Citizen-Times Reported: No one keeps track of how many dogs are bitten by venomous snakes in North Carolina, but if the night my girl got nailed is typical, the answer is lots. It was just before sunset on Hard Times Trail. Roo, my golden retriever, was nosing around in the bushes at the edge. Suddenly, looking stunned and frightened, she bolted back onto the path, her tail tucked.
Within a minute she was limping. I couldn’t find anything wrong with her paw or arm. She lay down and rolled onto her side. Something bad was happening fast.
I had to carry her out. Luckily, the parking lot wasn’t far, and the Regional Emergency Animal Care Hospital, known as REACH, was only 6 miles north. When we got there, a tech took Roo from my arms, put me on a sit and stay and disappeared into the ER.
Ten long minutes later Dr. Ersin Ulke appeared.
“Well, it’s a snakebite,” he said. Antivenin was the best treatment, but there were no guarantees. Also, a rare, fatal allergic reaction was possible. Cost: $700 per dose. If it was his dog, he would give it to her, and the sooner the better. Did I want her to have it?
“Yes — right away.”
“It’ll be at least an hour,” he said. She was fourth in line for antivenin, which takes time to reconstitute from powder. The other snakebitten dogs were all sicker than Roo.
Dr. Ulke led me to the intensive care room for a brief visit. We passed a chocolate labrador convulsing violently on a steel table. A team of vets and techs worked to save him. No wonder owners weren’t allowed to hover.
“Another snakebite,” Dr. Ulke said. “He wasn’t brought in until he got very sick.”
That’s not uncommon. Dogs can seem fine after a bite. Symptoms can be delayed. Depending on the location of the bite, the amount of venom injected, the size and age of the snake and of the dog, anything can happen. And the $700 to get in the door — which is only the beginning — means a lot of dogs will not get treated.
Roo looked miserable in her cage, but she managed a couple of wags and tried to get up. She was way too woozy and in too much pain. Her front leg was swollen as far as the skin would stretch. She sank right back down.
Dr. Ulke showed me the shaved patched on the leg. One fang had left a blue, scimitar-shaped imprint. The other one barely nicked her. The snake probably recoiled at the sudden step of a dog and couldn’t squeeze off a well-aimed bite. Defensive bites are often dry, but not this one. Four inches of her soft pink skin was already hard and black.
It was time not just to get out of the way, but to pay the deposit that would start treatment. I was stunned by the invoice for $2,168. Well, I thought, Roo wouldn’t think twice about spending it on me. Of that, $521 would be refunded later. Mandatory snakebite kit item: a credit card with room to spare.
I began the waiting-room vigil. The parents of the chocolate lab sat in a far corner, heads down, holding hands. An hour later a vet came out to tell them that their boy didn’t make it.
The good news, though, is that most dogs do make it — and recover completely. continue reading here – http://www.citizen-times.com/story/life/2015/08/03/know-case-dog-gets-snakebite/31048937/