An Ayrshire dog owner has told how her pet pooch survived a nasty bite from a poisonous snake on Arran.
Mahri and Colin Paterson's dog Kaia had to be rushed to the vets after an Adder dug its fangs into her face.
The couple, from Galston, were taking their two Vizslas, six-year-old Kaia and five-year-old Bree, out a walk in one of the island's top beauty spots on Saturday.
But their day out enjoying the sunshine soon became "very serious" with Kaia taking unwell just 30 minutes after they spotted two Adders away from the path.
Within minutes Kaia started retching and was "unable to move" with the venom taking over body and leaving her in "severe pain."
The couple then noticed two fang marks on her muzzle and immediately called the nearest vet.
Two dog owners nearby also rushed to their aid, with Colin having to carry Kaia for one mile until they were given a lift to the vets thanks to a kind couple who rushed to help them.
Now Mahri is urging other dog owners to be wary of the dangerous reptiles.
Posting on Facebook, she said: "I wasn't going to post on our personal pages but after quite a few comments on the Vizsla page that I posted on we were surprised at how many people didn't know we had venomous snakes in Britain.
"Please please make yourselves aware of the dangers of a snake bite and what to do if it happens
"Unfortunately on Saturday when we were walking up Glen Rosa in Arran Kaia was bitten on the face by an Adder, we didn't see it happening but had seen two snakes on the path.
"Within 30 minutes her walk started to slow down, she then started retching but couldn't be sick and that's when we noticed the fang marks on the side of her muzzle we tried to encourage her to drink but she couldn't and she then lay down and couldn't move.
"The Vet later told told me this was all due to the severe pain she was in as the venom started to spread through her blood stream.
"I called the vet to check if she had any Anti venom which thankfully she did and we were heading her way as quickly as possible.
"We knew not to touch the wound and we had to keep her as calm as possible so Colin had to lift her and carry her over a mile to the car of a couple who live on the island that offered to help, they then ran me straight to the vets who was waiting on me with the anti-venom that she needed.
"She spent the next couple of hours in the surgery on a drip getting anti venom , pain killers and fluids put into her .
"Thankfully she is recovering well but she is still a sick girl so has to stay home for the next week with strict instructions to rest."
Mahri has since thanked the couple and vets for helping deal with an emergency situation.
She told Ayrshire Live: "It was very serious.
“We were able to stay calm in the situation but the distance we had to walk was panicking me.
"We knew it was a snake bite right away and we were lucky that the vet we called had anti-venom.
“The vet was amazing with Kaia and the couple that helped us were absolute stars.”
Read next:
Don't miss the latest Ayrshire headlines – sign up to our free daily newsletter here
