Close Encounter with viper

[Torvy]

Yesterday my wife was taking her daily afternoon walk with the dogs. Out on one of the easements she noticed something and the GSD pulled up on alert. There was a 6' Cottonmouth (aka Water Moccasin) with a small bunny.

Snake coiled around the bunny and did the classic Cottonmouth pose.

Kangal moves in that direction and the snake decided to leave. GSD ate the bunny.

I learned that apparently some snakes eat carrion. Wife said the bunny was headless. (Cats often just eat the head).

 

[WM75Guy]

Glad everyone is OK. It is that time of year to start looking out for them, I have taken out my fair share of them. Around here I treated patients with copperhead bites (most common), a corral snake bite, and a timber rattlesnake bite. Fortunately, the Cottonmouth will normally retreat if the option is available, the others stand their ground and strike out. In the 15 years I worked at the hospital as an RN we never treated a Cottonmouth bite patient in the ER.

 

[Tinhack]

Yep. This is the time of the year down here when Snakes, Scorpions and Yellow Jackets are making their presence known. I gotta get my Yellow Jacket trap built. Oh yeah, and the killer bees are out too. Had one interested in my DeWalt driver when I was putting up the Starlink antenna a couple of weeks ago. Pesky creatures but you don't dare swat at them.

 

[otlski]

Ha! It thought the Dewalt was the mothership.

 

[Torvy]

The two bigger dogs messed with a small copperhead last year. Both got bit in the mouth. Fluids and observation and they were fine, it was not.

 

[Tinhack]

Ha! It thought the Dewalt was the mothership.

Or a flower.

 

[dodge man]

I had this picture in my head.

 

[Torvy]

I had this picture in my head.
View attachment 5256681

Of course you did...

 

[oosik]

We supposedly have Western Diamondback rattle snakes here. 44 years and I've never seen or heard one. That's about the time you let your guard down and have an unfortunate encounter.

We DO have a seldom seen snake - Rubber Boa. Fortunately around two feet long and non-poisonous. I've had two in my yard in the 44 years.

 

[EddieWalker]

My dogs have been bitten by cotton mouth snakes. We saw one of them get bit. She bit it and shook it in the air, and why she was shaking it, the snack bit her in the side of her face, just behind her mouth, and below her eye. My wife and I were sitting on the porch and saw it happen.

That was our first experience with dogs and snake bites. We took her to the emergency vet and they gave her some Benadryl. They said that dogs can handle cotton mouth and copper head bites pretty easily. The poison coagulates inside them, and then slowly breaks down over a few weeks. We could see what looked like something swollen under the skin of her neck for awhile, and then it slowly went away. She didn't seem to care about the bit at all. No reaction, no sign of pain or suffering from it at all.

The next year we found a dead cotton mouth in the yard and the same dog had the same swelling in her neck just like the year before. Guess she caught it, shook it to death, and got bit.

Since then we've found several more dead cotton mouths in our dog yards, along with rat snakes and even a copper head. Except for those two times that we saw the actual attack, and the swelling the year after, we have no idea which dog killed the snakes, and if they were bit.

I think it was the year after the second bite, but it might of been that same year, we had two of our dogs go after a cotton mouth. My wife and I were sitting on the back porch and they took off to the fenceline. They both bit the snake at the same time, they both shook it violently at the same time, and the snake broke in have with a VERY LOUD POPPING sound!!!! You had to hear it to believe it would be so loud. Neither were bit, and it was over in seconds.

The vet said that the only snake here in my area of East Texas to worry about with dogs is the rattle snake. We have them, but they are extremely rare and docile. The only way to get bit by one is to really push the issue and mess with it. Dogs cannot handle the venom and it's almost always fatal if bit by one.

This is my wife with our girl at the vet after the bite. The third picture shows her a couple years later. The hair never grew back 100%, but you would have to look hard to see where it happened.

 

[WM75Guy]

When I was on duty at the FD in the suburbs of Fort Worth a lady called 911, said there was a large snake on her front porch. Police responded, called for backup and a camera. We responded and captured this very friendly 14' python on her front porch. Put it in a trash can and transported it to the station. The Humane Society came and took it. Later that day the caller's next door neighbor came home and found his pet snake had escaped. He was able to get it back.

 

[deserteagle71]

We DO have a seldom seen snake - Rubber Boa. Fortunately around two feet long and non-poisonous. I've had two in my yard in the 44 years.

I was amazed that rubber boas manage to exist here in Nevada. I've come across a few crossing the road and moved them to safety. Very docile snake - looks just like a large worm; it is hard to tell without close examination which end is the head and which is the tail.

Have to look close to see which end has tiny eyeballs!