

out where i live they airlifted two people for snake bites last year. seemed a little overkill to me. i can only imagine what that bill would be.

 

well it turned out that they were only charging 1000.00 per dose so my daughter got out of there this morning for 1900.00.
Still crazy expensive. She went to our regular vet, he looked at their bill and said most of what they charged was overkill. He also said that he would not have done the antivenin.
Oh well the dog is ok and Dad doesn't have to watch his oldest daughter fall to pieces again!!!
A little over 1 yr ago her boxer and lab got out and was lost for a few days.....we found em about a mile from home, dead on the RR tracks. Broke my heart to watch her in that state!! I don't ever want to see that again!!

 

We have a friend who lives near us in Arizona...always have a lot of dogs 10-12 at a time. All the way from pups to 100# dogs. She may have 4 or 5 snakebit at the same time, the only treatment she uses is she feeds them all the raw meat...particularly bacon...they can eat. I don't remember even one of her dogs dying from snakebite. And some of them have been bitten more than once.

 

We live on a ranch and our dogs explore it all the time. My old dog has been bitten 3 times, atleast 1 was for sure rattlesnake. My best dog laramie was bitten last year and i saw him get bit so knew it was a rattlesnake. No treatment, and they both lived. Swoll up for several days, drooled, felt real bad. Just kept them in the a/c with lots of water. They got it over it, I love my dogs like no one could, but I couldnt afford $3,000+ for my own medical care, much less my dog.

 

We just moved to rural AZ; where the rattlers and other critters live.

I also learned about snake breaking. There are local trainer here that use stim collars and defanged rattlers. Basically, the defanged rattlers are the visual, audible, and scent cue for the dog. Let the dog get up close an personal (not bit), then stim. The dogs associate the the stim with the scent, rattle, and sight of the snake. I have been told they recall the event for life.

I have also heard from others that have been out walking their dogs on the trail, 2 years later and found that the dogs went the other way. Saved not only the dogs, but the family that was walking the dogs.

We just put our dogs through the training, and was the best $75/dog we ever spent. We hope to never see a rattler, but just in case!

HTH

Tony