The beg inning of autumn brings pumpkins, falling leaves, and baby snake season as snakes are born and hatched in late summer to early fall. The cooling weather also makes snakes more active, putting our curiously natured dogs and cats at higher risk of venomous bites.
It’s a good idea to take your pet to the nearest vet clinic as safely and quickly as possible if they fall victim to a snake, regardless of whether or not you believe the snake is venomous.
Dr. Lance Wheeler, a veterinary resident at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, advises pet owners to familiarize themselves with venomous snakes indigenous to their region.
Texas is home to 15 potentially dangerous snake species or subspecies, according to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, with a majority of them falling into the pit viper subspecies. Pit vipers include various rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouths or water moccasins. Only one snake in the cobra snake family, the coral snake, is native to Texas.
Snake bite symptoms to watch for in dogs, cats and other household pets include shaking or twitching of the bite victim's muscles, difficulty breathing, hind limb weakness causing collapse, loss of bladder and bowel control, vomiting, paralysis, salivation and enlarged pupils.
It is not always easy to spot bite marks on our furry friends because the bites are easily concealed in their fur. If your pet is showing signs of weakness and fatigue, call the vet.
Treatment for a venomous snake bite starts at home with pre-hospital care and varies slightly between pit viper envenomation and coral snake envenomation.
“With pit viper envenomation, the most important thing is to keep the pet as calm as possible,” Wheeler shared. “The higher their blood pressure, the more anxious they are. That's going to increase blood flow and increase circulation of venom throughout the body. “So try keeping them calm. Go to the nearest vet clinic,” he said. “I know it's tempting to go somewhere where there's anti-venom, but the nearest vet can always stabilize them, assess them and then transport them quickly somewhere else if they need anti-venom.”
While it’s important to know what to do if your dog or cat has been bitten by a potentially poisonous snake, it’s also important to keep in mind that not all venomous snake bites have high levels of envenomation. There is a chance that your pet will not have been injected with any venom, even if the snake inflicting the bite is venomous.
Your vet will run some medical tests to determine whether or not your pet needs antivenom. The most important thing for pet parents to do is get a suspected snake victim to the nearest vet hospital or clinic while remaining calm and keeping the pet as still as possible once a bite has been detected or the pet starts exhibiting envenomation symptoms.
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