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Pet Vet Articles (Published Weekly in the Northern Territory News)

Aggression in cats Aggressive dogs Arthritis Aural Haematomas Baby Bats Bad Habits Part 1: Coprophagy Barking Dogs Bats Beak and Feather disease Blindness Bottom dragging, worms and anal glands Calcium Deficiency in Reptiles Cancer Cane Toads and Dogs Canine cough (Kennel Cough) Cat Flu Cats & dogs living together Ceasarian Chickens as pets Christmas and Pets Coastal Carpet Pythons in Darwin Coccidia Demodex mange Desexing: an opportunity to change a life Diarrhoea Dr. Tom is leaving The Ark vet Ear infections Ear Mites Feather loss Fireworks Fishing Lure Flatulence Fleas Flying Foxes Fur Balls Goldfish Heartworm Heavy Metal Poisoning Humping Moving with Pets New Years Eve (alcohol poisoning) Obesity Overheating PAWS pets, pets for life Pets and Christmas Rabbits Riding in Utes Snake bite Snakes as pets Stress Sun Protection Tetanus in Wallabies Thunderstorms Tick Control Tick Fever (Anaplasmosis) Ticks	Your selected article: Snake bite Dr Stephen Cutter B.V.Sc(hons) Carlton was so proud of himself. Meowing loudly he dropped the still twitching snake on his sleeping owner. (Who needless to say woke up pretty quickly!) When his owner recovered, her concern turned to whether Carlton had been bitten. She was pretty sure her couch potato of a cat could not have caught a snake without being bitten. Carlton’s owner checked him all over, looking for bite marks but because of his thick coat and the very fine teeth of snakes she couldn’t find any. Wisely she still rushed him down to see me. Carlton was still very smoochy and happy - not the slightest bit aware of the trouble he had caused. A snakebite detection test confirmed that he had been bitten. The snake he had been bitten by was a western brown. Western browns come in a wide range of colours so unless you really know your snakes it is not wise to judge what kind of snake it is by its appearance. This dead western brown was an off white with a black patch on its neck. Carlton was just beginning to show some signs. His pupils were dilated and he was a little wobbly when he walked Carlton had been unlucky many of the territories snakes are non-venomous like the children’s pythons and golden tree snakes. Generally cats’ reflexes are much faster than snakes and most snakes are reluctant to bite. I see far more snakes bitten by cats and dogs than cats and dogs bitten by snakes. Mostly cats and dogs kill snakes with out serious consequences, but not this time! Treatment of snake envenomation is expensive, difficult and can have many complications. Fundamentally the antivenom is the critical treatment. There is no substitute for it. Without it the venoms destruction is not stopped. Other treatments are to support the patient and repair damage done. I put him on a drip and gave him the antivenom. Carlton was indeed very lucky and recovered well. He is going to be an indoors only cat from now on. Copyright © 2005-2008 Dr Stephen M Cutter May not be reproduced without written permission from the author.