Pottsville pooch Jess, the feisty Foxy, is a very lucky dog, following a brush with a brown snake.
Jess, a Fox-Terrier-Jack Russell cross, was brought into the Kingscliff Veterinary Clinic, showing leg weakness almost two days after the family found a two metre long brown snake chewed and dead in the back yard.
“The owners found the snake dead in the yard but it was two days before she showed any signs,” Kingscliff vet Andrew Warman said, and added that the incident was a timely warning that snakes were now active.
He said the owners took her to the vet thinking it was a tick, assuming that, if the snake had gotten her, she would have been very sick or dead that same day. After tests, it was found she had been bitten and was treated.
Andrew said it was a “bit unusual” for a dog to take two days to show signs of being bitten.
“Often a dog will get bitten and will collapse straight away and then get up and not look so bad,” he said.
He said snake bites were not too common in this area but they still occurred.
“We probably see three to four a year – we don’t see large numbers,” Andrew said.
“But if you find your dog has killed a snake, then you should really get the animal checked out; and the earlier the better.”
And while Jess’s family have reported seeing five brown snakes since April this year in their rock retaining wall and vet nurse Katie Eglington said she had seen more brown snakes around her house at Cudgen than in previous years, Tweed Valley Wildlife Carers believe this season is “nothing out of the ordinary”.
Wildlife Carers hotline spokesman Chris Manderson said it was snake season so they were about at the moment but people just had to “watch out for them and be careful”.
“We aren’t getting any more calls than normal,” he said.
Mr Manderson said dogs could be a problem for snakes. However, he said if residents did have a snake that was concerning them they were best to ring the hotline on 02 6672 4789.
