Summer hazard: Dogs vs. rattlesnakes
On a tranquil morning in the foothills this past week, a short yelp pierced the quiet. “I think that was Duke,”
Jen Cordaro recalled saying to her fiance, Vince Benedet.
Duke is the couple’s German shorthaired pointer. The dog is beloved by their 6-yearold son, Luka.
“We stopped what we were doing, looked around the backyard and found Duke,” Cordaro said. “He looked fine, just standing there, wanting to be let in, so I let him in.”
Within the hour, though, Benedet noticed that Duke’s face was swollen, particularly the front right side. Benedet took a close look and found a puncture wound on the dog’s lip.
“Duke got bit by a rattlesnake,” Benedet said.
“I walked over, looked at him and started to panic a bit,” Cordaro said.
This encounter is a testament that a big rattlesnake season is on the verge across the foothill country of the Bay Area and across California. The big rains of winter increase the carrying capacities of habitats, and that includes the reproductive success for mice, gophers and other prey. Rattlesnakes have lots of food available and, in turn, they also flourish.
Rattlesnakes are most active when temperatures are in the 75- to 85-degree range.
When a warm day follows a cool night, rattlesnakes will emerge on warm trails, asphalt and even backyards that border open space, to heat up. A dog, allowed off leash at parks and in open space, can be at risk.
Many vets vaccinate dogs for rattlesnake bites. Four weeks after the first shot, small dogs and big dogs can get a second vaccination as a booster. Some vets in moneystressed areas don’t offer the vaccination because after a rattlesnake bite, the dog still needs the antivenom shot.
Most vets say the vaccination builds up antibodies against the venom. In turn, that reduces the reaction to the bite and gives you more time to get your dog to the doctor.
In Duke’s case, the swelling of the left side of his face spread to his neck, and Benedet removed the dog’s collar to relieve the pressure.
“We carried Duke to the car, laid him on a towel, and rushed to the vet,” Cordaro said. “If something happened, I was so worried about having to break the news to our 6year-old, Luka, who’s never known life without Duke.”
The vet was quick to administer the antivenom. “I think we got to him in time,” she said. “We have to watch him. He’s not in the clear yet.”
In the recovery area of the vet’s office, Cordaro saw five dogs in adjoining kennels — all of them there for treatment of rattlesnake bites they got on the morning Duke was bitten.
Duke returned home later that day. His side was shaved and a pain-killing patch applied (it was removed Thursday). As the weekend arrived, Duke was still in recovery; rattlesnake venom breaks down fiber and tissue, and the healing process takes time.
Yosemite gridlock: Last week in Yosemite National Park, Lynn MacMichael was among the thousands in the park when she tried to drive to Yosemite Valley for a search-and-rescue seminar. “It took me over three hours to get from the tunnel to the auditorium for the talk,” she said. “I have never seen traffic like that — on a Tuesday. People in their cars were very angry as we were dead stopped for over a half hour in places on the valley floor.” She noted that the visitor experience should be one of joy and exhilaration, not frustration and anger, and the only way that can happen is a quota on how many cars are let in the gates, just as at trailheads at Mount Whitney, Tuolumne Meadows and other wilderness areas, to guarantee a quality experience. Build it, they will come: Twenty-five ducklings have hatched in two wood duck boxes in Civic Park in Walnut Creek and San Ramon Creek, with far more about ready to hatch, reports Brian Murphy. Wacky Jacky salmon: Salmon fishing has been off the radar amid reports of lean populations, but last Saturday 10 anglers on the Wacky Jacky caught 10 salmon, topped by an 18-pounder. (415) 586-9800. Novato bald eagle: As they expand their population and range, more sightings of bald eagles have been reported, the latest last week by Lynne Dixon at the wetlands adjacent to the Vintage Oaks Shopping Center in Novato. “There was no mistaking it,” she said. Oroville adoptees: At Lake Oroville, another place dislodged from the public eye for many because of the winter’s debacle at the dam, Paul and Zenia Olszewski sighted a mated pair of Canada geese and 22 goslings. They speculate that the geese must have adopted most of their brood. because the young seemed about the same age and size. The whale show, continued: On their 34th wedding anniversary, Julia Schoettle and her husband took a picnic above Baker Beach on the San Francisco Headlands and 75 humpback whales put on a show. Wrote Julia: “We sat on our blanket on the cliffs above the ocean we were treated to an ongoing display of spouting and even jumping. It was absolutely magical and thrilling.” ... Out of Moss Landing, kayker/naturalist Giancarlo Thomae reported 40 humpbacks at dawn roaming within three-quarters of a mile of the harbor. Slipstream speed: Highway 140 in Mariposa County, between Crane Creek and the boundary to Yosemite, is a critical zone for unbelievable thousands of tortoiseshell butterflies, many have noticed. Out of Yosemite headquarters, Caitlin Lee-Roney writes to ask people to slow to 25 mph in this area. “(At this speed), the butterflies are more likely to follow the slipstream around your car and emerge unscathed,” she writes. These high numbers are likely the source of the name Mariposa, which is Spanish for butterfly.