January/February 2012

Snake Avoidance Clinic: The best protection against snakebite

by Chuck Johnson

very year during bird season in Montana, Blanche and I either see a dog that has been bitten by a snake or hear of one. Generally the dog’s head is swollen to about twice normal size. Most dogs smell the snake and put their nose close to it and the snake hits them.

Snakebites are very dangerous and can kill a dog. In about 80 percent of snakebites, the snake hits the dog and injects its poisonous venom. Even if the snakebite is dry, i.e. little or no venom is injected, there is still the possibility of serious infection.

I received a phone call this past fall from Chuck Robbins, a friend of mine and a Montana outdoor writer. In October, he was hunting around Freezeout Lake in north-central Montana with Annie, one of his German wirehaired pointers, when Annie was bitten on the front leg by a rattlesnake. Chuck got Annie to the local veterinarian within an hour, where she received treatment for the bite, even though the vet did not have the antivenin serum (also called antivenom). Now Annie is slowly recovering. Thankfully Annie survived. However, she was not able to hunt for over a month and it was a painful experience for her.

Here are a couple of important ways that you can minimize your chance of having to go through what Chuck and Annie did....

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