Poor Barclay had a hard lesson on life in the bush this week. I am encouraging him to get out into the bush and to search around in the long grass, as he will need to do, and while he was out playing in the long grass in our yard, he had a run-in with a Mozambique Spitting Cobra. We found him with swollen eyes oozing thick yellow pus, as is typical of cobra venom in the eyes. It is a cytotoxic or cell destroying venom, which the snake uses to temporarily blind its attackers to allow it to escape. This snake is one of the most common here and Snoopy has also been on the receiving end of venom in his eyes, but made a full recovery on all occasions. We wash out their eyes thoroughly and apply an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory ointment into the affected eyes, and they soon get better. We can only hope that Barclay will have learned his lesson, and will know to stay away from snakes in future.
2 Comments posted on "Tough times for Barclay"
Theresa Siskind St Petersburg FL on April 19th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Rox, poor Barclay, I’m praying he makes a fully and speedy recovery. No doubt he has learned his lesson. Give him a back rub from me, please!
limpopocarnivores on April 19th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Thanks Theresa. Barclay is much better and is looking almost 100% again. He is playing again and had a long swim on his walk today, so I don’t think he ie feeling sorry for himself anymore. In my experience, with the treatment that we give them, they make a full recovery and suffer no long term ill effects. Post a comment
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Rox Brummer of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and her dogs Snoopy and Barclay report on carnivore research that is helping to conserve one of Africa's greatest cross border protected areas the great Limpopo-Shase Transfrontier conservation area, a peace park linking South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe
