Rattlesnake Bite to Dog - Warning! Graphic

So, seeing the post on here about the cat keeping the rattlesnake hypnotized got me to thinking about this.
Please keep in mind the pictures below are graphic and show how bad a bite can really be. Also just as some background on this. This was our GSH Retriever and my dog was my once in a lifetime dog. I've had a lot of dogs and this one was just absolutely special. She made it through a bout with cancer about a year or so before this bite she too and again, only because of my cousin and his team of other vets and techs who operated for nearly 2 hours. The cancer came back with a vengeance last year in February and we had to say goodbye to her in February. It was a devastatingly hard time and I still get emotional typing this up and every time I mow by her grave site looking over one of our tanks where she would swim for hours on end.

She had been vaccinated for rattlesnake bites and also had some resistance built up due to being bitten on the nose a couple years earlier. That and the fact my cousin is one hell of a Vet and worked his azz off to save her are the only reasons she survived this bad of a bite. She took one directly bite on her belly behind her last two tits and another on her backside high up onto her butt. I suspect she was at a full run and likely pounced right on top of the snake. I did not find the snake but imagine it was a big one as the fangs were about 2" wide if not more.

The pics below start two days after the bite occurred and ran to the last one taken about 8 weeks later. It is truly amazing how it healed up and within a year you could not even see where all the meat had rotted away from the inside of her leg. And this is now the reason no rattlesnake within my line of site gets a pass!

I wish I knew how to size down my pics but I am a tad bit tech challenged.
The date each pic was taken is above each one so that the progress made can be seen with a timeline.


08/01/15


08/06/15



08/18/15


08/23/15


09/04/15


09/08/15


09/11/15


09/15/15


09/20/15


09/24/15

Here is a picture of her and my son sharing some quality time on the couch. She was 12.5 years old in this pic.

Hell of a dog!




And one that my wife had to take to make her look like a big ol sissydog. lol

Interesting progression, I guess you had it bandaged when not cleaning it?

venom causes the muscle to swell while the sheath holding the muscle does not and that's what causes the real damage. You can see where the vet opened it up to give room. Really a goo set of photos. Thanks for providing them.

Thanks for posting this.

great post , thank you for sharing it. I bet that was hard to deal with but it's great she healed up. I bet she was a heckuva family member.

Stub, it actually remained open the entire time and the poor girl wore the cone of shame for about 10 weeks straight.
We had to flush it with water 3-4 times per day for 10-15 minutes and then put a salve on it he made for us from Sugar and Benadine.
The first few days was very tough as you could see the water running over it was causing a lot of pain for her being that it was completely open muscle tissue.

You are dead on right Hudbone. After about 4 days the muscle tissue died and the smell was just awful. It was like an animal that had been laying dead in the pasture under the hot sun for several days.
Once this happened he came over to the house and he gave her a shot and knocked her out. He began cutting away about 1/2" deep into the leg and scraping all the dead tissue out until he reach live (bleeding tissue). My God I thought she was going to bleed to death on our porch it was so much.

I'm glad to post them so all can see just how devastating these bites can be to our compadres.
I hate seeing an animal hit by one much less a human.

I know there's no way to measure, but I wonder how much difference the vaccine and previous bite made. My Jack Russell has been bit by copperheads three times that I'm sure of and each time the bites have been less severe. Could be size of snake, one that just fed or any number of reasons for variations of reactions. That's a lot of trauma for the dog and a sad loss for your family. I'm sorry.

No doubt man it was a tough deal for us for sure. We were just so happy she pulled through it.
She was my best bud for 13 years no doubt and went anywhere and everywhere with us.

I've never had a better dog and we could leave her in the house loose all day and then some and never had to worry about a thing.
She did not like other dogs at all but absolutely loved people. She seemed to understand everything you would tell her......damn near scary at times. lol

I totally believe the vaccine and the first bite she had a couple years earlier made all the difference in her making it on this one.
I can say that my cousin believes this 100% and said so.

