Can you imagine the finest of hunting days? You are working the wetlands for ducks.
All goes well, your faithful gundog has never done it better and you are shooting straight for once.
Then, when the day seems as good as it can be, your dog suddenly rears in the air and you realise with horror that a deadly snake is at work. You are a long walk from the car, even then its two hours to a vets surgery – there seems no hope that you will get there in time and you are not sure what type of snake it was. What to do?

I am a farmer rather than a shooter and my dogs are working mates rather than gundogs.
Nevertheless, a dog is a dog and a snake is a snake.

Sometime ago we had a Whippet, which decided to have a fight with a Tiger snake.
She must have grabbed it about 25cm behind the head, because her shoulders were a mass of lacerations. A frantic rush to the veterinary college with a groggy bitch followed, where she was given the appropriate anti-venom, luckily, we knew what kind of snake!

The officiating vet warned me that there would be an allergic reaction some hours later.
It was not a pretty sight, but Nell pulled through. Two weeks later, after searching again for the snake, she found it or its mate, and was bitten once more. This time the vat said that anaphylactic shock following the treatment might well kill the Whippet, as the two treatments were such a short time apart. It nearly did and she was never quite a hundred percent.

All this made me think what to do when a vet is not handy. These kinds of traumas always seem to happen at weekends or miles from anywhere. Let the dog die, or try whatever is available? Was there an alternative treatment?

Early in 1930, an American, Dr Klemer, did much research on the use of vitamin C on humans. In turn, a Californian vet, Dr Wendell O. Bellfield, carried on the good work with impressive results on all sorts of dog ailments that are generally considered incurable or fatal. Today, in the USA. there are now a significant number of vets practising alternative medicine such as this.

After studying the literature, I decided that I really had nothing to lose in trying vitamin C on my own farm animals. The first one was a pony, almost moribound, whose blood was later diagnosed as having the largest amounts of Tiger snake venom the vet had ever seen in an animal. With-in twenty-four hours of being unable to move, and also having considerable difficulty breathing due to pneumonia, the pony was grazing happily in it’s owners garden, apparently quite healthy. I only had a 50ml bottle of vitamin C, half of what I would have liked, so I put half of the bottle into each side of the neck by intramuscular injection.

After that, we treated sundry dogs, two cats and several goats, including a stud buck. All recovered. A very valuable Alpaca which was being watched by its owner from her kitchen window, went down to the dam to examine a large snake, which rose up and struck it on the nose – the worst place- and thanked her lucky stars the vitamin C was in the fridge and not still on the shopping list!
Rushing out with only 15mls of vitamin C in the syringe she injected it into the Alpaca before any symptoms arose. The snake looked like a Brown or a Tiger. Result? Happy ending.

The great advantage of vitamin C is that anaphylaxis does not occur and the variety of snake does not matter. Vitamin C is cheap, easy to store and taking it on a walk in the veld is no problem. All you need is a 20ml syringe, some largish needles – say number 18 – and a bottle of vitamin C. It can be carried in a small wallet on one’s belt. In between times, it should be kept in the fridge. Although the stuff can be carried in summer without deteriorating, I suggest that each spring you get a fresh supply just to be on the safe side. Why not? It is cheap enough.

After much reading of printouts of Bellfields and other literature, many supplied by Dr Glen Dettman, a retire pathologist who lives near Melbourne, I have tried vitamin C in many situations. A dog in a tick-coma, spider bites, dogs with Parvo, tetanus following a terrible injury from a car, and in cases of shock – all with unfailing success.

Vitamin C can be used as crushed tablets or powder straight into the mouth n cases of sickness. From my own experience, rubbing the powder into a redback spider bite took the pain (which is incredible) out within seconds. I followed it up with 10grams by mouth.

The spread of poison in my arm stopped and I was able to resume work within a few minutes.
The first goat I treated with vitamin C was given a teaspoon of Ascorbic Acid powder (about 5 grams every half hour for two hours) like the Alpaca he was bitten right on the nose as I later found out. He recovered perfectly well. That was in the days before the injectable supplies were available. 50ml bottles of vitamin C can be obtained from some chemists and most fodder or pet stores. Make sure the brand is 2mls per gram and NOT 4, otherwise you need twice as much at twice the cost. I mentioned the size of needle as 18 or thereabouts because the stuff can be glutinous and speed is generally all – important on the occasions when it is needed.

Snake venom affects the nervous system, which slows down until the natural functions
cease and death occurs – a painful way to die. It can cause almost instant death but this is unusual and I have never seen it.

When a dog has been bitten its eyes will soon appear all black. That is to say, the pupils have relaxed and dilated. Since snake- bites can and usually does occur unwitnessed, if your dog slows down and becomes lethargic or distressed, do look at the eyes at once and even if they do not show much sign get on with the injection. If by chance the fang marks are detected (its usually damp) but do not waste time looking for marks.

They often show up a few days later when the hair falls away around them.
Dogs of 30 to 50 kilograms will require about 10 to 15 mls by intramuscular injection in the side of the neck. I was taught by the teaching vet at the veterinary college to avoid doing injections in the back legs because it is too easy to damage vital nerves there ¼ to 1cm penetration is needed and if in doubt get it under the skin anyway. You can repeat the treatment without risk.

Vitamin C overdose results I nothing worse than diarrhea and anaphylaxis cannot occur. However, when the dog is really sick it will allow you to do the injection (which can sting in small animals) without objecting. If it starts to make a fuss you know that it is feeling much better, and the subsequent doses could be given as powder by mouth. It is a good idea to give two or three backups just to make sure all the venom has been detoxified.

