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Re: [RC] rattlesnake season - Chris Pauswow. how scary!!!.. ugh... we have a lot of copperheads around here to watch out for... chris --- Rosalie Marley <rosalie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Sometimes I wonder why I read all these "what if" articles. Last night I got to use some of that info! The neighbor's 2 year old filly was bitten by a rattlesnake yesterday, in her corral. The neighbor was saddling another horse when she heard a weird sound - it was the filly trying to breathe! She was swollen from lips to eyes, including her tongue. She called her brother and sister in law, both vets, and they told her to ice the wound (front of face a few inches above the nostrils) and since she had a tube of banamine, give 3/4 of that. She wasn't sure if the filly swallowed much of it though. She called us for ice, and we ran some over to her. The horse would stagger around, trying to breathe, then get quiet, then rear and strike. Not very safe for holding ice on her nose! I got her to give me some garden hose and vaseline and we took a couple 6-inch sections and gently pushed it into her nostrils. Because of the rearing and striking, we put a rope around one front leg below the knee and held onto the two ends with some tension. She didn't rear so high or strike to far that way. Finally, with the hose in her nose, she was able to breathe! Occasionally, she'd shake her head or rear and they would fall out, so we'd replace them. Then we noticed she was breathing ok without the tubes, so we quit bugging her with them. We live about an hour away from town, so it took awhile for the vet to arrive. When he did, he gave 3 shots - tetanus, steroid (for swelling) and some painkiller (I think banamine, but I'm not sure). In a few minutes, she seemed a lot better. The vet (he's also our friend and vet too) seemed to think the hoses were a bad idea - yet every article and website I've seen says to do this. Any ideas? Would she have been ok without them? The weather just got warm a week ago, so I'm guessing the venom is pretty potent right now. Rosalie -- Rosalie Marley http://TigerHorseFarms.com Ride the Tiger! ===== "A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot Chris and Star BayRab Acres http://pages.prodigy.net/paus ============================================================ They're athletes! This is a partnership between horse and rider - we don't have any jockeys out there, just pals and partners. We'd allow a rider with a broken foot, a sore back and a nasty cold to compete - but we would never let a horse in a similiar condition hit the trail. ~ Dr. Barney Flemming DVM ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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