OLD OAK AND alligator junipers everywhere...and I mean OLD!
RED OAK
MANZANITA IN BLOOM...
OUR SPOT WITH the Parkers
La la la
THEN THIS happened...
BECAUSE OF THIS...
THE LITTLE BASTARD I am holding is the Arizona Black Rattlesnake. Cody, me, Bristol and Codys tricolour aussie mix Bailey went for a hike to look for shed antlers. We ended up high on a hill about an hour from camp. Bristol and Bailey were about 20 yards straight ahead of Cody and I on top of this hill when we heard the rattle. Bailey was closest to it when we heard it and Bristol was already past it. Turned out Bristol had stepped right on it biting her on the medial side of her right foreleg. She must have been right over it. Didn't rattle until after it bit her. Bristol looped around to me and started limping.....I just knew it. Sure enough two little bleeding spots. Cody had a rattlesnake round in his pistol; one shot he was done.
NOW, DO ANY of you know what the chances are of this happening while hiking with a vet? I should have played the lottery that night! Cody gave Bristol a rattlesnake vaccine 4 days before this happened, we needed 30 days to give the booster for it to be as effective as it could have been but it still helped. We got some water down her before she crashed. After about 30 seconds of adrenaline she was no longer mentally there, started spasming and an onset of temperary paralysis began. We had a mile hike straight down to Codys truck...carrying her, we took turns and kept Bailey close. After camp we had an hour drive back to Cedar Ridge Vet Clinic where Cody works. Not a good prognosis according to our time table. BUT, we met Dr. Despain there and got some IV fluids, IV antibiotics, and some pain meds on board.
BRISTOL SPENT TWO nights there and is now recovering quickly. She has some serious edema, bruising, and a little pain. The only thing we have to worry about now is the possible heart damage (probably minimal if at all because of the vaccine on board), and the tissue damage; it's common for the muscle tissue to necrose at the site of injection so Bris may end up with a small limp but that is nothing. She's alive with a heck of a story under her little puppy collar.
ON A SIDE note: If Bristol wouldn't have stepped on this snake, Cody or I would have.