TESTIMONIALS:
SNAKEBITE – IT HAPPENED
Lesley’s Country Kennels registered with the JRTC (Jack Russell Terrier Club) of Australia experienced it’s first snakebite situation. What follows is an account of the scenario, symptoms and treatment of snakebites using the vitamin C method.
Here in Merredin, Western Australia local reports indicate that we are having an unusual year for snakes and we at the kennels recently dispatched two snakes just outside their yard. Two weeks ago I found two pieces of a Gwards snake in the yard. Bob-tail goannas don’t have a good survival rate either if they enter the yard.

On Tuesday at 6.00pm. I noticed the remains of a 1.8m Dugite snake much dismembered.
A check of the 4 Jack Russell Terriers indicated that they were alright. I could not tell how long the snake had been dead. At 7.15.pm I would normally give them their bones and put them in their kennels but decided to feed them in the yard because there were some ants in their kennels. As it was quite dark I didn’t take much notice of the dogs.
At 9.00pm. I decided to put the JR’s to bed and could not locate “Shandy” who is 3 weeks pregnant. On shining the torch I saw her staggering to me and frothing from the mouth. I then rushed her into the house.

NOTE: Last year Lesley and I read about using vitamin C as a treatment for snake bites in dogs and we purchased 5x5mls vials of Ascorbic Acid and a hypodermic needle from the local chemist and placed them in the fridge as an insurance. Ironically another newsletter giving the same information had arrived that day and was on the kitchen table.
Shandy’s condition was very grave with copious amounts of fluid streaming from her mouth and shaking badly. I prepared a 5ml shot and injected her in the scruff of the neck.
My fist ever injection procedure.
We then massaged her neck gently to disperse the injection. She is a dainty and light 3- year-old bitch. Within 5 minutes the frothing and fluid loss had ceased and she was extremely quiet, very weak but reasonably alert.
At 10.00pm no significant improvement was evidenced so I gave her another 5mls injection of Ascorbic Acid.

She remained quiet and unmoving. At midnight she began a watery sounding cough and I suspected fluid on the lungs. She also gave some convulsions. As we intended to give another injection at 1.00.am it was decided not to as we thought the injections might be causing the convulsions. We made up the spare bed and I lay with her suspecting that if she deteriorated or convulsed during the night I would at least feel her movements and awake.
At 5.00am Wednesday morning I got a lick in the ear. “Hey! Wake up Dad” I was ecstatic. Shandy stumbled off the bed falling in a heap and staggered off as though drunk with her nose dragging on the floor. She had no strength in her neck to hold her head up. But she was alive! She went tot he toilet and then had a big drink. No other symptoms were evident.
Before going to work that morning we gave her an oral dose of 5ml Ascorbic Acid and returned home at lunchtime to check on her. There was a great improvement.

That evening (Wednesday 24hrs on) nearly all indications of staggering had gone. She slept inside and the following morning had made a complete recovery and I returned her to the J.R.s exercise yard to join the other dogs. Time elapsed 36hrs.

CONCLUSION: We were amazed at how quickly the injections worked and that there were no side effects. No anaphylactic shock, which can occur with anti-venom.
Information from a visiting chemist indicate that 5-6 Vitamin C 500mg tablets can be swallowed by a small dog would possibly give a similar response and that overdosing is not harmful (with in reason) as the body will excrete any excess. Large animals would require more but the injection method is much quicker as the infected animal may not have time to digest the tablets. We have also been told that the pregnancy will be unaffected. Time will tell.

With reference to an article you published in a previous edition of “Down to Earth”
“Gundogs, Snakebite and Vitamin C” I thought some of your readers may like to know that we have used vitamin C on a couple of snake bite and have had great success.
The first time was one of our Jack Russell’s “Patchy” she discovered a snake under our veranda late last summer, in the afternoon we heard a scuffle, but did not realise what it was, hence we didn’t find her until lock up time. Approx. 1 hour had past and she was rigid and finding it hard to breath. Luckily after reading the article, about vitamin C I had arrange to get a bottle dropped in by the vet and spoke to him about it at the time.

He was fairly receptive although a little sceptical. But back to Patch, I rang the vet straight away and spoke to him – because we hadn’t actually seen the snake or caught it, an anti-venene was not much good, so I told him I would try vitamin C and he agreed.
As suggested in the article I used 18mg needle and injected 5mls into the neck muscle of the poor little dog who by this time – because of her outward appearance and suffering had three kids and a Mum al in tears and frantically wanting Dad to do something.

After what seemed to be a long time (but agreed about 40 minutes) Patchy started to breathe just a little easier and the stiffness started to abate. So I promptly put another 5mls into her neck, and this time she felt it so something was happening. About 2hrs after the first needle our little dog was on the move again and looking around wondering what all the fuss was about.

She spen the night on the veranda of the house and not being satisfied I put another 2x1000mg tablets of vitamin C, that we usually take down her throat and the next morning I am pleased to say all was well.

Only a month later my neighbour who I had told all about the event, rang me wanting to know if I had some vitamin C because one of her Boxer bitches who was pregnant at the time had presented her with a 4ft brown snake and then collapsed.

We gave her a 15ml injection into her neck muscle and I am glad to say another happy ending.
I think the key to the use of vitamin C is as in these cases the sooner the better, because our vet now uses it in some treatments, as he has said sometimes it takes vitamin C to do its detoxifying work.
We do a fair bit of hunting through the year and the first thing in the kit now is the vitamin C, although we have seen plenty of snakes out in the bush we haven’t had an incident yet! But I would suggest to everyone to have vitamin C on hand