Snakes

I am going to write about real snakes, not about the human kind. Snakes are widespread in SE Asia so it won’t come as a surprise when visitors or locals come across one. Most people will freeze up and scream (females) for fear or run away forgetting that most of the snakes, like everywhere, are harmless and will slither away from us. Of course, better safe than sorry, so it definitely is wise not to get too close to them. There are quite a few of the poisonous sort. Please refer to this website for further information and advice.

http://www.cambodia-sihanoukville.com/cem-pages/cem-cambodia-wildlife-snakes.html

Hardly a week goes by where we don’t have a snake incident at our house. I have two dogs that routinely hunt smaller snakes. They grab it at the middle and shake it so it doesn’t have the opportunity to bite because their head is flopping around like crazy. Just the other day, though, they encountered a larger one which raised its head in typical snake fashion and my good dogs with their instincts shied away from a direct attack. My help killed it with a shovel. It was the Indo-Chinese spitting cobra. They did kill the smaller one though. The cobra made good fare for people in the nearby village.

On the prowl

Got it

Real small - but can be poisonous too

Spitting Cobra (poisonous) and harmless snake - but both dead

One time they had caught and thought they had killed a smaller snake already. So one dog got closer again to sniff at it and promptly got bitten in the nose. It was a poisonous snake and we had to rush him to a vet to get him a shot of anti-dotes. Poison takes longer in a dog to circulate through the system. According to the vet where it might take 1 hour in humans it takes 6 hours in dogs. His nose was a bit swollen for a while but he recovered fully and was soon back in the game.