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The
key to snake bite is prevention. There
are some things we can do to help prevent snake bites. Keep
your yard and house surrounds free from rubbish, long grasses. Certian
gardens are more attractive to snakes - the rockgardens has many places
to hid and an abundance of lizzards and other small vermin that snakes
love to eat. Teaching your dog to sit and stay, whatever distractions
there may be is also a help, so that if you are around when the snake
is present you
can control your dog. Discourage your pet from chasing lizards etc.
teach him to come when called. These will help decrease the encounter
between pet and snake. Many bites
do not result
in envenomation.
There
are various toxins present in Australian snake vemon. The
Four major groups are-
Neurotoxins,
- Causing paralysis of voluntary which may be irreversible.
Coagulants, Causes either clotting
of blood in the vessels or by using up the
clotting factors so the blood can not coagulant.
Haemolysins,
which cause break down of red blood cells,
Cytotoxins
cause break down of body tissue, mainly muscle and kidney.
The Clinical signs seen with snake
bite will vary with the make up
of the toxin of the snake. They can include any or all off the
following in varying amounts.
-
Trembling, salivation,
vomiting and depression.
-
Unsteadiness, hind leg weakness, dilated pupils and worsening paralysis.
-
Respiratory distress, red-brown
urine, complete paralysis and coma.
-
Some animals may collapse suddenly
then appear to recover before showing above signs up to an hour later.
-
Death can occur within 2 hours of
snakebite,
There
are different types of snakes in Broome, many are of little
medical importance,
I have heard it said that
almost every yard in Broome will have a resident snake.
The snakes in Broome of veterinary
importance are the -
Black snakes (Mulga)
Brown snakes (Gwarder)
Death adder (which are rarely found in Broome township boundarys.)
It is important that the correct
identification
of the snake is made if
your dog has been bitten. As the anti vemom that is administrated in
specific to the snake. Snake antivenom is expensive and using the wrong
type will have limited or no effect. If you find the the
snake in
your yard,
dead. It will always help with identification if you can
bring it along to the clinic. Please exercise EXTREME CARE if
handling any snake, even when you do think it is dead. Place the
snake in a secure container.
Once
a suspect snake bite is brought in to the Veterinary Clinic, we will
usually run a Snake Venom Detection Kit from
blood or urine to check---
if the dog has been envenomated or if it was a dry bite.
What type of snake venom is detected.
This will allow us to use the
correct antivenom and give you pet the best chance of recovary
Please call us and let us
know you are coming in with a suspected snake bite.
Snake
bites are expensive to treat costing depends of the type and amount of
antivenom required. Costing will be anywhere from $2500 up to and
possibily byond $4000.
Remember
–
prevention is better than trying to cure.
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