Last nite I took my lab Heidi out for her nightly business- I heard nothing, but she came back to me carrying her left front paw in the air. Once in the house, I saw blood on the top of her paw, and it was already beginning to swell.

We got her to the emergency vet hospital, where they began giving her IV, getting her hydrated, etc. I checked this morning, she seems to be doing as good as can be expected, for a 13 yr. old dog. I just hope there will be no major tissue damage.

We gave her children's Benadryl immediately, put ice on the bite, kept her quiet, all the stuff you are supposed to do- I hope it helped.

There were two other dogs that had just been brought in for rattlesnake bites last evening.

Wish I knew what God had in mind when he made rattlesnakes.....

That sucks.

I'm pulling for Heidi!

I hope Heidi is OK. I always wondered how ranchers could ever relax when raising kids and dogs in the viper infested sagebrush out west.

Prayers sent for the old gal.
Talked to a neighbor last night that said last year her 10 year old dog got bit by a mohave and lived. hope the same result for Heidi.

Kique

I hope you get the snake and no more bites occur and your dog recovers.

I lost a good cow dog to a timber rattler. Here is hoping for the best.

Wayne

I hope she's OK.

Hope your pup is okay.

We've had two pretty close calls just walking in the neighborhood in recent months. Last night a 3-4 footer started crossing the road in front of us so we turned around and headed home. By the time I returned with truck and shovel he was nowhere to be seen.

Last summer, we stopped in Oatman AZ for a bit, and while I was talking to a Tea Party supporter in the little leather shop there, he told me he'd smoked a mohave right out there on the boardwalk a week or so before. (I'd noticed a SAA hanging in one of his holster rigs behind the counter). When I asked what he kept it loaded with, he said, "Snake shot" and told me about the snake he'd killed.
That's not a happy thing to have hanging around a tourist trap like Oatman. I DID buy a nice belt from him, for having the proper attitude.

Hoping for a full recovery for your pup. The whole 20+ years I lived in Colorado, including seven in Pueblo, I never encountered a rattler even with all my running around in the boonies. I know they were around, including some in town. I was nearby when a pregnant gal got struck from under a metal shed at an event at the model plane field west of Pueblo.

There aren't any poisonous snakes where I live now, and that suits me just fine. I don't want to deal with the f'ers.

Paul

Bad deal, Bighorn!

Hope Heidi pulls through OK!!

We have rattlesnakes in our area, but you have to look for them.
A lot more copperheads give problems here. They are sneaky little critters that live under rocks or lumber piles and will reach for you.

Once down at Table Rock Lake in MO, we had a deck boat and were just doing a family cruise down the lake. We pulled into a very small cove for lunch on the water. While we were eating, I noticed the biggest copperhead that I have ever seen sunning on a large rock. He must have been 3' to over 40" long and as big around as my arm. We watched him as long as it took us to eat lunch. I have never seen a copperhead over 2' in our area.

It ain't like there is a rattlesnake under every bush....

Had a lab get hit once too, she did fine...Good luck with the old gal...

Sisters German shorthair got hit by one of the small prairie rattlers in south central Kansas. A few days at the vet and he was good as new. His head had swelled up to nearly double what it should have been.

my dad had his beagles given shots to build up immunity to rattler bites.

Here is hoping Heidi makes it OK.

Good luck to Heidi!

I figured he was still up in Montana. Rude, if you ask me. I would have expected better out of one of our own campfire members.



Hope she gets better. We had a husky get bit when I was a kid. Twice in the chest. She made it through all right though.

Last summer we had two different people get bit same weekend. Local hospitals didn't have enough anti-venom and due to the condition of one of the victims, he was sent to Billings. Poor kid was one of the OB nurse's kids that worked with my wife. He stepped out of a boat onto shore and fell back into it saying a snake bit me. Then he passed out. They hurried back to the dock and got someone there with a phone (no cell service) to call the ambulance. She had to start CPR on her 5 year old boy. They made it and flew him to Billings. Almost had to amputate his foot. Pretty scary deal. He made it through it all right though.

I hear members here all the time saying they let the damn things alone...they'll change their tune quick if one of theirs gets bit...the one you let slither away today will bite your ass tomorrow. I don't go out of my way to find em, but I kill every friggin one I see.

My wife's father had a GSP that was struck on the nose. Newt blew most of the poison out along with copious amounts of blood. He made it.

Best of luck to Heidi.

Hope all goes well.

I know there is a reason for snakes, but that reason isn't enough for me to have them, at least not the poisonus ones...

We give Cole Rattler vaccine... don't have many around here, mostly copperheads and mocassins.... just hope it helps if he ever gets nailed by a moccasin or copperhead.

