It was a quiet day. It began with a quick three-mile walk at sunrise with three dogs (Minnie stays home for these) where we saw a young buck saunter across the road, and a dead garter snake across the dirt path.
After a nice afternoon in Tombstone at the brewery for its own "Oktobeerfest" to which even Kevin came, Susan and I decided to meet at 5pm by the river to walk the dogs. Clouds had been forming from the south thanks to Tropical Depression Lorena (which should bring significant rain to Arizona this coming week). I got caught in an intense, but short, downpour on my 17-minute drive to the trailhead. We both have our rain jackets in our cars for such events. I grabbed mine as we began our walk, but never put it on.
After the initial barkfest where Allie comes running toward my pack with joy, we all took off for the short walk to the river. But we were barely 50 feet into our walk when Susan, who was ahead of me, yelled out "Snake!" and pulled Allie away from what turned out to be a very small baby Diamondback, less than a foot long. Allie had a drop of blood on her nose but seemed oblivious to any danger. It was 5:05pm. None of the dogs had yelped out in pain or jumped back, so this bite took me by surprise.
"Kill it!" she yelled at me. I then saw the baby Diamondback, camouflaged well against the dirty brown desert floor. It was small alright, and still coiled in fear watching us. What was I going to kill the snake with? And why? It's best to just get out of the snake's bite range right away than confront a scared baby snake. We were in the snake habitat, and not the other way around. The snake was near the walkway to the San Pedro Bed and Breakfast. We grabbed our dogs and went back to our cars a short distance away.
Susan was in panic mode. It had been a year since she lost her GSD Tala, six weeks since losing her husband. She was not about to lose her most recent dog. She was on the phone right away with the Sierra Animal Hospital, which is also my veterinarian, as they have Saturday hours. "Doctor's in surgery and can't take any more patients," said Susan, and Coronado Animal Hospital closed at 3pm. Her next move was to contact the Tuscon Emergency animal clinic in Northwest Tuscon, and she was on her way within the hour. She promised to keep in touch with me with texts of Allie's progress.
I didn't notice Sadie's swelling until I got home. She also had a drop of dark blood forming on her upper right lip, and some swelling, but she was not showing any other symptoms like shortness of breath or unsteady movement, the two most common reactions to rattle snake venom. She was calm. When we got home she lay under Kevin's chair on the patio. I wanted to give her two Benadryl to cut down on swelling (it's 1 mg per pound of dog weight, so two tablets) but she refused to take anything by mouth. Her lips were hot to the touch. I'm sure her entire mouth and jaw were hurting.
Now I was starting to worry. Thankfully all my dogs get the annual rattle snake vaccine for such moments. I monitored Sadie's movements carefully, much to her annoyance. She didn't seem in any distress. She was laying down like the other dogs, heads on their pillows on the bedroom floor. I checked on her hourly. She was alert and responsive. She did look to be in pain and didn't want her mouth touched. She slept peacefully, and even those peaceful sleeps were interrupted by me turning on the lights to make sure she was ok. I'm sure the constant interruptions to her rest didn't help her combat the pain she was in.
I was on the internet reading all about rattle snake bites while she lay on the floor resting. All the websites I read through say that a snake bite on a dog is always an emergency. Susan made it to the emergency clinic at 9pm, where seven other dogs had come in for snake bites with her. The staff told her they treated 15 dogs for snake bites today, and that it has been this busy all week with snake bites.
By 10pm Sadie got up to move around, even getting some food and water. Kevin had watched her when she went outside. She was acting like nothing was wrong now. The swelling hadn't gotten any bigger, although the area of the bite was getting hard to the touch. By now I was more at ease, confident that whatever venom Sadie got from that baby snake wasn't enough to be an emergency. The rattle snake vaccine, I read on one website, is the equivalent of three dosages of antivenom, so that vaccine starts right away neutralizing whatever venom is in the dog's blood.
Susan text me shortly after Sadie got up to eat that Allie's blood showed 95% venom. It's only at 100% that antivenom will be infused. She was given fluids and pain medication (Tramadol) only, because Allie's behavior was normal and her blood platelets were within acceptable range. Susan was on her way back home, arriving shortly after midnight back in Hereford.
Allie and Sadie were lucky. The dogs' weight, both over 60 pounds, the small size of the snake, and both dogs having been vaccinated with the antivenom helped their quick recovery.
Susan went above and beyond for her dog. I did not. I never once panicked over Sadie, noting right away she never showed any other symptoms besides some swelling on her upper lip. Had we had an animal clinic open in Sierra Vista, though, I would have gone in for medical assessment, but we don't have one in town. People with pet emergencies after hours have to drive to Tucson, where walking into an office is $300 for just a check-up at the Southwest Arizona Vet Specialty and Emergency Center. Not having a 24-hour pet clinic in Sierra Vista is my biggest gripe about living here so close to the border.
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