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PRESS-JOURNAL (Vero Beach, Florida) 02 April 08 Jensen Beach dog dies after being bitten by coral snake (Will Greenlee)
Jensen Beach: A 3-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Buster died Tuesday afternoon after a coral snake bit him the day before, an official at an animal hospital said Wednesday.
Becky Arnold, practice manager for Savanna Animal Hospital, said the snake bit Buster on Monday evening and his owner brought him to an emergency hospital. Buster's owner delivered him Tuesday morning to Arnold's facility — Buster's normal veterinarian.
Dr. Patricia Ries had given three of four planned vials of antivenin to the pooch before he died late Tuesday afternoon, Arnold said.
Buster's owner contacted Martin County Fire Rescue officials looking for antivenin, and officials there found some that was about three months expired at Martin Memorial Hospital South in Port Salerno, fire rescue District Chief Jeff Alter said. The hospital released the antivenin, and a fire rescue official took it to Savanna Hospital.
Arnold said when Buster's owners realized he wasn't his normal chipper self, they wondered what happened to him and went outside. That's when they spotted a coral snake, which Buster had bitten.
Arnold said because of the small size of coral snakes and the way their venom acts, it's difficult to pinpoint where a bite has occurred. It produces no large wound and it's typically not painful at the bite site.
“Buster came in and he was uncoordinated,” Arnold said. “The way that the venom works, it paralyzes the muscles.”
Buster was placed in a special oxygen chamber so he could get the most oxygen possible and other medical support actions were taken.
“That's when the call went out to get the antivenin,” Arnold said. “Typically the reaction where their muscles continue to deteoriate can take anywhere from a couple hours to 24 hours or more.”
www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/apr/02/jensen-beach-dog-dies-after-being-bitten-coral-sna/

PALM BEACH POST (Florida) 02 April 08 Buster, another snake-bitten dog, dies despite efforts by rescuers (Jill Taylor)
Jensen Beach: Coral snake anti-venin provided by Martin Memorial Hospital South and delivered by Martin County Fire Rescue officials could not save a Jack Russell terrier that tangled with a coral snake in a Jensen Beach back yard Tuesday.
The dog, a three-year-old named Buster, died at Savanna Animal Hospital Tuesday night.
Hospital practice manager Becky Arnold said time is the enemy in snake bite situations and the coral snakes is unusual in that there typically is not an obvious bite wound or localized swelling that warns a pet owner of the problem.
"Often the only reason the clients know is because they find the snake," Arnold said.
It's the second time in a week a small dog has succumbed to coral snake venom in the region. Roxy, a Dachshund puppy from Delray Beach, died last week.
David Kalina praised the work of the fire officials and the animal hospital in trying to save Buster.
"They're great. They did everything that they could," he said.
A Martin County Fire Rescue battalion chief tracked down several vials of outdated antivenin at Martin Memorial Hospital South and delivered the vials to Dr. Patricia Ries at her Animal Hospital. Martin Memorial officials said they always have a supply on hand for human bite victims and save the outdated supply for situations like this.
Coral snakes are typically not aggressive unless they are threatened and most often try to avoid contact with humans and large animals, but Arnold said it's not uncommon for dogs to go after snakes and the practice sees its share of bites.
Savanna Hospital has treated five dogs, including two other Jack Russells, for coral snake bites in recent years. Three survived.
Arnold said owners need to be alert to changes in behavior in their pets. The coral snake venom paralyzes the animal, eventually affecting its ability to breathe. It can take several hours for major symptoms to appear and it can be too late for effective treatment if owners wait too long to seek help.
"Time is of the essence," Arnold said.
www.palmbeachpost.com/treasurecoast/content/tcoast/epaper/2008/04/02/0402buster.html?imw=Y

