Jack Russell survives a bite by a black mamba

WHITE RIVER – It is seldom that any creature, human or otherwise, survives a bite by a black mamba. Jock, a four-year-old Jack Russell, has rewritten those statistics.

Dog owner, Ms Sarie Potgieter of Middelburg was visiting her children at Peebles Valley near White River last weekend. As usual, Jock accompanied her.

“He is always on the run and always sniffing here and sniffing there. He even chases after the monkeys and my son warned us not to encourage that because they can really rip him apart if they were to turn around. He is under our feet the entire time and doesn’t like being locked up,” Potgieter told Lowvelder.

She said Jock accompanied them to a storage facility on the property early on Saturday morning. “We opened the door and Jock saw a snake and started to bark at it. It looked as if he wanted to corner it and he was bitten. We killed the snake so that we could take it with us to the veterinarian for identification,” she added.

The snake was identified as a black mamba at Casterbridge Animal Hospital. Vet, Dr Graeme Harman put Jock on a drip. “Time was of utmost importance as Jock’s heart was racing and his breathing was laboured. We put him on oxygen and assisted his breathing while we started treatment with antivenom immediately.”

The venom is neurotoxic and paralyses the chest muscles and the victim stops breathing.

“It was an intensive six hours of monitoring the little bloke and assisting with his breathing. I was very relieved when he woke up and his breathing returned to normal. He is a tough little bugger,” the vet told Lowvelder.

Mamba bites don’t occur that often and Harman said they had only heard of a few bites. He added that it truly is a deadly snake with a fearsome reputation.

Potgieter fetched Jock the following day and is glad to report that he is doing well.