A near disaster

[pssherman]

Had to leave work early today. My wife, who can't drive, called to say that 2 of our dogs had been bitten by a snake and they needed to get to the vets office right away. The snake was a small copperhead. Their faces have swollen up nearly double the normal size. Well, they are going to be ok. There was not enough venom injected to be lethal, but the dogs will not be feeling too good for a few days. The medications by injection and a week of pills should reduce the swelling, pain and prevent infections. As punishment, the snake was chopped into 3 pieces by my wife.

Now that the immediate crisis is over, I think this snake will provide a chance to make a snakeskin pen. Since there is very little useable skin, it was 8 - 10 inches long before getting chopped up, I've only got one shot at it. However I do have a frozen rat snake that is larger and all black that I can experiment with. It seems our dogs, dachsunds, like to hunt. They have caught several mice and killed at least 4 snakes that we know of. Well, I'm off to see if I can find tutorials or other info on how to process the snakeskin and make a pen from it.

Paul in AR

 

[ed4copies]

Paul,

Glad to hear all turned out well.

In my childhood, we had a dachshound mix. I also had horses and a stable that attracted mice and rats. The dog could barely fit under the stable (about a 6" clearance), but he would frequently emerge carrying a dead rat. Finally saw him, outside the stable once. He caught the rat by the neck, shook his head twice and the sucker was DEAD! Very friendly to people, with a side benefit-really useful dog!

 

[Skye]

Research vegetable tanning.

Slit the snake down the belly scales, cut one end of the skin from the meat, pull off the rest like a big piece of tape.

 

[53Jim]

Glad the dogs are going to be ok. That snake is lucky it was your wife and not me. I have made a few rattle snake pens, but if I had seen a live snake it would be in more than 3 peices.

 

[Yarael]

is lucky for the dogs. Just as a fact the dauschound or how ever it is spelled were breed to go into badger and fox holes to flush them out. Ever watch them fight? They can twist their heads around quite a bit to come up under and go for the juggular []

 

[tnilmerl]

Great news about the dogs. Non dog owners cannot fathom the connection between owner and pet and we suffer when we lose one.

So to me, the only good snake is a dead snake. I don't really differentiate between 'good' (beneficial) snakes and 'bad' (poison) snakes. Grew up on a farm in West Texas and pretty much ran around as a child in nothing but shorts all day. Killed snakes on an almost DAILY basis. Hard to distinguish a baby bullnose from a baby rattlesnake, so we killed them both. Damn lucky I was never bit[:0].

 

[pssherman]

The dogs are getting better. Thanks for all of the kind comments.
Dachsunds were bred to hunt badgers and are very agile and fast. Two of our dogs can get in and turn around in a carrying cage just barely big enough for a cat. They can also run a lot faster than I can even though they have such short legs and they can jump up onto an object more than 20 inches high. They are very loving and loyal dogs who will attack anything that threatens its master(s).

Skye, Thanks for the suggestion on vegetable tanning. Cutting down the belly may prove to be a problem in that there might not be enough skin left to form a seam. I'll see what I can come up with. Experimenting with the frozen rat snake should prove helpful.

All snakes around here are considered bad. Either they are poisonous or they eat frogs and toads which reduce insect problems.

Paul in AR

 

[redfishsc]

Glad to hear that the dogs are recovering, though it doesn't suprize me. I have yet to see a copperhead or cottonmouth kill a dog. Rattlers, I'd assume they could, but for some reason most dogs just seem to be tough as nails against snake venom. Yes, they swell up like basketball heads and look miserable, and need Vet attention, but they'll be fine.

My aunts two little mutt-types got bitten by something, likely a cottonmouth, and they got HUGE. She was very poor at the time and her husband was in and out of the psych ward suicide watch, so the dogs were the last thing she was able to worry about. Lol, they fought it off and got better, live on for another 10 years (and they were old as sin to begin with).


As far as snakes go, the ONLY time I EVER, EVER kill a snake intentionally is if there are kids around and it's a venemous or even aggressive snake. I have no qualms about catching the non-venomous ones and showing local kids-- ie, my family-- that they aren't evil... while at the same time warning them that I know what I'm doing, what I'm catching, and what to do if I get bit. I haven't caught a single snake that didn't calm down like a sleepy puppy after about 3 minutes once it decided it liked the heat from my arms.

 

[Thumbs]

Glad to hear that, redfishsc. I've killed snakes by accident but I won't go out of my way to kill anything that isn't doing me any harm. When I was younger....... well, hopefully when we get a little older maybe we get a little wiser...... hopefully .... maybe......

 

[TBone]

Glad to hear the dogs are ok. I had a daschsund mix and I miss her. Appologies to redfishsc and Thumbs but I'm with some of the other guys. If the last name is snake, I want the first name to be "dead". They develop very sudden cases of lead poisoning around here. Game warden at an outdoor show had a copperhead in a glass cage. As I was taking a look, he asked "do you know what that is"? My response was "yes, a target".