Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Even with snake avoidance training it can still happen

I have had five GWPs over the past 30 years and never had one bitten by a rattler. I suppose we were due.

There are islands on Roosevelt Lake where I fish all spring. I have always taken my GWPs with me. I let them jump from the boat to swim to the islands. .

All my dogs have been given snake avoidance training. They will often sound the alarm around the house if any species of snake should show. Some are rattlers and the dogs stay away.

In addition to the avoidance training all dogs get the rattlesnake vaccine.

Late May the two dogs were running on an island when my older dog sounded the alarm and was barking at a bush. I called them in.

Asa came in first, I looked her over and she seemed fine. My younger GWP, Oli, was standing in the water when Asa sounded the alarm. He never does that. Either he is on shore running around or swimming to the boat. I called him and when he got in the boat I looked him over. Couldn't miss the two red bloody leaking spots against his white fur when he came back to the boat.

My best guess is he was running on the island and as he ran by the snake struck. He ALMOST missed getting nailed by the rattler. It hit his hind leg just above the foot. As I understand it by talking to a dog training friend all we can do the avoidance training and give them the vaccine. We cannot avoid occasional bites that happen with a dog while hunting. Often they will run past a snake and the snake will strike too late. Occasionally the snake connects.

I immediately got some benadryl into him and called ahead to get him into a vet's in Globe 25 miles away. The vet had antivenom into him within two hours. Vet said it was a bad bite. Space between the two fang marks was huge. Big snake on an island with no prey made for lots of venom. It took two vials of antivenom to stop the reaction. Was told the vaccine helped him as it would have been far worse without it. Vet kept him for two days and nights. This picture is the leg three days after the bite.

Once home Oli had a few days of malaise then he perked up. The wounds leaked a great deal of fluid. We had to put many old sheets and blankets over his bed and other favorite haunts in the house. The leaking stopped after a week or so. When I took him outdoors under supervision, because I wanted to keep him out of the pool, he would run on three legs.A few days later he was back to his impish mannerisms playing with toys and generally happy. It was good to have him feeling better. He began walking on the leg after 8 days.

Oli had to wear a cone for several weeks while the four areas of skin sloughing went through the healing stages. The worst one was the black area just above the stifle. It took a month for the last of the scab to fall off. Second picture was around the third week. His hair is slowing growing back now and there are four white areas that will either be scars or will eventually grow hair. There have been no lasting effects. It made a dent in my bank account but worth it.



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