A KITTEN has come nose-to-nose with a Tiger Snake and lived to tell the tale, let off with just puncture wounds from a “dry” bite after it brought the reptile into its Strathdownie home.
Tayla Westgarth was caught off guard on Friday when a commotion at the back door to her family home startled her, investigating the noise to find her kitten George coming through the cat flap with a snake in his jaws.
“George’s flap is quite loud so I was conscious he had made his way inside,” Ms Westgarth said.
“I was at the front of the house studying when I turned around and saw George playing with something.
“At first glance, I could not tell what it was but then I saw he had the snake’s tail between his teeth.”
Ms Westgarth said while she knew it was a snake, she did a ‘double take’ before reacting.
“I could not believe it and I just began to scream,” she said.
“Dad had just came in for lunch and was just about to head out the front door to head back to the farm.
“We started throwing things like Nan’s eye-drops, a newspaper and a hat at the cat to try and get him away from the snake because he would not leave it alone.
“Then it was like in the movies where snakes jack-up their front head and it latched onto George’s nose twice and had its whole mouth around it.”
Ms Westgarth said the snake did not go much further than the back door.
“God knows how far he had dragged it in or how long he had been playing with it for,” she said.
“He brings in flies, moths and frogs all the time and lets them go inside the house as though he was proud of what he had found.
“This was the same thing and it looked like he thought it was a game.”
Ms Westgarth said as soon as the snake was relocated, George was taken to a vet for treatment.
“It was around a 30-minute drive to Mount Gambier and he had still not shown any signs although we were still very worried,” she said.
“We were also concerned because we did not know what happened before he brought it inside the house.”
Not taking any risks, Ms Westgarth said George was initially given a blood test to evaluate his organ function.
“If his organs were slowing down, it would have been a sign his system was fighting something,” he said.
“There was nothing extreme other than his heart-rate and temperature were slightly lower than normal.
“As he did not show any signs we went with an overnight saline flushing treatment rather than injected anti-venom.”
Ms Westgarth said the vet thought George had experienced a dry bite, which did not inject venom.
“We were told injecting venom uses a lot of a snake’s energy so they tend to try and dry-bite to scare a predator off first,” she said.
“I think George was very lucky.”
Living on a south-west Victorian rural property, Ms Westgarth said it was the perfect day for snakes to come out for a drink.
“We have troughs close to the house and we often see snakes around during this time of the year,” she said.
“In the orchard behind the house we have pet sheep as well as chickens which I think snakes would be interested in as well.”
Ms Westgarth said it was an unbelievable experience and hoped to never have to go through it again.
“I have seen a few snakes since the incident, including another tiger snake the day after on the driveway while dad was mowing the grass.
‘The one which bit George was not very old and this one was much larger in size so I am not sure whether we have a family living near us or not.
“The worry is now what else he will bring through the door.”
