What you can do if a snake bites your dog

Snake encounters are quite common in the Lowveld as snakes often venture into gardens or houses.

Keeping snakes out of properties is no easy task as many of them are active hunters and they could enter your property when searching for food.

Johan Marais, of the South African Snake Bite Institute, said with temperatures soaring there will be far more activity. One of the downsides is that many pets end up at veterinary clinics due to a snakebite or being spat in the eyes.

Cats are highly intelligent and very quick and seldom get bitten, even though they often catch snakes and bring live ones into the house. Dogs, on the other hand, are not always the brightest and with their strong hunting instincts find it difficult to resist attacking these reptiles.

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Some of them are particularly good at killing snakes, especially cobras and even mambas, but short, bulky ones, like the puff adder, strike incredibly quickly and canines often come off second best. “So for those of you who have a highly efficient snake-killing dog, it may just be a matter of time before a snake gets the better of the dog,” warns Marais.

Farm animals are often bitten by snakes and some even eaten by pythons. Cattle and horses are mostly bitten in the face with the main culprit being the puff adder. Despite popular belief, very few cattle or horses are killed by snakes, and mambas account for few of these bites. “They are extremely shy and nervous and are quick to seek refuge if threatened. They also account for very few bites on humans,” he said.

In essence, snakebite envenomation on animals is no different to that on humans. Less than 20 per cent of all humans bitten by a snake require urgent medical care including antivenom. Pets and farm animals suffer the same fate and it is not unusual for dogs to get bitten by a snake, have some swelling and to survive without antivenom.

If an animal is bitten by a snake and receives a lethal amount of venom, the animals will die unless treated with antivenom. If the animal does not receive a lethal amount of venom, it will survive, perhaps with some tissue damage otherwise it will recover fully in due course. Amputations in dogs are not uncommon and even snakes with relatively mild venom, like the night adder, may cause sufficient damage to necessitate amputation.

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“I often receive calls from people informing me that a dog has been bitten by a venomous snake like a puff adder or Mozambique spitting cobra and that they are either very far from the nearest vet or do not have money for one to treat the animal. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution and in cases of severe envenomation, antivenom will be required or the animal will die,” he said.

Marais added that there are loads of treatments that people resort to in the event of a dog or farm animal snakebite – giving the dog milk to drink, making it swallow charcoal, giving it Allergex tablets, cutting off the tip of the ears to let the venom bleed out and by far the most brutal – injecting some petrol onto the neck of the animal. “All of the above is of course a total waste of time and does not help. Despite this treatment many animals still survive,” he said.

First aid for animals

In the event of an animal being bitten by a venomous snake, get it to the nearest vet as soon as possible, no matter how far you have to travel. There is no other solution. In serious cases antivenom will be required and in such cases the animal will not survive without it. In cytotoxic bites (puff adder, Mozambique spitting cobra, rinkhals, stiletto snake, night adder) there may be excessive swelling, pain, blistering and subsequent tissue damage and the sooner the antivenom is administered, the lesser the tissue damage.

In black mamba bites the situation is critical and the sooner the animal reaches a vet, the better are its chances of survival. Few animal hospitals have ventilators for animals and that may be critical in these bites. If your pet stops breathing on the way to a vet you could do mouth-to-nose resuscitation, but there is little else one can do.

Venom in the eyes

Dogs often get spat in the eyes by spitting snakes and the eyes swell shut very quickly. This rarely happens to cats and farm animals. Should this happen, immediately wash the animal’s eyes with water by getting it under a tap or use a hose pipe. Gently rinse the eyes for about 15 to 20 minutes and then get the animal to a vet. A bit of local anaesthetic and some antibiotic eye drops usually do the trick and the animal should be fine within a few days. There is no evidence that other substances, like Rooibos tea or baking soda, are more beneficial. Wash the eyes out well using water and get the animal to a vet as soon as possible.