Snakes alive: vets warn of danger time for pets

Tamara Kerr says her two-year-old Jack Russell terrier, Eddie, is lucky to be alive after suffering a snake bite earlier this year. 'I just knew something was wrong - mother's instinct I guess.' His is an extreme case - just hours after being bitten, the terrier had stopped breathing and needed an emergency transfer to the University of Melbourne's U-Vet Werribee Animal Hospital, where a team of experts worked around the clock to save him. U-Vet veterinarian Dr Kylie Kelers, says it serves as an important warning to pet owners about the dangers of snake bite, particularly around this time of year. Most Australians look forward to the start of spring, but Dr Kelers said it signals the start of something far more ominous. 'At the Animal Hospital, we consider it the start of 'snake season',' she said. 'And it's this time of the year - not summer - that may be the most dangerous time as far as snakes go.' 'A lot of people associate snakes with being a summer-time thing, but we often see bites on fairly cool days, say 17° or 18°C.' While there are no firm statistics, it is estimated that thousands of household pets are bitten by snakes in Australia each year. 'Snakes at this time of the year are hungry and on the move,' said Dr Kelers, who has worked in the Emergency Centre of the U-Vet Hospital for 16 years.  'They have no shortage of venom stored up after fasting for much of the winter.' On average, the hospital sees around 50 to 75 cases of snake bite a year.