Frank Arciuolo, aka Godzilla, who blogs for us here at PlaneBuzz on a semi-regular basis, and his lovely wife MB have two dogs. One is a beautiful German Shepherd named Nikko. He really is the nicest German Shepherd I’ve ever met.

The other is a Heinz 57 pound puppy by the name of Skylar. Or, as her friends are allowed to call her, Skydog. Skydog is a mess. In the absolute best sense of the word. She also is the alpha of the two dogs, even though Nikko now towers over her.

Wednesday Skydog was apparently doing what she usually does outside the Arciuolo compound in Tucson — sniffing, looking to see what new smells were to be had in the sunshine.

Apparently there was more than just a few new smells in the sunshine, as Skydog was bitten by a rattlesnake.

See poor Skydog’s swollen face here.

Frank tells us that the snake bit her inside the mouth so she is in some pain, “but her heart rate and stuff is good. The vet said her blood platelets were about 100,000 yesterday, and normal is 200,000, while below 50,000 is very bad.  So we decided not to give her the anti-venom because of that, plus the anti-venom treatment isn’t a lot of fun for the dog anyway.  The swelling around her neck is gone but her face is still swollen.”

“They told us to watch for bruising on her skin, which would indicate

internal bleeding.  So we found some bruising this morning and are on the

phone to the vet now to see if we should bring her in for another blood

test.”

“Mr. Nikko has been guarding her when she goes outside.  Still haven’t found  Mr. Snake yet after looking a few times, but I’ve got the rifle at the ready.”

I wouldn’t expect Godzilla to respond in any other way.

Our best to Skydog. Hope you feel better soon sweetie.