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2 Of Our Pups Got Bitten By A Snake Today.


jeddica
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thanks for all your support and thoughts guys, like cazablanca we couldnt afford to pay upfront in out local vet but it looks as if we are goig to have to do some thing they have made it though the night but are completely paralized we are going to the vets now, they have gone majorly down hill in about 15mins

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Oh this is so terrible. Even just one vial of antivenom may have been enough to pull them through $500-600. I recently rushed a 6 month pup to the vet's as soon as I saw the drooling from the mouth. Because I got her there so quickly one vial saved her life even though she had a lot of poison in her as she was off the scale.

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Your Vet MUST get these dogs on anti-venom :o

Any Vet worth their salt would treat a sanke bite victim first and then sort out the funds side of it later on.

GE Credit has a loan scheme to pay for Vet bills.

That is why all of our dogs have PetPlan Health Insurance.We are only on pensions but we asked these dogs to come into our lives so it is our responsibilty to look after then. I would hock anything I could if needed $$ for Vet treatment.I also have Private Hospital cover for me too. I would rather live on mince and noodles than rely on the Public System .

For two dogs costs us $70 per month and it covers up to $14,000 per year per dog( less $100 excess) and PetPlan has deals with a lot of the Vets for them to be billed directly so that the owner does not have to find the massive $$

Prays going their way.

Sadly Colleen, the vets (around here) actually state that payment must be made on the day, or they dont treat your animal (for anything).

I hate them with a passion, and now go elsewhere (which is pretty hard with my panic attacks :thumbsup:) because of their "money over an animals life" attitude.

Okay.....my little rant.

I spent thousands with these vets over an 18 month period (many years ago now) as I had a horse with cancer. But then I rang up once to tell them my cat was ill and I was bringing him down (he couldnt stand up, wouldnt eat) and they automatically said "payment on the day"....I was pretty well flat broke at the time, so asked if I could pay 3 days later (my payday) and they said NO.

I pleaded with them, and in the end they said to bring down something of value to hold in their safe until I made payment. :love:

Not that I have anything of value (car cant fit in their bloody safe), but I had a piece of jewellery that was left to me, so I took that down. Signed a form etc to say I would pay on certain day, and had left the item there as collateral or some BS.

The cat didnt make it through the night, but they didnt bother to tell me until the next morning that he had died. :(

(and after all the blood tests, x-rays, and being put on a drip etc, they still didnt say why he died, but the blood tests showed liver enzymes were high)

And they had the bloody cheek to ring me back and ask me if I wanted to fork out another $40 for them to dispose of the body, or to come and collect him. :o

I cannot tell you how much I hate these particular vets, and their staff. They practice is a semi-rural area, and all they think about is bloody money. It makes my blood boil.

Oops, sorry for hijacking the thread Jettica.

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Prayers that the furkids are still with us and fighting like mad to recover

Just a thought- DOL should have a list of Vets that will treat first and then work out repayment plans etc so at least in an emergency situtaion we DOLers would not waste valuable time and know who to contact first.

What do you think Mods?

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They practice is a semi-rural area, and all they think about is bloody money. It makes my blood boil.

They'd go bankrupt if they didnt. Your vet clinic sounds a bit over the top but put it this way - if 10 snake victims come in on one day and no one can afford to pay - clinic is down about $60,000 dollars - in a day. Vet clinics dont run a charity - they ARE a business. They dont get reimbursed by the Government to keep pets alive - that's up to the owners.

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I live in the suburbs and One Sunday afternoon about 4 years ago, I was cleaning out my car when my Rotty came running up to me barking and whimpering, and she starting running off towards the back yard, so I followed her, there I found my Big beautiful British Shorthair Cat laying on the concrete, saliva everywhere, barely breathing, and completely paralized, I rushed him to the nearest Vet that was opened on a Sunday, but unfortunately his lungs had filled with fluid (pulmonary Edema) and he died. The Vets were unsure why.

