Pinnacle Peak Llama Ranch
Snakebites












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On this page, I am listing all of the experience that I have with rattlesnake bites to llamas, including that of some friend's llamas getting bitten.  Shown also are a few pictures showing some of the massive swelling that can occur to the llama's face.  I list these events in order of most recent to the oldest cases and describe the methods used to help treat the bite victim.  I will try to shorten my descriptions as much as possible and still give the general gist of the story.  However, the stories are still pretty long.

snakebite1.jpg
Swelling due to Snake Bite

Please feel free to read the stories.  What I have learned from all of this in a nutshell is this:
 
1.  Time is very important - get the llama treatment as soon as possible.  If you are in an area with snakes, keep the treatment on hand so you don't need to wait for the vet.
 
2.   Dexameth is the recommended steroid (anti-inflammatory).  Check with your vet about using Dexameth, as it is known to cause abortion in bred females.  Have an alternative readily available.
 
3.   Anti-biotics are necessary to fight any infection that may result from the snake's dirty mouth.  Give the anti-biotics for the full 5 days or whatever your vet recommends.  Anti-biotics are expensive so this is an item I don't keep on hand (they are necessary, but can be picked up from the vet after the steroids are given).
 
4.   I've had anti-histamines recommended to me to keep on hand as well.  I have not used them before.  What I have on hand in my fridge is DiphenhydrAMINE.
 
5.   Having tubes on hand to prevent the nostrils from swelling shut is always a plus.  They're not super-easy to get in to the nostrils, and they need to be held in place.  I was given some sedatives to administer if I needed to do this, as well as some KY jelly.
 
6.   Kidney damage can occur from a snakebite after the threat of swelling is gone.  This damage can bring the llama down later, after you think the worst is over.  Check with your vet to see if they would recommend taking a blood sample and having it analyzed.  It could save your llama's life.
 
These methods are what I would do, and the opinions expressed on this page are my own.  I recommend llama owners have a good llama vet who has working knowledge and can be of assistance in an emergency and give good advice.  A rattlesnake bite to a llama's face IS an emergency.
 
Our location in Scottsdale, Arizona, where we winter our llamas from November through April, is beautiful, but it has one challenge.  Since our property is located in the High Sonoran desert, with it's granite boulders, ravines and washes, we are host to many native wildlife, some of which are listed on the About Us page.  Rattlesnakes are a part of the list unfortunately.
 
Western Diamondbacks are our most common rattlesnake, and we have seen a couple of Mohave rattlesnakes.  I have had 3 llamas bitten in the face over the last 7 years here, and have the dubious distinction of being the local "llama snake bite expert".  All 3 of these llamas are still with me today, thank God, and are in very good health.  In my experience, Llamas CAN survive a powerful venom hit from a western diamondback.
 















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Snake bite to left lip - note puncture wounds

March 2004 - Jewel of Pinnacle Peak
 
Jewel was bitten on 3/8/04 in the early morning hours.  We had some freak heat wave in early March and they had just excavated the property across the street for a new house.  I went out to feed that Monday morning, only to find Jewel with an already-swollen up face.  I knew immediately what it was, and the 2 bleeding bitemarks on her left lip was the smoking gun.  Jewel was over 2 years old and a large girl in great shape, so at least it wasn't her 4 month old sister.
 
I called my vet and hooked up the trailer, knowing that time can be a factor.  Not knowing the amount of venom given nor the exact time of the bite, I had to assume the worst: that she'd gotten a full hit of venom and that she was just beginning to swell. 
 
Rattlesnake bites can take over 24 hours to reach their full-blown damage via swelling, and trying to control the swelling is vital.  A llama breathes through its nose, as is the case with snakebites and horses, and the swelling can close off the nostrils, causing suffocation.
 
The first thing given was Dexamethasone, a steroid to act as an anti-inflammatory, in order to help minimize the swelling.  Note:  Dexameth can cause abortion in bred females, but since Jewel had not been bred yet we used it.  Anti-biotics are also administered since snakebites are notoriously dirty, and we used Baytril 10% inj, 5cc dosage daily.  I have had anti-histamines, such as Benedryl inj, recommended to me, but the vet did not agree with this method at that time. 
 
Originally, the vet had recommended to me to bring her to an equine hospital and have her prepped for a tracheotomy.  I knew from the prior experience of a friend that there was no way I was going to do that.  Nobody there had any experience with llamas, and a tracheotomy in my opinion would be the ultimate last resort, not the first method of treatment.  I had him give me some sedatives in case I needed to put tubes in her nostrils if they started to swell shut.
 
I took Jewel home and observed her off and on during the day.  The swelling definately wasn't done, but it did not get nearly as bad as it had with Joy's case 6 years earlier.  Jewel had a rough night, but her breathing did not get labored and wheeze for lack of air.  She is a very calm mannered girl, and I believe this helped her.
 
