Snake Bite – Day 3

Well into day 3 of the snake bite episode, Bodi’s face is starting to return (slowly) to normal – everything below the neck – not so good from a swelling and bruising point of view – but, easily could be much worse.

Thank you all for your good wishes for Bodi, and concern for Nancy – We all appreciate it very much.

Bodi’s appetite is still not really there, unfortunately he has figured out that we are hiding the pills in the canned food meatballs (he normally never gets canned food, so I think that was suspect right from the start).  Now we give him the meatballs, he rolls them around with his nose, licks them, and walks away,  too smart for his own good.  For the time being we are using soft cheese to hide them, works for now – hopefully will continue.

The swelling has quickly spread down his chest and front legs, through his belly, and is encroaching on his back legs.  The swelling has started to come down on his face and neck quite a bit, which is good – he doesn’t look quite as pitiful, but from there on back- look out.

The bruising has pretty much settled in the lower extremities, his lower chest and the stomach, turning bright red/purple down near his crotch.  It is because of this bruising and pain that we can’t pick him up easily to help him up on the bed or sofa – the screams he let out when we tried quickly changed our minds on that.  Bodi, besides moving very, very slowly – is having a tough time walking, seems to be in a bit of of pain in the front leg/chest from the bruising, so, this makes him walk like a very old dog, definitely not the Bodi we know.

As can be seen from the closeup, the bruising has moved through here.  Bodi is a very fit dog, so those rolls that you see there are not normal, and are all from the swelling in his chest area – it looks funny as he walks, rolling side to side – and I am sure it’s very uncomfortable for him.

We had him back at the clinic yesterday morning and he had a good checkup – they say that the poison is running its course and we just have to be patient.  As long as he eats, drinks, and does he thing outside, he is functioning – and that’s good.

This morning was a tough one though.  Since we are still giving him the Pain Killers and Antibiotics, and he isn’t eating a whole lot… He had the (dis)pleasure of vomiting everything up about an hour after getting his meds – the bruised chest and emptying himself 8 times surely drained him… Trust me, that stuff is not fun to clean up out of a carpet.

End of day 3: The swelling and bruising just keep right on running through his system – to tell you the truth we had no idea how bad this was going to be for Bodi – It’s like pushing meat through a sausage – It just keeps swelling and moving down his body, leaving it’s marks and pain along the way – His face looks much better, but now his crotch is all bruised and swollen, and we are accepting the fact that his back legs will get it tomorrow.

Even 3 days after that little Rattler did it’s thing, Bodi can barely walk, he eats very little, he drools and coughs incessantly – Bodi definitely took the bullet on this one, as the snake was right at Nancy’s feet… And I would hate to think what that venom would have done to Oliver at 20lbs. less weight than Bodi – that would have been very tough for him I would think.

So, as you can see – he is on the mend, it will be a long haul to get him back to normal, and – DAMN – Rattle Snakes suck when they bite your best friend.

As to the info we keep getting on the snake vaccine – As we have said all along, it is not the savior for your dog if it gets bitten – It is not even a guarantee that it will help at all, it is just a little insurance against the laws of nature that may help out in the treatment and recovery of your pet. People will buy aspirin all day long thinking that it knows how to specifically help every ailment that comes along in their body when they hurt – and knows how to find the right pain at the time, but want to throw their hands in the air that the vaccine doesn’t do anything… If the vaccine helped Bodi even a tiny bit – it was worth it to me.