Friday, February 26, 2010

Snake!

I just ki... um. I just had a red-bellied-black commit fatal suicide by jumping under a blunt spade, about five times, under my pergola.

I'm a bit shattered.

Floyd was making funny noises, I thought he wanted to be fed... it was about 9-ish, or a bit before, 20 to. As soon as I opened the door he leapt inside and sat at my feet, looking outside. Then he went outside and showed me what he was looking at...

Only about 18 inches long... black on top and pink/red and white underneath, about the circumference of my little finger, a juvenile. Small, bullet-like round jet-black head. I have it in a jar in case Floyd gets sick.

Phoned a vet friend from work she advised that red-bellied-blacks are less aggressive than browns and their toxin is a haemotoxin (blood toxin), other venomous Australian snakes like the brown have neurotoxins. I have to look for signs of blood loss, blood in the urine, pale gums... weakness. She said she's seen dogs two days after they've been bitten when they showed symptoms.

I'm not having coffee with my friend tomorrow. I'm whippersnippering and mowing... I hope it's fine! It will probably kill me.

I'll tell you about hospital etc on the weekend.

4 comments:

The Wizard of WOZ said...

Kae, you're a better man than me, I'd be standing on a ladder with a .410...

Anonymous said...

*sigh*

My Hero...(snort!)

The BoyCat finds a racer at least once a summer. Plays with it, chases it when it tries to leave.

BoyCats R Dum

kae said...

Wiz,
Trust me, I was scared! Heart was racing... whacked, er, he hit the shovel and was still wriggling that black and red slithery death thingy. I hate them. He was just sitting there... well, you know what I mean.
Floyd seems OK thismorning - I didn't go to bed until about 2 am-ish, just in case, I kept an eye on him.
kc,
Interestingly the vet said that usually if it's one dog they don't get bitten, they're paying attention to the snake. If it's more than two dogs they can get bitten because they pay more attention to the other dog.\
She said with a bit of luck he'll be fine.
I'm thinking he knew it was something to be really cautious of - he's never paid attention to the hoses, etc, so I thought that a snake would be ignored... silly me.
One day years ago 48 and Bundy were in the dogyard and I saw a snake under a lump of wood which had been wedged at the bottom of the fence. In to the depression under the log it slithered. I told the dogs to "get orff", "gorn", and they just stood there, watching, while I lifted the wood with a crowbar. Snake slithered out, between 48's legs and off down the dogyard. Dogs didn't even see it. They were watching me.

Floyd hates the pigeons which carry on up on the roof.

Good thing he can't fly.

Egg said...

Good stuff! (Saw the results above) :)