Donkey makes quick turnaround from snake bite with Veterinary Teaching Hospital care

Bug got snakebit, right on the muzzle.

“He decided that he would play with a danger noodle,” said caretaker Tara Pilonero, owner and operator of Stay a While Farm near Hinton, West Virginia. 

Bug, a 2-year-old miniature donkey who came across what was likely a copperhead, was brought to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine on Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus.

Pilonero, who had originally raised Bug before he was adopted out, had taken Bug back in from his owners for gelding and additional training.  

Less than two weeks after being with Pilonero, she found him acting strange at a routine feeding.

“I came back out to check on him again, and his whole muzzle had swollen up,” Pilonero recalled “And he was having trouble breathing, and he had excessive drainage coming out of his nose. I've had one bitten by a copperhead before, so I immediately knew what had happened.” 

As she knew immediately what to do.

”I didn't even have to call my vet this time, other than to ask her to call in an emergency,” Pilonero said. “Which I did. I called her and said, ‘Call the vet school. Tell them, I'm coming.” 

Emilee Lacey, resident in large animal internal medicine, said Pilonero “was amazing” in administering steroids to Bug on the farm, at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital’s instruction. 

Upon arriving at the hospital in Blacksburg over an hour later, Bug was given an intravenous catheter and a temporary tracheotomy, or an opening in his throat through which a breathing tube is placed. 

Just being able to breathe again relieved a lot of Bug’s anxiety, Lacey said.

Antivenom and dextrose were administered through the IV and Bug began improving quickly. He was discharged three days later.  

Lacey said Bug may have benefited somewhat from being bitten by an older snake that is more conservative with its venom output.

“It's actually the age of the snake that matters,” Lacey said. “Most younger snakes tend to make a more venomous bite because they just release all of their venom at one time, whereas adult snakes can sometimes have dry bites or less venomous bites. With him, it looks like, by the size of the bite mark we can see on his muzzle, he most likely got bit by an older, more mature snake.”

Bug’s treatment provided another learning opportunity for veterinary students, who are likely to treat other snakebites if they go into clinical treatment of small or large animals.

“Initially, it's pretty stressful,” said Gabby Turner, a Class of 2025 student from Richmond. “Because, we're all learning. I'm coming into a situation where I want to help. It’s very cool to see all these things we're learning, all the book work, and then see it transferred to a real-life patient and getting to follow through with the patient. Just watching him and his progress through it was really helpful to remember all these things that we're learning.”