Hikers haul dog on their backs for a mile after copperhead strikes in Kentucky woods
A dog named “Sasha” needed rescue from the Kentucky woods after a copperhead snake struck during a recent hike, officials said.
Members of the Wolfe County Search & Rescue Team responded to a 911 call at 1 p.m. Aug. 6 regarding “a dog in distress” near the Turtle Back Arch Trail in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, the organization said in a news release.
Sasha had been bitten five times by a copperhead “on both back quarters,” the release said. Soon, the dog’s back legs swelled, and he couldn’t walk. Sasha’s owners then carried him on their backs for a mile until they reached the rescue crew, the release said.
A veterinary technician on the team gave Sasha a Benadryl before he was loaded onto a stretcher and carried out, rescuers said.
Sasha was then put into the owner’s vehicle and taken to a veterinary hospital in Lexington, roughly 70 miles northwest, according to the release.
“We wish ‘Sasha’ a speedy recovery and commend the owners for working so hard to get him out quickly,” rescuers said.
While copperheads can be found across all of Kentucky, “they are less common in the Inner Bluegrass Region,” according to the University of Kentucky. “(Their) preferred habitat includes rocky, wooded hillsides, lowland areas near streams, abandoned wood piles or rotting logs and mulch piles.”
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