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Copperhead got my dog right in the face Saturday in the mountains. She is right at 60lbs.
I went up early to my cabin Friday to do a little repair work on a fire pit wood rack we use to shovel coals from for a cinder block type cooker that sets off to the side. Cooked pig butts and chickens for the fourth.

The dog doing what she does found her a young rabbit and put the kill on right off the bat. A few minutes later a buddy helping me saw her jump up in the air about 3 feet in some small weeds. She kept focusing on the weed patch with a lot of cautious intent. My buddy had just killed a copperhead beside his cabin chimney the day before so we figured we had better see what she was infatuated on. I cut a thin limber switch from a tree and started carefully moving the weeds around and sure enough, about a 16"er was all coiled up and ready to hit again. One slap behind the head with the switch and the snake was done for.

I looked my dog over real quick and couldn’t see anything obvious at first so I though she may have got lucky. Nope, her natural demeanor had quickly changed just enough that I told my buddy that she got hit somewhere. Still couldn’t tell where until her left eye started swelling shut. I took a good look at her and there was a drop of blood just right above the eyelid at the tear duct. daymn

Off to the vet 65 miles away on a holiday weekend!!...arrrrrgh
Vet done her thing, couple shots and took a good look at the eyeball And said it missed it all together. One fang was above the eyeball right in the corner of her eye and the the other one hit in the eyelid right below the eye about 5/8 of inch apart.
I was afraid she might lose sight in that eye but she seems to be recovering pretty well at this point. Still not her self yet but that could be partly due to meds too.

Another buddy called me on my way home yesterday and he had just killed another one at his place right down the creek from my cabin. That made it a 3 snake week-end, not all that unusual in itself. We have killed as many as 12 on this holiday week end in prime conditions.

I think my four legged friend got lucky this go around, hopefully she won’t ever go through this again.
First dog I have ever had to get bit. At least that I know of. I’m glad it wasn’t a rattler or things might have been a lot worse.

Hoping the best for your furry friend, wishing that she has a full recovery.

Copperhead bites generally aren't that bad. They have a hemotoxin in the venom that destroys red blood cells and causes a lot of bleeding and swelling, but generally healing is complete. Dogs and cats, especially cats for some reason, have a greater resistance to the toxin than humans and tend to recover quickly.

Cottonmouths and Rattlesnakes, not so much. They have far worse juice in them.

Hope your dog fully recovers. I know, sooner or later, one of my two Springers are going to run across one. What did the vet give her?

I’d litter thr place with moth balls

Be careful with mothballs around dogs. One of the two types will kill a dog.

Man, I'm dreading that day, we just moved from a small town in VA to Cumberland County, out in the sticks (a little), and we have a "town raised" Collie with NO common sense at all. We're told this area is chock full of Copperheads, local utility guy was afraid to walk 15' past our yard edge to go check on a possible old well head. So far this year, we've seen about four snakes on the property, two Rats and two Blacksnakes, and while I was clearing some brush and a couple small trees, found somebody's "shed tree", full of about four sheds, each about 3-4' long. I let the dog run loose in our smallish fenced back yard, and we walk him on a leash, but even with me looking that's no guarantee that I can spot one before dumbss does.

Glad to hear yours did not get it as bad as she could have, and hoping for a speedy recovery for her. Do you (or does the vet) think she got a dry bite, or maybe a low dose of venom?

Gratuitous pic of dumb Collie boy trying to sleep with his head up... (that's a lot of nose for a pissed of Copperhead to be able to tag!)

Hope your dog recovers well. Had that happen to my son's dog couple years ago while we had him for the weekend. Vet gave him a shot and prescribed benadryl.

Some kind of shot for infection and another loaded full of electrolytes of some sort to help counter any possible short term effects on her kidneys and liver as I understood it. Plus two different pills to give her for the next three days.
I don’t think the dog got a heavy dose of venom in her, but 1/4 inch up or down and she would have had a punctured eyeball.
Appreciate the well wishes, looks like she is going to be fine.

Prayers for a quick recovery

My buddy got bit by a copperhead one morning on his hand. He didn't even go to the doctor. He came on in to work. His hand swelled a little and he got kind of sick. That changed the way I felt about him. I considered him a really tuff guy without a brain in his head after that. I hate snakes. Especially rattlers, copperheads and cottonmouths!

I took these photos in WalMart the other day because I’d never seen these before, dunno how well they work or if they work on outside snakes

That even has the pic of a copperhead on the package!
I don’t want to mess with the good snakes.

I’ve seen snakes laying next to moth balls

Damn, bro. Glad she's gonna be ok. She dodged a bullet with the eyeball.

Then burn it down 🤣

Build snake traps around the yard so you can release good snakes.

Snake train the dog.

Vets give snake vaxes to reduce reaction to bites. 2 shots a couple weeks apart the first year then one shot yearly.

There is no good snake

We have a black lab who is about eight years old. He is very friendly and thinks everyone comes to see him. He never barks and always glad to see you. He is a terrible watch dog. He would show a thief where the keys are. One evening we heard him bark and thought that's odd. Went outside and there was a rattle snake coming up the ramp to the back deck. The dog was on the deck barking at the snake but wouldn't get any closer. Another time he was acting strange and there was a rattle snake tangled up in the wire fence around the back yard. It was some kind of mad. Don't know how it got tangled up in the fence. The dog has never had any snake training but seems to know. He also gets nervous if anything is out of place in the back yard. If my wife let's her chickens out he paces the back porch until they go back in.

Walked up on a Copperhead a couple of days ago, VLD I didn’t step on him. Got bit when 17, no fun!