Dog in coma after saving owner from deadly snake

A YOUNG kelpie named Tess is being hailed a lifesaver after defending its owner from an attack by a deadly snake on the Gold Coast.

But the heroic pet is now rated a 50-50 chance of survival after being bitten by the giant eastern brown.

Fay Palethorpe, a 68-year-old retiree from Ingleside, was gardening on her 8ha property on Sunday morning when she encountered the brown snake which, at over two metres long, was the biggest she had ever seen.

"(It was) huge – it would have been over six feet long," Ms Palethorpe said today.

"He saw me and I saw him, and he reared up about two foot into the air and struck at me three times.

"I just screamed and ran."

The snake chased after Ms Palethorpe, before her three kelpies, including Tess, jumped to her defence.

"All the dogs heard me, it was coming after me, chasing me," she said.

"I called them off it, going ‘leave, leave’, but she (Tess) wouldn’t leave, and she got it and she was throwing it in the air."

Initially Tess appeared to have won the battle, with the snake slinking off, but the snake’s deadly venom soon took effect.

"I couldn’t find a bite anywhere, and she was fine, so I thought I’d just keep an eye on her," Ms Palethorpe said.

"But a snake expert told me this happens, they get a high, it’s like a drug and they get a high, then they just go bang.

"And she did, and by the time I put her in the car to go to the vet she was weeing blood."

Tess was bitten on the inside of the ear, and is now in the hands of Ms Palethorpe’s regular vet after receiving an urgent dose of antivenene from an emergency clinic.

Ms Palethorpe said her vet has seen plenty of cases of snake bites, and rated this as one of the worst.

"My vet said if it (the snake) had got me … I wouldn’t have reached my back stairs, he said it was so deadly," Ms Palethorpe said.

Tess has been in a coma since Sunday, and the vet rates her a 50-50 chance of recovery.

But he delivered promising news this morning, with the kelpie moving and blinking her eyes.

"Every hour is a little bit better," Ms Palethorpe said.