My dog was once bitten by a Copperhead. [View all]

[NashvilleLefty]

I came home, and noticed that my dog was just not his usual bouncing self. He was "acting funny", you might say. He also acted as if he had let me down, in some way. I live on 20 acres of woods which he does an excellent job of guarding and protecting, but I could tell by the way he acted he was in pain, and also ashamed that he had somehow let me down in his duties. When you live with a dog long enough, you can tell what they are trying to tell you. Other dog owners will know what I am talking about.

So I immediately took him to the Vet.

After a thorough examination, the Vet told me - first of all - that he was ok and would recover fully (which I greatly appreciated and was relieved to hear). They found fang marks. Luckily, they found very little poison. The Vet told me he was very lucky, because it was obviously a full-grown male. If it had been a female or a juvenile, the snake would have released all it's venom. But males tend to want to save their venom for their prey, and so release very little when attacking for defense. Also, their venom acts as a necrosis agent much like a Brown Recluse spider. So, Copperhead bites treated with simple antibiotics. In fact, the Vet told me his own son had once fallen into a pit of Copperheads and bitten multiple times. They treated him with antibiotics and he was just fine after a while.

Then the VET told me WHERE the fang-marks were - or rather he attempted to, trying to be as PC as possible. It slowly began to dawn on me, he was bitten on the rear of - shall we say - his "dangly bits". I burst out laughing, partly in relief, but partly because of the image that came to my mind.

Now, I have quite a few Copperheads on my property, and I know they prefer to hide rather than attack. I have seen several Copperheads "passing through" just to get a drink of water from the creek. I would just stand still and not threaten them, and they would run away. They will only strike when they feel they have to or when they are surprised.

For my dog to have been bitten where he was, basically he would have been squatting - as if to poop. For a male Copperhead to actually strike and bite him, the Copperhead would have had to feel in immediate danger, like in the case of my dog pooping on his head! So the image that made me start laughing was from the Copperhead's perspective:

I imagined the snake lying in the leaves, knowing he was well-hidden, when he senses my dog coming near. "Ok, big dog, just keep on going... wait, why are you sniffing around? Do you smell me? Do you know I am here? Wait, why are you circling? What are you doing? Wha,,,, MOTHERFU...... "

As I said, he's fine now. Although when I took him back for a follow-up they gave me some antibiotic cream to spread on the "affected area". I had to explain to him why I was rubbing his most delicate-of-delicates, but he still didn't like it and looked at me funny for a while. But eventually all the dead skin grew back and he became his Old Self.

Oh, and for those of you who wish to chastise me for leaving his danglies instead of have him "fixed", allow me to tell you that the nearest female dog is over 1.5 miles away, and he never strays from our property. His "job" to protect it and my house is too strong in his estimation.

As far as protection is concerned, I do own a single-shot shotgun that I have used to kill a Timber Rattler and a Copperhead that both decided to take-up residence a little too close to the house. As I said, I have no problem when they are just "passing through", but when they take up residence and threaten me or my dog - they have to go. Also, the way I look at it, my gun is only useful when I am there. My dog guards the house when I am there or when I am away.

Plus, he gives me love that my shotgun could never give.