Active snake season means more bitten pets
Saluda resident Barry Coombs was returning from a visit with his neighbor last week around 10 p.m. when his 4-year-old yellow lab, Bramble, stopped to investigate something near the sidewalk in front of his house.
"Next thing I know she jumped about 2 feet in the air and started limping on her right front leg," Coombs said.
After seeing the tell-tale fang marks on her leg, Coombs headed outside with a shovel and flashlight to kill the culprit: a 14-inch-long copperhead.
More than $900 in vet bills later, Coombs is a true believer in canine snakebite vaccines, which likely reduced Bramble's reaction to the snake's venom. He said the $30 vaccines likely saved him the additional $650 cost of antivenin and his dog the potential adverse reaction to the serum.
Local veterinarians say they've seen a rash of snakebites on pets this summer, primarily copperhead bites on dogs. Herpetologists say the rise in incidents may be due to increased movement by copperheads brought on by a combination of breeding activity, unusual weather and seasonal migrations.
Western Carolina Regional Animal Hospital in Flat Rock has already treated 20 animals for snakebites since May, said Dr. Fred Rosen, the clinic's chief of primary care. That's the most the hospital has seen in its five years, he said.
"And the year isn't over yet," Rosen added. "We usually see a lot more bites from now until the end of October."
The story is much the same in Transylvania County, where Dr. Glenn McPherson of Animals of Eden Veterinary Hospital fielded about 12 snakebite calls between June and August. Nine of the victims were dogs and three were cats; most of the bites appeared to be from copperheads.
"Last year, we had about six, so this is about double what we had in 2012," McPherson said. "We thought last year was the worst, but this one has topped it."
Biologists say excess rainfall this summer may have contributed to the rise in snakebites, by pushing snakes out of low-lying areas and stimulating more activity. Below-average temperatures might've also played a role, shaking copperheads from their typical nocturnal routines.
"It may be that having a cooler summer may have caused them to be more active during the day," said Gabrielle Graeter, wildlife diversity biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. "It could be the people going out and taking their dogs on walks is coinciding with the one chance the snake had to get in the sun and get warm."
Snake experts say copperheads normally move around more in August and September, as males track the scent trails of potential mates and females who were impregnated last year prepare to give birth to live young.
"Males will move all over creation to find a female (copperhead), and females are birthing snakes in August and September," said Jeff Hall, a NCWRC herpetologist. "There's a mixture of old and young snakes moving around, which certainly creates greater instances for snakes and humans — and their dogs — to cross paths."
Hall added that since newly born copperheads haven't yet learned to conserve valuable venom for prey, "they might be more willing to bite than adults... very frequently, the bites that people and dogs get are from baby snakes."
Carlton Burke, a wildlife rehabilitator and owner of Carolina Mountain Naturalists in Mills River, said pregnant female copperheads "like to come out and sun themselves, so they might be in a more obvious area to pick up heat and expose themselves to dogs more."
"Copperheads are pretty shy creatures," Burke added. "For the most part, they won't bite unless you step right on one. But a dog is a curious animal and some are curious enough to keep pressing the tack, so to speak, until they get struck. A snake simply sees a dog as a predator that's trying to eat it."
September is also a month when some copperheads begin moving "from where they may have been spending their summer, in a place with good food, and migrating to where they have a known den to overwinter," Graeter said. "Sometimes we have early cold snaps. So they're not going to be right next to (the den where they hibernate), but they want to be close to it so in case it gets cool, they can get to it without expending a lot of energy."
Treating the bite
Rosen estimates about half of the snakebites he's seen involved "a large injection of venom," while the remainder were lesser, or "dry bites." Either way, he said pet owners should reject tourniquets and suction devices in favor of a quick drive to the animal hospital.
"There's really nothing they can do at home for them," he said, adding that intravenous fluids, antibiotics, antihistamines, painkillers and perhaps antivenin can all be necessary depending on the location and severity of the bite.
The antivenin is expensive because it requires separating antibodies from the blood of horses that have been immunized with various snake venoms. Because "they're making 10,000 doses instead of 10 million," the economies of scale just aren't there, Rosen said.
Snakebite vaccines are also designed for rattlesnakes, but seem to "cross over and help with reactions to copperheads," McPherson said.
He recommends dog owners with lots of wood piles or water on their property, or those that hike a lot with their dogs off-leash, consider vaccinating their dogs the first time in March and then getting a booster in April, the start of snake season.
"I'd have to say anecdotally, I see a difference in the severity and the pain is less for dogs that have it," said Rosen. After the initial two-stage vaccine, a booster is required once a year.
Because he vaccinated Bramble, Coombs said his dog has recovered well without the need for antivenin. He warns pet owners to be conscious of snake activity when pets are roaming outside, especially given the number of copperheads he's heard about in Saluda this year.
"When we were sitting in the vet's office, we were talking to a lady who had killed 13 in her yard this year," Coombs said. "The man up the street here has killed four or five, and he's got children. We've lived here seven years and I've never heard so many people complaining about the number of copperheads."