When Dog Loses Eye After Rattlesnake Attack, Hiker’s Community Helps Pay $6,000+ Vet Bill

By Amanda Thomason June 8, 2019 at 9:23am

Dogs are curious critters, in every sense of the word. They amuse us with their little blunders and inquisitive natures.

But there are a lot of things that can go wrong for a dog. Indoors, there are potentially dangerous foods and non-food items that could kill them if ingested.

Outside, there are even more accidents waiting to happen. Bees. Toads. Cars. Strangers. Sometimes, with all the potential pitfalls, it’s amazing that our pets continue to thrive.

Even the most caring owners can find themselves in the middle of a freak accident through no fault of their own. The only way to really ensure nothing will happen is to never do anything — and what kind of life is that?

Amanda Medell of Arizona went hiking with her dog, her roommate and her roommate’s dog on May 30. They were in the Superstition Mountains, enjoying the scenery when Medell’s dog Nellie sniffed a bush and suddenly started yelping.

“I notice she’s bleeding and I see a snake belly up on the middle of the trail,” Medell told Inside Edition. She and her roommate rushed to the vet.

“This morning on our hike Nellie was bitten by a rattlesnake,” Medell later wrote on Facebook. “We rushed her to the emergency vet and she is currently being treated with anti venom and will be monitored over night.”

Does your dog know to avoid snakes?

The rattlesnake had bitten the dog in the eye area, and her face was swelling. Nellie was in expert hands, but her care wasn’t going to be cheap.

Nicole Hardenbrook, Medell’s roommate, set up a GoFundMe page to try to help Medell out with the fees. Originally she asked for $6,500. As of Saturday morning, the donated amount sits at over $8,000 — all donated from people who were touched by the poor pup’s story.

After initial treatment, Nellie went home to recover as her owner waited to meet up with a specialist to determine the next steps, according to the GoFundMe page. On June 6, veterinarians removed Nellie’s damaged eye and said the worst should be over.

As often happens, many readers have questioned the owner’s judgment, trying to pin the fault on her or her dog, but Hardenbrook stood up for Medell.

“To clarify to anyone who is curious, our dogs were on leashes, the bush was right on the trail so the dogs were not wandering off the path when this happened,” Hardenbrook wrote on Facebook. “Being from NJ rattlesnake season was not even close to something that crossed our minds.”

“Also for anyone saying it was too hot to even be hiking, we started our hike before 8am and it was maybe 70 degrees. For everyone who has reached out and sent positive vibes our way, thank you.”

Now, Medell is encouraging owners to be aware of the dangers lurking in their surroundings and to have their dogs go through rattlesnake avoidance training — a service offered by many dog trainers in rattlesnake-heavy areas.

The cost of the training may not be cheap, but it’s certainly less expensive than the vet bills and suffering that Medell and Nellie have had to go through.

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