SAN DIEGO (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014 San Diego County has experienced a spike in rattlesnake sightings since early this year due to warmer weather. Now, a local veterinarian says their hospital is seeing an increase in dogs and cats suffering bites.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he does, and I\u2019ve seen him before with snakes, he grabs them and flicks them. The gopher snake or king snake don\u2019t hurt him, but this one got him,\u201d said Tim Knowd.<\/p>\n
Nine-year-old Ollie was in the backyard of his Ramona home when he encountered a rattlesnake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a half-acre property, but it abuts an open space preserve area, so we get probably three or four snakes a year. It\u2019s not uncommon, but maybe one rattler a year,\u201d said Knowd.<\/p>\n
Knowd said his family had been lucky enough to avoid bites for both themselves and their pets until Wednesday, when Ollie was bitten on the tongue.<\/p>\n
Rattlesnake encounter tips from the Snake Wrangler during heat wave <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe was out of it, bleeding from the mouth and swollen. I know my snakes. It was a Southern Pacific rattlesnake,\u201d Knowd said.<\/p>\n Ollie was rushed to Stitch Veterinary Urgent Care, where he was stabilized and given antivenom treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe majority of the bites that we see here are from Southern Pacific rattlesnakes. They can have a mix of hemotoxic and neurotoxic venom. Typically, we see bleeding and a lot of swelling, but if they\u2019ve got that neurotoxin, that\u2019s when we can start to see seizures and coma develop,\u201d said Dr. Rob Brooks of Stitch Veterinary Urgent Care.<\/p>\n Brooks said the practice has seen an increase in bite cases since late February, when warmer weather arrived in San Diego County.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best thing to do is get them seen straight away. The longer you wait, the more time venom has to damage the tissues,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n