On Monday, not even half an hour after Brent left town, Lacey was bitten by a copperhead snake. I was in the kitchen when I noticed her barking at something on the ground (never a good sign). Sure enough, by the time I walked around the sink, she had gotten into a full on brawl with this thing. It had that nasty diamond-shaped head too which immediately made me want to pee in my pants. Of course, I started freaking out and screaming at her to leave it alone and ran outside as quickly as I could to bring the dogs in. Kiddie came immediately but Lacey, being part terrier, was determined to kill it. She wouldn't come at all.
I ran around to the side of the house with Kiddie and realized I had locked myself out. (Figures.) Thankfully, Laura was sleeping inside and after beating down the front door just shy of breaking my hand, she let me in. By the time I got back outside to get Lacey, she was shaking uncontrollably. I called the vet and drove her there immediately not knowing where or if she had been bitten. I thought she could have been shaking too from me hysterically screaming at her so much.
The vet checked her out and said she looked fine. I felt relieved and so grateful that everything was going to be okay. When I got home, Laura had already found the courage to murder the damn thing with a shovel and I was able to look up what kind of snake it was on the internet. When we discovered it was a copperhead, I decided to check on Lacey one more time to make sure she was okay.
She wasn't.
Her face had started to swell and there was a baseball sided knot on her throat. I panicked and got her back in the car as quickly as I could - so worried that her airway was going to swell shut. She could barely hold her head up to look at me. I was so pissed that I she was at the vet 20 minutes before and they didn't catch it. I think I just got her there too quickly the first time. I didn't even get to talk to the vet as I passed her off to him. I was hurried to the front and had to sign tons of release forms saying that I would allow them to treat her in anyway they saw fit in order to save her life. I was a trembling wreck!
A few hours later, we learned that Lacey had to be sedated and was having her vitals monitored. They pumped her full of all sorts of anti-inflammatories and antibiotics. Thankfully, she made it out okay and was able to come home that evening. So far, she's still doing well... the vet is concerned about tissue damage though so we have another appointment this weekend to see how the wound is doing.
Thank goodness Laura was in town and I was able to take care of Lacey immediately without having to also worry about the kids. I am so grateful that she was here and that she killed that effing snake. It could have easily been one of the kids that was bitten instead. I felt horrible for Lacey and was barely able to keep it together through the whole ordeal.
I haven't been able to take a shower without covering up the drain since this whole ordeal happened. I feel like there are snakes crawling everywhere.
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