Hendee: Hunter, dog survive rattlesnake's bite despite scare

Steve Freese is an old hand at chasing squatters from his pit blind.

Mice, toads, frogs and bugs. They all move in when the hunters move out.

Snakes slither through, too, in search of those critters.

"It's always a little unnerving to climb down into there with everything I know snakes like," Freese said.

The snake stakes dramatically escalated last week.

Freese, a retired Douglas County deputy sheriff who lives in Omaha, was disassembling an old pit blind last Wednesday at his duck-hunting lodge north of Mound City, Mo., to make room for a replacement.

He climbed into the steel pit sunken into the earth and disconnected gas and electrical lines. He climbed out to remove the sliding roof.

Hammering on a stubborn bolt in the roof rail, Freese was startled by a 24- to 28-inch eastern massasauga rattlesnake slithering toward him. It passed about 5 inches from Freese's right hand.

Freese jumped back.

He recognized the markings of a venomous snake: diamond-shaped head and dark brown blotches down the middle of the back and along both sides. He considered striking at the reptile with the hammer but quickly rejected the idea. The hammer had a short handle.

The snake slipped into the pit.

A few seconds later on the other side of the blind, Freese's yellow Labrador retriever — a 4-year-old named Scout — yelped.

Freese saw nothing unusual.

It was about 6 p.m. The snake scare was enough to end a day of working in heat and humidity. Freese packed up his tools. He and Scout returned to Freese's pickup truck and drove to the lodge.

Freese offered Scout water. That's when he noticed.

Scout's neck and jowls were significantly swollen. Two fang marks were visible on his upper lip. Scout had been bitten by a massasauga rattler.

Freese launched into a mad rush to find a veterinarian.

"I was at a loss," he said.

Freese scooped up Scout and drove north to Rock Port, Mo. Cell phone service along the river bluffs near Mound City and Rock Port is bleak. Freese said he dialed 911 about 20 times before catching a signal. The 911 operator relayed the phone numbers of area veterinarians.

Freese ultimately drove Scout about 30 miles to Nodaway Veterinary Clinic in Maryville, Mo., at the advice of farmer Phil Morris, who plants the soybeans, corn and sorghum around the hunting lodge.

A clinic veterinarian stayed after hours and treated Scout, but had no anti-venom serum. Freese brought Scout home to Omaha where veterinarian Dave Kroeger at the American Animal Hospital started a regimen of antibiotics and medication.

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