The next day I took his body to MY Vet, where they did a Post Mortem to determine death, they told me he was bitten by a snake on the pad of his foot and it was likely he had a massive allergic reaction to the venom.

We searched everywhere possible for the snake in the back yard, but never found it, I was that worried my Rotty would get bitten, I kept her inside my house, only letting her out for toilet breaks, never the less, she didn't get bitten and is still with me today. I hope your dogs are o.k

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Good Vibes to the pups concerned.

It is going to be a nasty summer for snakes.

Prayers that the furkids are still with us and fighting like mad to recover

Just a thought- DOL should have a list of Vets that will treat first and then work out repayment plans etc so at least in an emergency situtaion we DOLers would not waste valuable time and know who to contact first.

What do you think Mods?

In 12 months time you could rename the list to Vets who went under.

Vets like any other business have to pay for their supplies few can afford to carry too many clients for expensive procedures.

It is up to individual owners to make arrangements, and personally if you all continue to switch vets and shop around no one will want to deal with you, as you will not be an established client with a history.

I get sick of talking to the debt collection company every week to update our tardy payers.

What a list of easy going Vets will do is send the serial defaulters in their direction.

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What a list of easy going Vets will do is send the serial defaulters in their direction.

Exactly, Cris. Frightening thought, isnt it.

And it's not up to forum owners to provide lists - your pets therefore your responsibility. Find your own vet and know how they run their business for expensive procedures. If your dog got hit by a car and had a broken spine you wouldnt just say 'Oh weel. Too expensive cant afford it'.

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I know that the snake anti-venom is much more expensive if you don't know what type of snake bit them. It is some sort of composite mixture I think. Also one vial isn't always enough. An interesting thing with snakes though is that not all bites are necessarily venomous - depends when they last bit something and also how hard they bite.

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Your Vet MUST get these dogs on anti-venom :thumbsup:

Any Vet worth their salt would treat a snake bite victim first and then sort out the funds side of it later on.

GE Credit has a loan scheme to pay for Vet bills.

That is why all of our dogs have PetPlan Health Insurance.We are only on pensions but we asked these dogs to come into our lives so it is our responsibilty to look after then. I would hock anything I could if needed $$ for Vet treatment.I also have Private Hospital cover for me too. I would rather live on mince and noodles than rely on the Public System .

For two dogs costs us $70 per month and it covers up to $14,000 per year per dog( less $100 excess) and PetPlan has deals with a lot of the Vets for them to be billed directly so that the owner does not have to find the massive $$

Prays going their way.

Recommending health insurance is all very well and good but what happens when the dog is ineligible, say, due to age? I can't get insurance for my old boy because he's over ten. What I do instead is pay into the vet's account each fortnight.

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Good luck with these babies. I hope they improve.

Earlier this year we lost one pup and a second spent a week in hospital... symptoms similar to a snake bite but wasn't a snake bite. We never found out what it was. It was devistating to watch such small babies go downhill and not be able to help them.

I can understand vets that require payment at time of consult as they are not subsidised and would go broke very quickly if they operated any otehr way. One problem I had once though was a vet who, when I rang at midnight with an emergency said he would require $170.00 after hours consult payment (this would not include any product he used.. he would send a bill for those) before he would look at the animal.... CASH.

He would not accept cheque or credit card and would not turn his EFTPOS machine on for one payment. I had no problem with paying the fee at the time of consult but I didn't have that sort of cah on hand and really didn't want to stand at an ATM in the city, on my own, at midnight. I did it only because I was more worried about the dog than being mugged.

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When my husband got home from work this morning at about 11am he noticed of of the girls was foaming at the mouth and had alot of saliva all down her chest and legs, we were a bit freaked out but didnt think to much of it

thanks for all your support and thoughts guys, like cazablanca we couldnt afford to pay upfront in out local vet but it looks as if we are goig to have to do some thing they have made it though the night but are completely paralized we are going to the vets now, they have gone majorly down hill in about 15mins

You disgust me. Whilst I understand you may not have had the money to treat these dogs, instead of sitting there watching them suffer a long and painfull process you should have done the right thing by the poor little buggers and had them pts. I couldn't sit there and watch my dogs die in pain and agony.

