PICS: Woman fights off 4 metre python to save dachshund

A woman from Francistown in Botswana spent 15 minutes fighting off a huge python that attacked their dog at their home on Thursday morning.

Tanya Drysdale took to Facebook to share her story after saving her miniature sausage dog.

In the post, she said that the 4.6 metre snake had coiled itself around her dog.

Picture: Tanya Drysdale / Facebook

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She said this was the second time in months she had to fight a slithering giant.

“So who would have thought I would have to fight off a python twice, firstly when it bit my daughter at the end of Jan and then again today when it caught my miniature sausage dog,” reads the post.

Image: Tanya Drysdale / Facebook

“It was a real battle to unwrap my little dog from the huge 4.6metre snake.”

Drysdale said she and her husband fought for 15 minutes trying to unwrap the slippery giant from the dog.

Picture: Tanya Drysdale / Facebook

“All the time it was crushing her tiny body, I was sure we had lost her. But eventually, we got it off and apart from a few broken teeth embedded in her tummy she’s ok.”

Picture: Tanya Drysdale / Facebook

Snake expert Johan Marais from the African Snakebite Institute identified the snake as a southern African python. He told The Citizen that dogs are good meals for snakes, but bites on humans are rare and in most instances the python bites and releases immediately.

“We have had one fatality in South Africa in over 100 years – a youngster looking after cattle in Limpopo was killed in the ’70s. Not from the bite but from constriction,” he said.