Courier Country adder attacks spark warning for dog owners

Labrador rushed for emergency anti-venom treatment after bite on moors

A gamekeeper’s dog is recovering after the working pet faced a race for survival when it was bitten by an adder on a rural estate.

Louise Smith’s labrador, Fergie, was rushed to Glasgow for emergency treatment following a desperate quest for anti-venom in the wake of the incident involving Britain’s only venomous snake on a weekend shoot on the moors of Fettercairn estate.

As Ms Smith and her partner, estate head gamekeeper Graeme Stewart, keep their fingers crossed the animal will make a full recovery, it has emerged Fergie may have been one of four dogs to have suffered an adder bite in the hills of north Angus or Aberdeenshire within the last couple of weeks.

Adder activity peaks around late summer and Louise said Graeme had seen two adders the previous day.

“We had a shoot on and the dog was in the back of the beaters’ truck when it was noticed that her face was a bit swollen,” said Louise.

Fergie received a steroid injection – a common treatment in such cases – after the couple were unable to source a local supply of anti-venom.

Louise added: “It’s quite expensive and I believe it has quite a short shelf life so I don’t think vets carry big supplies of it, but into the evening she began to be really swollen and we were pretty worried.”

A mercy trip involved a journey to Aberdeen and then Glasgow in the early hours of Sunday for Graeme before the anti-venom was sourced and the young dog put on a drip.

“It was a long timescale for her and obviously the steroid injection had kept the venom at bay for a while, but then she just reacted to it,” added Louise.

“Our dogs are our pets as well as our working pals, but on the shoots there could be up to 80 dogs on the hills in a day, and that’s not taking into account people who go out walking all over the area with their own pets.

“We put an appeal our on Facebook to try to find out if anyone knew a vet that might have the anti-venom and that’s when we heard that there had been other dogs bitten.

“We’ve seen adders on the hills and they won’t normally bite, but the conditions and the time were perfect for them being out and it may be that it just struck when Fergie came across it.”

Adder activity peaks around late summer.