Rural Gardening: WIld Boar..., 1 by MaypopLaurel

MaypopLaurel wrote:
After several years of hauling her off to the ER vet (and those incredible bills), she now gets 50mg of Benadryl (two 25 mg tabs) as antihistamine, a Rimydyl as an anti-infammatory and a week of antibiotics. The face is not so bad as long as she doesn't get bitten near the trachea where she could swell and not breath. I'm worried she'll get bitten in the leg where the venom will return to the heart quickly. We think she might be a goldmine for manufacturing anti-venom. lol

My understanding is that copperheads nest in large groups. We keep her in after her morning feeding and again in late afternoon when snakes come out to hunt. Nine of the ten bites have been in late afternoon or early evening. Being a hound, she has that hang-faced look but she looks like a cartoon when those dewlaps are swollen beyond ridiculous. Picture a Ubangi version of a hound dog. Here she is in October '08. The dewlap is obvious, but look at the swelling in her neck. She's actually had both dewlaps hanging down to the middle of her chest and a neck that looks like a small grapefruit is in there.