A woman whose puppy died after being bitten by an adder is working to prevent other dog owners going through the same heartbreak.
Iwona Beaton was walking her two dogs at Loch Lee in Glen Esk when 11-month-old cocker spaniel Ollie was bitten.
The pup’s lip began to swell and despite being rushed to the vet, he died three days later.
Now Mrs Beaton, from Bucksburn in Aberdeen, is raising awareness of what do to if your pet is bitten – and has been amazed at the response of her campaign so far.
Campaign shows ‘I’m not totally alone’
At first aiming for 100 likes on Facebook, she was amazed after her post received over 9,000 shares.Â
“It’s been crazy,” she said. “It is overwhelming but it’s kind of lovely in a way how much support you get from total strangers.
“By doing this campaign I’ve learnt that I’m totally not alone.
“There’s thousands of people exactly the same as me. Some people didn’t even have a clue we had snakes in the UK.
“I just feel like what I went through I really would not wish for any other dog owner to go through because it was just a horrendous experience.”
Alarmed after Ollie’s lip started swelling
Mrs Beaton was on a long walk around Loch Lee with a friend when the incident happened last month.
After seeing her five-year-old sprocker spaniel, Charlie, jump away from an adder, the 40-year-old started to worry.
She gave Ollie and Charlie an antihistamine and started to walk back to the car. However, they still had 10 miles to go.
“After some time I noticed that Ollie his lip was swollen,” she said. “That’s when I realised he must have got bitten.
“Otherwise he didn’t act any differently. He was very, very lively dog. He was always full-on, 100 miles an hour.
“You couldn’t tell anything was wrong except for the swelling on his lip but that alarmed me.”
‘It totally, totally broke my heart what happened’
At this point, the pet owner remembered seeing advice on carrying your dog if they got bitten as it stops the venom from spreading as fast.
She quickly emptied her backpack and carried Ollie back to the car.
“Then the swelling started getting bigger at this point under his neck,” she said.
“Honestly I couldn’t walk faster if I could. I felt like my legs were totally burning.
“Then we decided we were going to have to go straight away to the vet.”
Despite repeated trips to the vet for medication, Ollie started to lose more energy as the swelling got worse.
Mrs Beaton and her husband Lee, quickly took him to an animal hospital but it was too late.
“It totally, totally broke my heart what happened,” said Mrs Beaton.
“You go for a walk thinking ‘what a great day’ and pretty much three days later I don’t have a dog. There’s no warning, his life was over in three days.
“The way how he was at the end, it was just heartbreaking.
“He was double the size because of how his body was swollen and how much pain he was in. Even when I think of that I just really don’t want someone else to go through it.”
Launching Ollie’s Campaign to save other dogs
Since Ollie’s death on April 24, Mrs Beaton has been raising awareness of the steps pet owners can take if their dogs are ever bitten.
Using advice from vet websites, she and her husband have been distributing Ollie’s posters wherever they can.
Mrs Beaton said she has been overwhelmed by the response with people all over the UK asking to put up posters in their community.
“I genuinely, genuinely think if I can save at least one dog by doing this, it will be amazing,” she added.
“I am so glad that this poster is helping others and it makes this campaign absolutely worth it.”
Conversation