Snake Bit

First, I want to share a little event with you that happened last week. On Friday I got a text from my roommate that read "Freckles got bit by a Copperhead", My response to that was WHAT?! and I instantly picked up the phone to call her. What's going on? What happened? The story goes like this:

Jordan heard the girls barking like crazy, not their normal whatever barks, and so she looked out the window and saw them circled around something and sniffing at it, she realized they had something cornered in their pen. She went outside to check it out and saw a snake. She got there just in time to see said snake rare back and bite Freckles on the nose! Bella then grabbed the snake and swung it around then dropped it. Jordan then grabbed my broken poop shovel (the handle rotted and broke off so it's just the metal shovel part...but it's a bigger than normal shovel made for snow) and tried to shoo the injured snake out of the dog lot. This is about the time that I called her. As she was explaining this story to me Bella was still barking like crazy and Jordan couldn't figure out why...until she saw yet another snake! It was in the exact same location as the previous snake before it bit Freckles. Since this one wasn't injured she was scared to use my shovel, it put her too close to a snake that could bite her, so she said she'd call me back. She then went and grabbed a shovel from a neighbor who came with her to see what was happening. As she returned with the shovel she saw Bella with the snake in her mouth and shaking it around, next thing she knew the top half of the snake went flying through the air and into a tree branch where it kept writhing around until it fell from the tree. She turned to the neighbor and saw that he'd gotten snake guts on his shirt...EW! but he was grateful for the entertainment for the day. Funny.

After all this happened she collected all the snake pieces and went back in the house and called me. We discussed what kind of snake it was, I wanted to be sure if it was indeed a Copperhead or if it was something less poisonous, and went online and looked at a website for NC State that shows NC Snakes. So we talked about what kind of snake it could possibly be, was it's head big and triangular? No, it looks normal. Okay well that's good so that means it's not a venomous snake so I don't have to worry about Freckles dying from venom. We looked at all the pictures and then Jordan said it looked most like the Northern Water Snake. Whew! Okay no venom = good. So Jordan kept the snake bits in a bucket in the back yard until I got home and could see for myself what it was. So I went about my day and was relieved that Freckles would be okay.

Then I got home. The second I saw the snake I knew Jordan was wrong...it was indeed a very venomous snake! I immediately texted the picture to Nathan to find out what he thought and to my brother. Then I grabbed Freckles whose poor little neck had swollen to look like a giant goiter and took her in the house to keep an eye on her and pamper her a bit. While I was sitting around I decided to post a picture of the snake AND a picture of my poor baby and her fat neck to facebook. Not even 2 minutes after my post went to facebook I got a phone call from my friend Mary. "Ariel that is a COPPERHEAD!" Okay so we then discussed what to do. Do I need to rush her to the vet immediately?? She talked to her mom, who had studied vet school, and said that if she'd made it through my entire day at work then I could most likely wait until the morning but I needed to keep a close eye on the swelling in her neck in case it got worse and started preventing her from breathing. I asked if there was anything else I could do to make Freckles comfortable until morning but her mom was helping her dad pack for a trip but she said she'd call back with information. A little while later she called back and said she had talked to her grandfather who raises dogs, many of which have been bit by Copperheads. He said that since she'd survived 8 hours of the venom then there was nothing the vet could do anyway, anti-venom shots are only good when the injury is still very fresh. And since she's still alive after 8 hours he said to just keep an eye on her to make sure she was still breathing through the night. After that he said she'd probably have diarrhea and start vomiting as her body tried to repel the venom. So I let my sweet pea sleep in my room, gave her some benadryl, and woke up several times through the night to make sure she was okay. She survived the snake attack and the swelling went down by morning. All the swelling was completely gone by the next night. WHEW! I was feeling much better about that but I'm still very wary of my back yard and the evil copperheads that it holds.