Dog Bitten By Little Cobra

[magana77]

My golden retriever Luna got bit a baby cobra (sausage-size; about 2 feet long). She was fine for like 20-30 minutes and then I noticed she was lying down very still. She peed and then started foaming at mouth and convulsing a bit. Rushed her to the vet, and they didn't even have antivenin! They ran out... had to rush out to a nearby hospital to buy some! Luna is now in the ICU at the vet, and it doesn't look hopeful. The vet says to wait past a day... Luna is in shock and needs help breathing. What's disconcerting is she got bit on the lip, closer to her brain.

My other dogs are snake killers... with experience (Luna's only 10 months and very friendly). They know how to handle themselves, especially the little ones, and a lot of times they're just garden snakes. Maybe they'd killed a cobra before when no one was at home so we wouldn't know. The other dogs all seem fine, but I'm worried that they might have been bitten too. There are no symptoms, but I know the effect of a snake bite is dependant on location of bite and size of dog as well. It's 4-5 later; are my other dogs okay? They're still fine, but I'm paranoid. Some stories here say they didn't notice anything until the day after; some noticed the symptoms minutes later...

Would sure appreciate someone's advice and hear other dog owners' dog-snake-bite stories... Thank you.

[steelepulse]

I too lost a dog via snake bite and saw another get bit on the face.  We took him to the vet and he got anti venom and we took him home the next day.  As for your other dogs, chances are it was a "dry bite" and no venom was injected if they have not shown any signs 4-5 down the road.  Good luck with Luna!

[Cuban]

Hmmmm ! Must be the season as there are a few snake threads running and I've seen a snake every other day on average over the past two weeks while out with the dogs in the fields. My reasearch so far suggests that they are non-poisonous - but cobras have been seen locally in the past.

With the comment about the vet in the OPs message and my own reservations about the professional competence of the local vet in Issan it might be wise to visit your local vet to see what treatments they have in stock on a regular basis to deal with snake bites and what nature of bites have they treated in the past.

[elfe]

my vet told me that the antivenom is often out of stock as the supply is insufficient (only one company which still produces it in thailand?? not sure if that is true). so to be on the safe side it might be a good idea to order/buy some bottles of it and keep it in your fridge for emergency.

when my dalmatian was bitten by a cobra in the face he needed three bottles of antivenom to survive! and also lots of medication additionally like penicillin and vitaminshots etc. but after 5 hours he was able to walk out of the vets by himself again.

don't want to call there in an emergency to hear sorry we are out of antivenom