I also remember some of my grandmother's dogs being bit many times as a kid growing up and just like you said they appeared to have less and less reaction each time.
Hell, one of her dogs was bitten 3 times within a two month time frame and all of them were on the head and neck. You would think they would learn after than but I guess they have that 'protective instinct' and just try and kill the snakes no matter the outcome to themselves.

I was always told that a mid to large dog would survive a rattlesnake bit so as long as it was not any further back on the body than the front shoulder. I don't know exactly how true that is but do know I've seen many get it in the face and swell up horribly but as long as they are able to breath and drink wather they all recovered within a week or so.

I do have a neighbor that has a cow in his pasture that is missing half her tongue due to a rattlesnake bit. He told me she was bitten about two years ago and when he went there to check the cows her tongue was hanging out of her mouth about 10" long and swelled up the size of a small watermelon. He'd given her up for dead but left her alone as she had a young calf at her side. He came back a few days later and said that it was black and stunk horribly. About a week later it rotted off. She seems no worse for wear now and has given him a couple more calves. Holy Crap animals are TOUGH!

My dream dog is a GSP and we'll be retiring to rattlesnake country. Definitely gonna be inviting every rattlesnake hunter in my neck of the woods to come out each February and clean out every den they can find.

She was a beauty. So sorry for your loss. Those pics hurt to look at except the last two. I know those bring a smile to your face. They did to mine too.

Protecting doggies, one shot at a time -

Sorry this happened to your pup.

You will not be sorry when you get your GSP. My advice would be to get a female as I do believe they are smarter than the males.
The other advice is to be prepared for a dog that you simply cannot wear out for the first 5-7 years of their life. Our girl literally would swing for 2 hours straight with us at the lake or river and never leave the water. She would run for miles on end and it was a thing of beauty to watch her literally clear 3' high weeds and bound 20'-25' per leap. Amazing athletes they are.

Now, ours would be energetic as you could imagine outside but once she came through door into the house she was fantastic.

I want another one badly but just cannot bring myself to yet 15 months later after losing her...…..the pain is still pretty damn hard and I don't wanna have to go through it again.

Thank you brother. I do smile every time I look at those pics of her smiling there in the flowers and especially with her laying there with my boy.

NICE!!!!!!!!

Thank you sir.
It is hard to see them hurt no doubt.

^^^this.

Thank you, sir. I've got 240 acres of panhandle rolling plain. She'll get her exercise!

Sorry for your loss!

Always sad to see. My Dad's lab went through something very similar at their quail lease

Thank you fellas. I miss her a lot.
Drive by her resting spot every evening on my side by side and tell her hello. Really wish she could go for one more ride with me.

Damnit to hell B02z28, that is horrible. Poor pup. Did He/she make a full recovery??

DAMN Rattlesnakes!

Very sorry for your loss..

I'm borrowing this.

She did recover however her paw basically ended up fubar'd.

Great post.

Your pictures remind me of the progression we saw in our lab when he got bit right on his forehead. It was gross when the flesh was rotting and flaking off, his head was really swollen for a few weeks. He did not require any surgery and we were told to pretty much leave it alone and leave it open to drain. The only medication was antibiotics for a while. I was told by many that he would get anti-venom shots, the vet said that they never do that.
It was a few months before it finally healed up to where no flesh was showing.
He also had a bite mark on his leg where the fangs ripped through the skin. That bite did not get any venom. The vet said the leg bite would have been worse if the snake had latched on.
It was my understanding that the forehead bite was common as dogs would face the snake. And that type of bite had a better survival rate as there was less blood flow on the forehead.
We had a cocker that was a lot smarter, she wouldn't go anywhere near a snake. She would run from a little ole grass snake.
Thanks for sharing the pictures. It is tough to keep our four legged buddies away from snakes.

Wish I could find pictures. We had a GSP bird dog that got hit in the leg. Snake trained and all.
Vet left anti-venom up to us. Too $$$$$$ and by the time we got to the vet he said it wouldn’t really help anymore anyways. Pushed fluids and meds overnight and he pulled through. But God that smell ..... that’s something you won’t forget.
Beautiful dog . GSP’s are really something.