Julie
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Snakebites and cortisonewe don'toften get snakebites in our area of the uk and wondered if anyone could help with follow up care.
My friend has a 2 year old gelding who was bitten on the nose 3 times in his stable. His whole head swelled up,she managed to keephim alive with arnica as the vet took 2 hours,he injected him with a huge amount of cortisone to take the sweling down. A few months later the little lad is still very weak and hates to be touched.Anyone have any experience of this type of problem?
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cokey
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That sounds quite odd, Julie. I'm guessing it was an adder, but the amount of venom in an adder bite is tiny. I've heard that often bee stings are worse!
My dog buffy, a golden retriever, got bitten on the nose whilst playing in my garden (we live very near heathland and often have adders in the garden..). I noticed about half an hour later that her face was swollen and took her to the vets where she had antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. She felt sorry for herself for a few hours, but by the afternoon was whinging that she wanted to go out for a walk..! So, I'm really surprised that this horse is still suffering from after effects.
What does the vet have to say?
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Julie
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The vet is not being that helpful, he seemed to be allergic to the venom, his head was really huge - he did not look like a horse - could not even see his eyes and the vet gave him such a masive dose of cortisone we are amazed he survived it, but it seems to have affected his immune system? He is a native pony so steroids are not a good idea anyway.
We are on heathland too and a number of dogs die every year - a friend lost her collie last year to a snake
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cokey
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Usually only the small or sick dogs die from snake bites, but yes, it can happen. Especially if you don't see the signs.
This may seem a silly question, but it's not the steroid injection affecting him rather than the bite, is it? A horse at our yard was given a massive steroid injection due to arthritis, and a couple of days later was so out of it that he just walked circles with his hind legs and had to lean on a round bale of hay to sleep... He was put down a couple of weeks later after failing to recover.
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Julie
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Thats what we are thinking - or maybe a bit of each, the allergy to the venom was massive.
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cokey
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I'm sure you have, but either Global Herbs or Roger Hatch at Trinity Consultants will put you a remedy together if you contact them.
I'd be more worried about the steroid injection than the snake bite, to be honest. I've seen snake bites, and nasty reaction or no nasty reaction, there's nowhere near the damage caused by the steroid injection that I saw....
Liver detox would be top of my action list, and then whatever Stephen or Roger think best..
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Julie
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Have had him put on global herbs restore, and equisup for now whilst we look into what else can be done.
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Playenatural
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I would also try feeding a probiotic, I have seen it work wonders for horses with depression after drugs.
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