In the meantime he had one snake training years ago and its worked so far.... I think we've killed 3-4 mocassins in the yard in the last year or so, one you'd have stepped on if you stepped out the door, but Cole was standing other side of the fence barking an agressive bark right after he went out the doggy door to pee at night....

+10 on that! There's plenty of the non-poisonous variety around to take up the slack.

got my red healer in the side of the face.
wife had talked me into the vaccine,said yes,so there wasn't a battle.
these pics were taken @ 8pm.By 6am the next morning the swelling was GONE,and you couldn't tell he was bit.
never quit eating or drinking, the snakebit dogs i had as a kid
always sulled up somewhere and wouldn't eat or drink for several days.
i recommend the vaccine, hope your dog is better

I hope your dog fully recovers. Several years ago, I lost a fine young English Pointer pup to a timber rattler.

Hope your dog gets over the bite quickly. We have a Ratterrier that's going on nine years old, he's been bit twice by a rattle snake. After thee or four days he was pretty much back to normal. Tough dog I guess. He takes on most anything from skunks,racoons, and even a badger once.

Sight pictures is what he had in mind. And never mind what Swampman has to say. Think about it . . . . . the devil is called the old serpent. What do you think God thinks about the devil?

Sorry for your pooch. Hope she survives and lives on. Now KILL THAT SNAKE!

How's Heidi doing? I've lost a dog to a rattler and had two more to get bitten but they survived. I'll kill every rattler I see so don't come up here wearing one for a necktie. Fair warning.

Prayer sent,season's open on snakes!

Bighorn: Come August 22nd 2,011 it will be 5 years to the day since I had a similar incident to your beloved dog Heidi!
My dog Henry woke me up with a yip at 2:30 A.M. with an unusual middle of the night request to go outside and relieve himself!
Well it was a warm night and I accompanied my dog to my front lawn - we were both naked and both had to pee. Me in a semi-sleep state and NOT wanting to fully awaken myself and Henry the lab quickly and happily went west to pee and I went east.
I took about 20 steps out into my lawn and on the 18th step I said to my self - gee I don't remember any dry grass or stickers in this manicured lawn as I thought I had stepped on something like that?
After doing my thing I walk back my bed and plop down hoping to get back to sleep quickly.
My wife left for work at 6:30 AM that morning and I began waking up then to a horrible pain in my right foot.
I had no idea that I had been bitten by a Rattlesnake - in fact I am NOT thinking clearly at all.
I am unable to walk and unable to focus clearly on a massively swollen foot attached to me - so I crawl to my bathroom in a nauseous condition and spend some time there.
In better light I look at my foot and decide I am hurt.
Hurt bad!
I think a while and decide I have been bitten by a Black Widow Spider (they live in my neighborhood) and I need to call my wife to return from her drive to work and take me to the hospital - I pick up the phone and the phone number I had been dialing my wife on 6 times a day for 8 years will not manifest itself in my mind!
Instead of calling 911 I slowly and painfully crawl to the kitchen refrigerator where all my families phone numbers are on a list.
I dial the wife and she comes home and is shocked by the size of my foot!
She speeds with me to the Dillon, Montana hospital where two different nurses unprofessionally scream at the sight of my foot.
The emergency Doctor actually chastises one of the nurses for this disconcerting behavior - he he.
The emergency Doctors are unable to see the fang marks (which days later became visible!) and we go on the assumption that I had suffered a Black Widow bite.
Blood tests and innoculations are rendered.
The pain in my foot and in my testicles was simply unbearable!
Large and repeated doses of pain killer are given - none of them relieved the pain at all!
Two days later the lab results return and they show my blood contains venom of pit viper - Rattle Snake.
Two days after that the fang marks appear (become visible) in the arch of my foot.
I never recieved any anti-venin.
The good news is I am a large person and the bite was a long way from my heart and from my brain.
I won't go into the whole recuperation thing but it was 4 months until I could get my Hunting boots on!
Needless to say I had a poor/difficult Big Game Hunting season - I did get an excellent Buck Antelope and a nice Deer but Elkin was out of the question.
I also wonder what on earth venomous snakes are good for?
I have had probaly 100 CLOSE encounters with Rattlesnakes and have been struck at dozens of times but never been hit - until this weird night time incident!
And I didn't even get to fully be aware of the bite or the presence of the snake!
The Doctor that treated me told me I was the second person that year he had treated for Rattlesnake bite that did not know of the bite until symptoms showed up!
I do know this - I NEVER want to be bitten by a Rattlesnake again!
I just this year have been able to say my foot and the muscles/nerves therein are back to normal!
I hope your dog also can make a full recovery!
Be careful out and about on hot summer nights.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Hope all works out and Heidi recovers.