Well Phoooh! The dog found a rattlesnake in our backyard last week. I got her away from it and put her in the house while I pondered the situation. We live just a block away from a 300 acre park and that’s no doubt where it came from. I figured it would probably go back there if I just left it alone but on the other hand there are a lot of little kids in the neighborhood and I did not feel right about just letting it go.

So, I found the shovel and waited for it to come out. When it did I gave the shovel my best javelin toss and got him about six inches behind the head. Pinned him right to the ground but it didn’t kill him.About that time Ronda came out of the back door and the dog came with her. Next thing I knew the dog was right there and stuck her nose in a little too close **POWW** faster than you could really even see the snake got her in the nose.

This all happened just after dinner so our only recourse was to go to the local pet “emergency room”. The dog started swelling up immediately and was obviously not felling well at all. I guess a rattlesnake bite is extremely painful. The vet gave us the recommended scenario which included staying overnight, pain, anti-inflammatory meds and the anti-venom dripped in through an IV, etc., etc. Estimated cost $1,540.

While carefully refraining from laughing we asked about the “home care” scenario. The vet frowned but told us he could give here a shot of morphine and send home some pills but the dog might not make it and would be very uncomfortable. To his credit he did say the whole anti-venom thing was somewhat controversial and not every vet recommended that course of action. Needless to say we opted for the home care and proceeded to give the dog her meds along with several homeopathic remedies. She looked pretty rough for several days and we wondered if we were doing the right thing but she finally turned the corner and today (one week later) is nearly fully recovered.

This was definitely some excitement I could have done without. And, yes…I kept the rattles.