The following morning, we gave her another shot of Dexameth and the anti-biotic.  Her swelling had reduced some, and it continued to reduce over the next few days.  On Thursday, she began eating some hay and the only swelling left was around the actual bite site.  I stopped by the vet to pick up some Dexameth and Benedryl to have on hand, just in case I had another incident.
 
Jewel recovered well from the snakebite, but her eating was sporadic and I hadn't seen any results from her attempts at the manure pile.  Something wasn't right with her, even though she'd made it through the dreaded swelling.  I tried getting her digestive tract moving again by giving her oral pro-biotics.  She seemed to be chewing her cud, and there were gas expulsions but no pellets.
 
I monitered her food and water intake by isolating her in the barn.  She wasn't eating, and she was drinking very small amounts.  It was very warm that month, and I sheared her out of desparation to try to keep her cool.  She was chewing on the mineral block a lot, and she was getting skinnier.
 
After two weeks, I was getting really concerned.  The vet had suggested she may have an ulcer or valley fever, but I disageed with either of those.  We had not given her any Banamine - it was obvious to me that the problem had to do with the bite.  He again suggested bringing her to the equine hospital and checked for an ulcer.
 
That afternoon, as I was preparing to trailer her back to the vet to check for "gut sounds", Jewel seemed a lot better.  She was interested in food and ate some needles off of the trees and some grass.  So I let her graze on the halter and eat what she wanted.  For the next week, she ate various grasses and leaves from the yard, as I lead her around.  She was alert and interested in her surroundings.
 
On Friday, April 2nd, it rained all day and all night.  Jewel took a turn for the worse.  She was shaking, so I covered her shorn area with a towel and cursed myself for shearing her.  But I knew it had gotten her to that point.  I felt under her fleece and found that she really wasn't cold at all.  She was shaking from something other than the cold.  She was really, really thin.
 
It was the weekend, and I couldn't get a hold of the vet.  I thought for sure that every breath would be her last, and was preparing myself for the probability of losing my first llama to death.  We met one of our pool customers that evening at the grocery store.  He is a pharmaceutical doctorate and told us about a vet in the area who he thought might be able to help us.  I called that vet's office on Sunday, leaving a message at a closed office.
 
The next morning, Jewel was still alive - I don't know how.  My regular vet was out of town.  But then I got a call from the new vet our friends had recommended, Dr Rosonke, and after speaking with him, I felt hope again.  He had said that Jewel sounded like she was suffering from renal failure due to the effects of the snakebite.  He came over that afternoon to take some blood and to give her some IVs.  She was so dehydrated that he could not get a vein to IV her, and while Dr Rosonke was preparing to IV her sub-q, Jewel HAD to go to the bathroom - yes, right then!  She had an explosion of gas and diarrhea and I started cheering her on.  He then gave her a bag of fluid IV sub-q, a shot of Dexameth and an anti-biotic.  The date was 4/5/04.
 
The next morning, Jewel was eating hay again and making some plop piles.  The blood tests showed that her kidneys were clogged as a result of the myoglobin being released in the blood stream from the snake venom.  (I think I got that right?)  Her blood values were all way off, and I picked up a boxload of IV fluids from Dr Rosonke's office to give her subcutaneously over the next few days.  The first day we gave her 2 bags of IV fluid spiked with potassium.  The next day she got 2 IV bags in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.  We then continued with 2 bags of IV fluid per day for a few more days. 
 
Jewel improved almost overnight, and she was so incredibly patient with us while we were administering these fluids.  She would stand almost perfectly still for us while we got through the hide on her back with a 16 needle and she would stand for half an hour at a time while the IV fluid went in.  She sprung a few leaks in the hide with all of those needles being poked in her, and the fluid would form a hump on her side while it was absorbed.  But she tolerated our human efforts with a resiliance that's earned her a permanent spot in my corral.
 
Today Jewel is in great health.  Blood test results after the IVs confirmed that we were able to flush out the kidneys and return her blood values to normal.  She is now patiently waiting for her first breeding.

April 2002 - Cloud Peak's Kokomo
 
Two days before the 2002 Maricopa County Fair llama show, I walked in to the corral to halter-train Kokomo's 4 month old daughter, Jewel, only to find Kokomo's lip swollen and elongated.  I knew it was a snakebite.  It was late afternoon, and the vet's office was closed, so I was on my own that evening.
 
I monitered Kokomo's swelling that evening, and after 10 pm it seemed to me that any swelling had halted.  There had been only one fang mark on his left lip, so I had considered the possibility that the snake had not given Kokomo a full venom hit.  Snakes can determine the amount of venom given, and they do not like to waste it since it takes a long time for them to make more.
 
By the next morning, the swelling was no worse.  I decided to bring him to the show anyways since I was the superintendant of the show and could moniter him much better there than by leaving him at home.
 
My vet was my vet-on-call for the show, and she came by to take a look at Kokomo's bite.  She said to give him some anti-biotics for the next 5 days and let her know if anything changes.
 
The next day, two days after his snakebite, Kokomo took Grand Champion Heavy Wool Male.  I think we gave him a standing ovation.  Kokomo has since sired many healthy, beautiful babies, and he is in excellent health.
 

