Snake Bit Horse

I woke up early today, about 6 AM, and was just sitting down to read the paper while the coffee brewed, when the Bat Phone went off.  It was the trooper with weekend pasture feed calling to tell me that Big Cal had a bloody nose.  He also related that Cal's nose was swollen and he could hear him breathing.  I told him I'd be there as soon as I could. 

Cal showing off his nose tube harness and his swollen upper lip.

 

I woke up Debbie and told her we had a possible snake bite and then we both scrambled to get underway as quickly as we could.  When we arrived, one look confirmed that Cal had been tagged on the nose by a rattler.  His muzzle was huge and he was struggling to breath.  We had been trying to contact the vet as we drove to the stables, but with no luck.  When I got to the office, I called the on-call vet tech, who promptly answered.  She said she'd be down as soon as she could, but the mil vet was out of town and she was told not to call the other mil vet because she was on profile for her own medical problems.  Unfortunately, the only other option we had was our private practice vet, but she was out of town on vacation.  Thus, we had to call the mil vet with medical problems, who was overjoyed that we had called her. 

 

The vet tech arrived first and administered a sedative and a drug to reduce the swelling.  Cal calmed down enough so we could try and insert a section of garden hose up his nose to keep his nasal passage open before the swelling squeezed it off.  Unfortunately, the swelling was too advanced and we could not get the hose in.  There was only a tiny passage left open and we had nothing small enough to get through. 

The tube can be seen in his left nostril.  Poor horse.

 

At this point, I drove back into town to the hardware store to try and find something that we could use to get past the swelling.  Quickly scanning through all the possibilities in the plumbing section, I found some tubes used on swamp coolers to drip water onto the membranes.  They were narrow enough, yet strong and slightly flexible.  I grabbed a package of tubes and a rasp to smooth up the ends, and sped back to the stables. 

 

Fortunately, in my absence, the mil vet showed up and squirted epinephrine up his nostril which opened up the nasal passage long enough for us to get the regular sized tube up his nose.  It was good thinking and likely saved Cal's life.  We have him at the ZERF now, where we can keep a close watch on him, but he will probably be okay as long as the tube stays put.  It will require hourly checks throughout the night and I will have to rig up a work light in his stall to we can verify that he is still okay.  Hopefully, in a day or two, we can remove the tube.  Damned snakes.