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Sadly Colleen, the vets (around here) actually state that payment must be made on the day, or they dont treat your animal (for anything).

I hate them with a passion, and now go elsewhere (which is pretty hard with my panic attacks :thumbsup:) because of their "money over an animals life" attitude.

That is really sad Caz! The vet where I work normally says payment on the day. However, in serious cases where the animal needs immediate treatment we can contact the boss for authorisation for a payment plan where the client signs a repayment agreement (and we don't ask for collateral) - the boss has told us that the most important thing is that the animal gets treated. There has to be a balance between the vet not making a loss (after all, they are out of pocket for the drugs and consumables etc) and the animal not getting treatment. Usually it can be worked out to suit everyone.

Sending good thoughts for Jeddica's little pups - hope they can turn the corner and recover.

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She spent 3 days at the vet on a drip and treatment and pulled through just fine - vet thought she had only received the neurological portion of the toxin, not the hemorrhagic.

Snakes don't pick and chose which part of their venom to inject.

Your Vet MUST get these dogs on anti-venom :thumbsup:

Any Vet worth their salt would treat a snake bite victim first and then sort out the funds side of it later on.

GE Credit has a loan scheme to pay for Vet bills.

That is why all of our dogs have PetPlan Health Insurance.We are only on pensions but we asked these dogs to come into our lives so it is our responsibilty to look after then. I would hock anything I could if needed $$ for Vet treatment.I also have Private Hospital cover for me too. I would rather live on mince and noodles than rely on the Public System .

For two dogs costs us $70 per month and it covers up to $14,000 per year per dog( less $100 excess) and PetPlan has deals with a lot of the Vets for them to be billed directly so that the owner does not have to find the massive $$

Prays going their way.

GE Credit has pulled out of Australia AFAIK.

I know that the snake anti-venom is much more expensive if you don't know what type of snake bit them. It is some sort of composite mixture I think. Also one vial isn't always enough. An interesting thing with snakes though is that not all bites are necessarily venomous - depends when they last bit something and also how hard they bite.

She'd get given a polyvalent in WA if they don't know the species, a blend of all six.and it doesn't depend on how hard the snake bit or when they last bit someone. It depends on whether they wanted to kill it or not. They make a choice on how much and if they inject. It isn't luck.

----

Good luck. I hope they survive, but without anti-venom I don't like their chances.

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My GSDx was bitten by a snake 2 weeks ago. I suspect it was a brown. I got him to the vet within 20 minutes of being bitten & he was immediately put on fluids, & given an antihistamine & steroid injection. Within an hour he was showing signs of being envenomated so anti-venom was administered. He remained hospitalised overnight & came home next morning with antibiotics in case of infection. The total cost was just under $1200.

Vitamin C is an old wives tale. Snakes do not inject venom everytime they bite, 3 out of 4 bites may be "dry" bites..... I think this is where the Vitamin C story has originated. Browns have short fangs (3mm) & inject venom through holes in their fangs, the bites are painful & affect the nerves. Tigers have a sac of venom on the roof of the mouth & when they bite the sac is compressed, venom is released & permeates the punctures caused by the fangs. In my experience, Tigers will often warn by lunging & slapping against your leg & do not attempt to bite the first time! I m told the bite of a Tiger is not as painful as a Brown.... & can even go unnoticed until the victim starts to feel "drunk".

I hope your puppies pull through, jeddica, but please everyone head straight to the vet if snake bite is suspected or if your dog is acting strangely. Early treatment can save lives, particularly where initial symptoms may pass...... they can reappear up to 6 hours later when it is probably too late!

Edited by trifecta
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