I've seen a lot in these posts about penicillin. Question for folks: I've read conflicting info about penicillin - one being that it is not an antibiotic that should be given to horses if at all possible and that another one should be used. One of my neigbors gave her horse penicillin and he was dead 5 minutes later. I hear they can have an adverse reaction and once it starts you can't stop it. Has anyone else seen this reaction or do you have an opinion about the right antibiotic to use?

Bringing this back to the front..... I Know of a lot of these procedures & Meds, but if you dont' catch them in time ......... I lost a 3 y/o herding dog today... and think it was a snake bite, since I killed ANOTHER Cotton Mouth ealier today from all the rain. Hope No body else has to loose any critters. God Bless, Sandra

This is an interesting topic & lifesaving also. I had been thinking about having neighbor use his backhoe in my pasture to dig out a spot for a stock tank. However after reading this post I think I will stay with the 20 gal water containers. No point in "enticing" a snake to live here nor am I going to walk in my pasture in sandles ever again. The only type of snake I like are on my boots. Their "skins" may some awesome boots.

Only Middle of February, and already Cottonmouths (Water Moccasins) are out in South East Texas..... A good friend of mine killed a 4-1/2 footer near the trinity river in Dayton-Liberty, Texas yesterday, and I have seen one at my place a few days ago. Just wanted to bring this back to the front so everyone would have if fresh in thier mind and be prepared. The weather (News) people keep talkin about a drought in this area of Texas, but a few places have got ALL the rain (mine included). Got about 3 inches since SHOT in Stephenville last weekend -(Feb 6-7-8). Remember when these snakes come out from hibernation, they are cranky, hungry, and nasty (and will chase you). Keep a good eye on the ground, keep your vet's number handy, and stock up on meds just in case it is a weekend or holiday, and cant get your vet out immediately for treatment. Time is very important when your companion gets bitten. And don’t forget the tetnas, and rabies shots (county found rabid bats around here too).

I was livimg in AZ.a few years ago and went to one of the corrals early one morning to find a 5 month old Paint filly swollen from the coronary band to chest high, couldn't tell what caused it because of the swelling, I am a Dynamite distributor so mixed a poultice of the Miracle Clay and plastered it on from her hoof and above the chest area, I gave her 100cc of Penn. had no Dex. and the vet was a good 35 miles from where I lived, I changed the poultice three times that day and cont. with the treatment I had started, in the meantime I had called the vet. and made a trip to pickup the Dex., altho I must admit the Miracle Clay was definately drawing all of the swelling out, by the time I got the Dex. the swelling had gone down enough to see the fang marks on her ankle, we knew for sure then what had happened. I continued with the Miracle Clay and the Penn. with only one shot of the Dex. she survived. but apparently when she was bitten she had reared up and fallen over backwards causing a spinal injury, which we feared would leave her crippled, by the time she turned three she could run, jump, play and be ridden, her Left foot turned out from the ankle, but with corrective shoeing you could hardly see it.

Here's a link to an article I found on Snakebites. http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=6165 fyi..... I just bought a 100 ml bottle of Dexamethasone injectable(2mg/ml) from my vet, and it was only $15.00. A lot cheaper than I thought it would be. Of course price is not an issue when our 4 legged kids lives are at stake. I killed another one next to one of my horse's water troughs the other day. It was a 30 gallon rubbermaid, that is only about 12" high. I wonder if the snake may have been looking for a place to swim. A Real Scarry thought. Will be getting her a larger trough soon.

Runs even tho a snake is not poisonous, still watch out for them. My heeler pup was bringing up bull snakes to the house and a few days later she had a lump under her jaw, I took her to the vet and found out she had got bit by the bull snake. The vet said she had an infection from the bite cause snakes mouths are Very dirty. Poor pup had a lump for almost 2 weeks but shes fine now, wonder if she learned not to kill or mess with snakes now lol.

snake season??? seems like my snakes are as confused as everything else--they know no season--:):):). appreciate the info in this post and it being brought up to the frontlines.

Sure we don't have poisonous snakes or spiders up here... but we do have grizzlies, buffalo and moose. And they'll CHASE ya! LOL At least a snake will slither away!

I would have said that the dogs were to blame for routing him out from under the hay pallets but a boarder saw a big one out sunning himself about 2 weeks ago. This was about the same time that my dog was bitten by the rattler. NO NO NOooo - don't move up north :)