An update on grass snakes
Hi Val,
My sister, Anne, alerted me to your comments on snake bites after I’d told her about our current situation. Alexa, one of our Salukis, woke yesterday morning screaming. On inspection, we found that her neck was badly swollen and bruised which it had not been the previous evening when she had seemed to be her usual self, apart from refusing her evening meal. Initially, we assumed that she may have had a skirmish with one of the other dogs except we had neither seen nor heard anything to suggest this. However, when we cleaned off the wound we saw the unmistakable signs of a snake bite which was confirmed when I was able to squeeze a large amount of infected blood from it. I washed the wound with saline, then applied an antibacterial liquid and gave Alexa an antibiotic and repeated the process in the evening. By this morning Alexa was once again eating and the swelling had gone down, as had the blood seepage, but there is tissue damage so I have applied some clinically treated veterinary Manuka honey which is antibacterial and should help the healing process. Nevertheless, the wound remains an unsightly, nasty mess.
Clearly, the snake was not an adder. Had it been Alexa would probably have died, especially given the site of the bite high on her neck. We are assuming the culprit was a grass snake that had emerged from hibernation. All of which is by way of reinforcing your warning to pet owners and gardeners alike. Grass snakes need to be taken seriously because although not venomous they are toxic.
I hope that you are not finding ‘lockdown’ too tortuous.
Stay safe.
Helen
