Jed and the snake

Jed had a rather traumatic experience last week. Thursday evening he began loudly barking/yelping in fits and spurts. His face began swelling and within a short amount of time his right eye had closed. We knew it had been either a snake bite or some sort of sting, but thought we could see puncture wounds. Not living in the big city, we have no 24-hour pet clinics. What we do have, though, is a home number for the vet listed as an “after hours” number in the directory. A quick call confirmed what we were already pretty sure of…. that there really wasn’t much we could do. He recommended some benedryl then observation to watch for infection. Considering how swollen his muzzle was, there was no way to get a pill down his throat (which was not closing up, thank goodness). We finally cut open a pill, mixed the contents into some juice and squirted it in his mouth on the side opposite the bite. At that point he took off into the woods and we just hoped for the best. The next morning he was at the door with his tail wagging, waiting for his breakfast. The swelling had gone down considerably in his face, but there was still a lot of fluid and loose skin under his jaw and neck.

This morning we carried Mama Dog in to have the stitches removed from her recent spaying. We decided to take Jed along, too, so the vet could check out his wound. He commented that there was probably a good bit of toxin involved based on the amount of necrosis and started Jed on an antibiotic. Poor fella. We're guessing his encounter was with a copperhead.

You can see the spot on his lip where the snake got him. It looks like a big, black notch of dead tissue. Meanwhile, Mama Dog never has to worry about being a mama again.