05/10/2024
SURVIVING A SNAKE BITE - Grimm’s Tale.
I am sharing Grimm’s story again after seeing another post about a dog losing its life to a snake bite.
Grimm was a beautiful boy with a big heart and eager to please. He was the dog I did my dog training certification with. He taught me so much and made me the gentle trainer I am today.
When Grimm was only a year old on a disgustingly hot day him and my other dog went out to toilet. 5mins was all it took. They came back in happy wiggling their tails like nothing happened. Grimm lay in his crate all day I figured it’s too hot he’s just not wanting to move.
Come 5pm I call him to go outside to the toilet again. His pupils were dilated his tongue hanging out and his breathing was off. His head started to shake like he had a neck spasm so I gave it a rub and he collapsed. Unable to move except for his happy tail.
I raced out to find my other dog and that’s when I saw it. Dead in the yard they had killed an eastern brown snake.
I rushed Grimm to the vet, by then he had peed all through my car as the venom took ahold of his body. By then I was in a hysterical tears how the vet understood anything I was saying I don’t know.
I carried his limp body in and I could see in the vet’s face the chances weren’t good. The vet hooked him up and I carried him to the crate. I saw the look of fear in his eyes as he was in this strange place and his body wasn’t working. I softly told him “It’s ok Grimmy, crate” with that final word his body softened and he relaxed.
I spent the next days waiting for the call but everytime I rang he was still alive, how the vets were amazed. Until one day one said “it’s the crate training”. They went on to explain how the anti venom works. It doesn’t remove the venom it just stops the venom from attaching to the cells of the body by binding to the venom instead and gives the body the chance to clear it out itself. So when Grimm was relaxed in the crate he gave the anti venom time to do its thing and stop the venom from destroying his body.
Crate training saved Grimm’s life.
If I knew what I knew now I probably wouldn’t have saved him and here is why. The severity aid the affect it had on his body was devastating. It caused brain damage. So Grimm lived his next 7 years suffering seizures, anxiety and sterotypie behaviour. He wasn’t the same dog. In his final days while his body was healthy his mind was not. I had to let him go when his love for life had faded and I saw a danger in his behaviour emerging.
So if I could do it all again I would do snake avoidance training.
So I recommend anyone who has a fear of snakes around their dog 1) do solid crate training. Training where your dog goes into the crate and it’s fall asleep time. This will help not only in a snake bite but for any medical situation from a broken leg to being desexed. 2) snake avoidance training, while I don’t personally know them they come extremely highly recommended by other trainers I know and trust Padfoot Dogmanship up the Sunshine Coast. This is the important one this is the one that will stop you from the heart break.
I hope that Grimm’s story will save at least one family the heart break.
