Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog bitten by tiger snake treated successfully with alpaca antivenom
By Padula, Andrew M & Winkel, Kenneth D·Published in Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology·2016·Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Australia·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Successful use of camelid (alpaca) antivenom to treat a potentially lethal tiger snake (Notechis scutatus) envenomation in a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A dog was brought in after being bitten by a tiger snake, showing severe symptoms like blood that wouldn't clot and high levels of snake venom in its system. The veterinarian treated the dog with a new type of antivenom made from alpaca, along with antihistamines and steroids. Remarkably, just four hours after receiving the antivenom, the dog's condition improved significantly, and the venom levels dropped to undetectable levels. By 16 hours post-treatment, the dog's blood clotting had returned to normal, and it made a full recovery without any complications.
People also search for: dog snake bite treatment · tiger snake venom symptoms in dogs · alpaca antivenom for dogs
Abstract
This report describes a confirmed clinical case of tiger snake (Notechis scutatus) envenomation in a domestic dog that was successfully treated with a novel polyvalent camelid (alpaca; Llama pacos) antivenom. Samples collected from the dog were assayed for tiger snake venom (TSV) using a highly sensitive and specific ELISA. The TSV concentration in serum and urine at initial presentation was 365 ng/mL and 11,640 ng/mL respectively. At the time of initial presentation whole blood collected from the dog did not clot and the Prothrombin Time was abnormally increased (>300 s). Serum was also visibly hemolysed. The dog was administered antihistamine, dexamethasone and 4000 Units (sufficient to neutralise 40 mg of TSV) of a novel polyvalent alpaca antivenom diluted in 0.9% NaCl. At 4 h post-antivenom treatment the dog's clinical condition had improved markedly with serum TSV concentrations below the limit of detection (<0.015 ng/mL), consistent with complete binding of venom antigens by the alpaca antivenom. Coagulation parameters had begun to improve by 4 h and had fully normalised by 16 h post-antivenom. Venom concentrations in both serum and urine remained undetectable at 16 h post-antivenom. The dog made a complete recovery, without complications, suggesting that the alpaca-based antivenom is both clinically safe and effective.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26930223/