ADDER ATTACK..........

A few days ago the other half and i took our 2 dogs for a nice evening walk along the river at South Fambridge, the day had been hot and there was a nice breeze blowing so we thought, how better to spend a couple of hours after a hot, sweaty day at work. Its a beautiful place to visit as theres nothing but fields and of course the river itself.

The dogs had a great time, Harry was doing his favourite thing and swimming up and down in front of us, while Oscar was splatting through the thick estuarine mud and running over the rocks. Myself and Sharon just enjoyed watching the dogs have fun while we slowly unwound from the days trials and tribulations. Once home the dogs were hosed down and dried, given some treats and they then flopped on their beds and promptly fell asleep snoring after the exertion of the evenings fun. We had a cup of tea and retired to bed a couple of hours later, dogs happy and us relaxed. Everything was fine...

The next morning we noticed that Harry, the golden retriever, was a bit listless and had a lot of trouble getting of his bed to go and have his morning wee. Nothing really to worry about as he,s 9 years old now and after a long run he gets stiff joints for a couple of days. It was only as he was hobbling back up the garden that we noticed his left paw was very swollen, so we took a look and found it was huge, as well as some swelling running up his leg. We got an emergency appointment with our vet, thinking that he might of got an infection from maybe a cut he might of got from the walk. When we arrived at the vets she took a look at Harrys paw and without hesitation pronounced what was the cause of the swelling. Harry had been bitten by an ADDER.

Poor Harry must of disturbed one basking in the hot evening sun and unfortunately the snake didn,t like it bit him. Harry was given a couple of injections of anti-biotics and anti venom as well as being put on a drip and being under 24 hour surveillance at the vet hospital. He,s at home now lying beside me feeling sorry for himself but he seems a bit perkier today and wolfed down his breakfast pretty well. We have another trip to the vets today for a check up and as long as he doesn,t get Necrosis around the bite area he should make a full recovery in a few days. I have to say it was pretty scary for a while as he just seemed to get worse very quickly the morning we noticed his paw.

I put a few pictures here of what an ADDER looks like for those who havn,t seen one before. They are lovely looking creatures and would rather slither away into the grass than attack, but they will if they have too.

They like to sunbath when the sun is nice and hot as they are cold blooded and their favourite places are on concrete, old sheets of metal and patches of dry soil surrounded by grass.

So when your going out for a walk anytime soon please be aware that there is apparently an influx of these snakes around the country at the moment and to keep your eyes open to the danger of someone you love being bitten.

If you, or someone you know is bitten, which is not a very common occurrence, here are a few things to remember. Don,t panic, easier said than done, as this rsises your heart rate and will pump the venom around the body quicker. Don,t try and squeeze the wound to get the venom out as this will result in the area swelling and will force the venom into the blood stream quicker. Don,t leave it too long to go to the hospital, get there quickly to stop it in tracks.

Well i hope this hasn,t put you off from enjoying our beautiful countryside and just keep an eye out when you do.

Right i,m off down the vets........