April 1998 - Joy Noel
 
Joy was the first female llama we purchased, and she arrived in March 1998.  A month after her arrival, after swapping the males and the females around in their corrals, I went out to feed and found that Joy had a bit of swelling on her left jaw.  One of the gates looked like it had been slammed pretty hard and was slightly damaged.  I made the assumption that it was Joy who had hit the gate, possibly because she was unfamiliar with her new surroundings.
 
I called up a llama vet I knew of, and he had suggested putting ice on her jaw and giving her some crushed up aspirin.  Getting ice on her jaw was an exercise in futility, let alone getting aspirin down her throat, and I finally gave up and had to go to work.  When I got home, the swelling had moved farther up her face and was beginning to go to the other side.
 
By evening, her whole face was swollen, including around her eyes.  I had no idea what was wrong and couldn't get a hold of the vet.  I stayed with Joy off and on all night long, checking on her.  It was a really long night, probably more so for her even than for me.  Her jaw was hanging open, her eyes were almost swollen shut and her breathing was so labored it was heart-breaking.
 
I called the vet at 6 am and told him what was happening.  When I told him that she was so swollen she looked like a gorilla, he said it was a rattlesnake bite.  Then I remembered the snake we had seen by the corral that afternoon.
 
By the time the vet got to the ranch, it was after 10 am - his truck had been in the shop and they'd had to hurry to finish it up.  Her breathing was so labored, she sounded like she was choking, and her eyes were literally swollen inside out.  The vet gave her 3cc Banamine inj, 3cc of anti-biotic, and then tried to insert  tubes in her nostrils to help her breathe through her almost swollen shut nose.
 
He got the tubes in, and then Joy started having a fit.  He took the tubes out, went running to his truck, thinking she was having a seizure, to get an epinephrine shot.  When he got back in the corral, she had calmed down and was breathing somewhat.
 
I kept monitering Joy throughout the day, and around 6 pm, a day and a half after the bite, her breathing sounded a little less labored.  I administered more Banamine orally, which the vet had left me.  For the next several days, I gave her the Banamine and some Tribrissen orally.  It was very difficult, and I am sure painful for her, to give oral paste dosages when Joy's lips were swollen like a tomato. 
 
She was interested in eating after a couple of days, but her lips would not allow it.  At the age of 16 months, she was of good size already though.  She was spitting up cud, drinking and trying to chew on the mineral block.  Five days after the bite, Joy was eating hay like she hadn't eaten in days and any swelling was limited to her lower jaw.
 
Joy is going on 8 years of age this Christmas.  She has had 4 healthy, beautiful babies and produces enough milk to rival some bovine.  Her ordeal of the oral medication on swollen lips has resulted in her continued dislike of oral medication.  She has had no prolonged problems as a result of the snakebite.
 

Some of my friends who have had llamas bitten by rattlesnakes:
 
July 2004 - Senor Rico Suave
Rico I sold to a friend of mine who lost a llama to a snakebite in July 2002.  I received a message on my answering machine one Sunday evening saying that Rico had been bitten that morning by a snake and could I please call.  It was 8 pm, and we'd just gotten in from Parks.  I called back and spoke with my friend's fiance.
 
Her fiance had taken Rico to a new vet since their regular vet was unreachable, and the new vet had known exactly what to do.  Rico was given Dexameth and anti-biotics, and the vet had suggested bringing him back in a week later to check his kidney functions.  I was told that Rico looked to be doing fine.  Her fiance had actually gotten tubes in his nose that morning and taken them out for lack of swelling.  There was a single bite mark on his nose, so I think that Rico got off easy with the amount of venom given to him by the snake.
 
I stopped by to check on Rico and found him to be perfectly fine.  I did, however, recommend to my friend that she follow the advice of the new vet and have a blood sample taken.  I explained to her that the new vet really knew what he/she was doing and explained the problem I had 3 months earlier with Jewel's kidneys. 
 
July 2002 - Elijah
A friend of mine lost one of her boys to a rattlesnake bite.  He was apparently bitten on the side of the face, and he had two areas where he was bleeding.  My friend called her vet who told her to bring him to the local equine hospital.  I was out of town when this event occured.
 
The vet performed a tracheotomy on the llama.  I do not know all of the details and heard about it much later, but the end result was that they lost the llama three days into it.  They called it heart failure.  I believe it occured as they were changing the tube of the tracheotomy.
 
Summer of 2001/2002?
Another friend of mine had a young female bitten by a rattlesnake in her yard.  She had made some type of home-made remedy and had also given her antihistamines.  The young female did survive, and she was then sold.  My friend told me this summer that the female had died 4 months later from "valley fever".  Personally I would bet money that the problem was a result of kidney problems due to the snakebite, not valley fever.  But there was no bloodwork done on the llama, and the new owners were given a replacement llama.

Pamela Tait
Pinnacle Peak Llama Ranch
Premier Fiber Works
PO Box 50026
Parks, Arizona  86018
(602) 361-2904