Skip to content
Home▶ Journals▶ Indian Journal of Veterinary Sciences and Biotechnology▶Archive▶Vol. 21 No. 5 (2025)▶Therapeutic Management of Haemotoxic Snake Envenomation  in…
Indian Journal of Veterinary Sciences and Biotechnology
Case Report

Therapeutic Management of Haemotoxic Snake Envenomation  in Dogs – A Field Study

, , ,
Rajamanickam Hema Sayee — Veterinary Dispensary, Mukkudal, Tirunelveli-627 601 Tamil Nadu, India
Govindasamy Thirumalaisamy — Livestock Farm Complex, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Theni-625 534 TANUVAS, Tamil Nadu, India
Subramanian Sivaraman — Department of Clinics, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Salem-636 101, Tamil Nadu, India
Palanisamy Mekala — Department of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Udumalpet-642 205, Tamil Nadu, India
Published 8 Sep 2025 Vol. 21 No. 5 (2025), pp. 187-189 ● Open access
Download PDF

Abstract

Snake envenomation is a life threatening, emergency and  challenging case to be handled by veterinarians especially  in the rural parts of India. Out of 3500 different species of  snakes around the world, about 600 species were found to  be poisonous (Sandhu and Brar, 2008). In India, about 216  species of snakes are present, out of which 60 species are  reported to be poisonous (Gupta and Peshin, 2014). The  snake envenomation in livestock and companion animals  occurs commonly in summer months. It is more prevalent  in rural areas of India which are filled with bushes and trees  (Garg, 2002). Most snake bites occur usually on head and  extremities in small animals and on legs in large animals  (Sandhu and Brar, 2008). The clinical signs caused by the snake  envenomation depend upon the type of toxins present in the  venom. The neurotoxic venom causes paralysis of respiratory  centre /respiratory muscles, whereas haemotoxic venom  causes coagulopathies/bleeding disorders, haemolysis and  cardiotoxicity (Sandhu and Brar, 2008). The current paper  describes the haemotoxic snake envenomation in three dogs  and its therapeutic management. 

 

Keywordsveterinarianspoisonousprevalentextremitiesdogs

The full text of this article is available as a PDF.

Download PDF
  1. Constable, P.D., Hinchcliff, K.W., Done, S.H., & Grünberg, W. (2016). Multi-organ diseases due to toxicity of snakebite. In: Veterinary Medicine: A Textbook of the Diseases of Cattle, Horses, Sheep, Pigs and Goats. Elsevier Health Sciences, pp. 2176-2179.
  2. Garg, S.K. (2002). Zootoxins. In: Veterinary Toxicology, 1st edn., CBS Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi, India.
  3. Gupta, Y.K., & Peshin, S.S. (2014). Snake bite in India: Current scenario of an old problem. Journal of Clinical Toxicology, 4, 182.
  4. Kumar, A., Rohi, R.R., Pawar, P., Yadav, R., & Yadav, P. (2016). Therapeutic management of snakebite in a male dog. Scholars Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, 3(2), 103-104.
  5. Peterson, M. (2017). Venomous Bites and Stings (Zootoxicoses). In: Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 8th edn., Ettinger, S.J., Feldman, E.C., & Côté, E. (Eds.), Missouri, USA, pp. 1698-1710.
  6. Sandhu, H.S., & Brar, R.S. (2008). Textbook of Veterinary Toxicology, 2nd edn., Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi, India.
  7. WHO (2016). World Health Organization: Guidelines for the Management of Snakebites, 2nd edn., Regional Office for South-East Asia, pp. 1-208.

Looking up citing articles…

    Creative Commons License

    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

    Copyright © 2025 Indian Journal of Veterinary Sciences and Biotechnology