TC PALM (Stuart, Florida) 02 April 08 Antivenin supplies 'dwindling' for victims (James Kirley)
Jensen Beach: Sheri Kalina-Waite and her family buried Buster on Wednesday, one day after the little stray they nursed back to health and gave a home to was killed by a venomous coral snake in his own backyard.
But Buster could still prove to be man's best friend, if his death makes authorities wonder whether a human will die next from a shortage of antivenin that could have saved the Jack Russell terrier's life.
"My son and my husband were on the phone all night long trying to find the antivenin," Kalina-Waite said.
The only facility making FDA-approved antivenin for North American coral snakes closed its doors in 2002 after stockpiling several years worth of the medicine used to treat both humans and pets. To date, no manufacturer has produced any more to treat a deadly species of snake that bites only about 80 Americans each year, more than half of them in Florida.
"There's a couple of vials left on the shelves of pharmacies and hospitals," Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, medical director of the poison control center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. "For the most part, supplies are dwindling, if not already gone."
Coral snake venom paralyzes muscles needed to breathe. If antivenin cannot be quickly located, bite victims must be kept alive on a respirator for up to six weeks.
Respirator care for a dog costs about $1,000 for the first day and $800 for each subsequent day, said Carsten Bandt, a veterinarian and assistant professor of critical care and emergency at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.
Bernstein said antivenin must be given before the onset of symptoms.
Kalina-Waite said she and her family were told at a Fort Pierce veterinary clinic to begin searching hospitals for antivenin - instructions she didn't like.
"As far as I'm concerned, that's an emergency hospital for animals," she said. "You would think they would have that on hand."
Tuesday, they took Buster to Savanna Animal Hospital in Jensen Beach. He died Tuesday afternoon, after receiving antivenin that arrived too late.
www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/apr/02/30gtantivenin-supplies-dwindling-for-victims/

BOCA RATON NEWS (Florida) 06 April 08 Coral snake bites kill two dogs in South Florida (Dale M. King)
Most Floridians don’t give a lot of thought to coral snakes.
The red-and-yellow striped, fangless creatures can deliver a potentially lethal dose of venom. But according to Dr. Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton, coral snakes are shy, and tend to slither away when a larger creature comes near.
South Florida residents have suddenly become aware of coral snakes since two dogs died after being bitten by the snakes, which are indigenous to South Florida in general – and Palm Beach County in particular.
Roxy, an 11-month old Dachshund belonging to Jeremy and Althea Brooks of Delray Beach, was bitten by a coral snake that had gotten into the family home.
Near death, Roxy was brought to an emergency clinic in Boynton Beach, and was shuttled back and forth between that facility and her own veterinarian. More than a week later, when it appeared she had recovered, Roxy died.
Just a few days ago, a 3-year-old Jack Russell terrier died after tangling with a coral snake.
Both pets were given antivenin, yet did not recover.
Actually, “bite” is something of a misnomer. Because coral snakes have no teeth, they have to latch on to a dog, human or other prey and, in effect, “gum” the skin until it breaks and they can deliver the venom.
Coral snake venom paralyzes the victim, in essence, halting the ability to breathe.
Steve Grenard, moderator of the Venom Forum at Staten Island University Hospital, said he found it hard to believe that Roxy would have held onto life for about nine days before succumbing to the toxic coral snake venom – particularly since she had gotten the antidote.
Grenard questioned whether the anti-toxin was still potent. He said coral snake antivenin must be kept refrigerated, and can expire.
This has implications for humans as well. Chief Al Cruz of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Venom Response Bureau – the only department in the country that has such a unit – said if a human is bitten by a coral snake, it may take 12 hours for symptoms to show. If a victim doesn’t get to the hospital within that time, it may be too late once the toxin kicks in.
Cruz said his group normally counts 75 to 80 coral snake bites in South Florida each year. Three times more bites occur in Palm Beach County than in Broward or Miami-Dade because the sandy soil attracts them.
Grenard, whose mission is to locate coral snake bite deaths in Florida, said only one occurred in Boca Raton, about 20 years ago. He said a man on Glades Road tried to stuff a coral snake into a coffee can. He was bitten and taken to Boca Raton Community Hospital, Grenard said, where he later died.
Reports that a person in Delray Beach was bitten by a coral snake within the past year or two, and survived, could not be confirmed. A spokeswoman for Delray Medical Center said records for the last two years showed no one had been treated for a coral snake bite.
Coral snake bites kill two dogs in South Florida