The Australian public has raised funds to pay the vet’s bill for a dog which saved a toddler from a snake, local media reported on Friday.
Jo Shaw, the owner of four-year-old boxer Mack, was faced with a veterinary bill of A$6,000 ($4,400) after the dog was bitten by a tiger snake.
Mack was bitten repeatedly after he sprang on the highly venomous 1.2m-long snake when he saw it creeping up on Shaw’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Carmen in their Melbourne backyard.
Shaw said when she found Mack he was paralysed, frothing at the mouth and not breathing.
The dead snake was beside him.
The dog recovered after days in intensive care but was left with kidney damage, while the family faced having to sell their car to cover the vet’s bill, according to Channel 9.
Instead they sought the public’s help via the fundraising website GoFundMe, managing to raise more than enough to cover the bill in just four days.
Shaw said on the website that Mack was still very weak but was slowly pulling through and would be home before Christmas.
“We couldn’t have done this without all your support and generosity ... our family and Mack are indebted for life, thank you,” Shaw wrote on the website.
This picture taken from Facebook shows hero dog Mack and Carmen.
