August 6, 2008:  Last Sunday, Rowdy, a rescue dog who may be a Rhodesian Ridgeback and Pit Bull mix, together with my daughter and I went hiking in the Ojito desert wilderness. (Click the link on Photos to see images of Ojito.) About an hour into our hike Rowdy was bitten by a rattlesnake. He would not let me carry him - he was just wild. I pulled him the long distance back to the truck. With every step his swelling, that had begun as a small lump around the wound, grew quickly golf ball size, then even more quickly baseball size and by the time we reached the truck his entire chest and stomach were swollen. We flew the 10 miles on the dirt road back to the highway and then an over hour long drive to the veterinarian hospital.

We got him to the vet almost 3 hours after he was bitten. He was given an anti-venom serum, painkillers and anti-inflammatory meds and was expected to come home the next evening. I looked up the location of dog meridians on the Internet, so when I visited him in the evening I was able to both tap directly on him and surrogate tap on myself for him. I also did Reiki.

The next morning he was able to go home - 24 hours after he was bitten. But he was still in so much pain. He whimpered through the drive home. During the day he slept about 45 minutes at a time and whimpered each time he woke. When he was awake, he actually seemed to want me to tap on him. Then when he fell back asleep I did more surrogate tapping.

By evening he was able to go outside for a short while. The next day he got up and easily went outside. He thought he could chase a bird, but found it a bit painful. By evening his swelling had been greatly reduced - and by the next morning his skin had tightened and looked fairly normal.

I'm not sure of the usual recovery time, but I will say he looked like he'd received a miracle when he took off running after a rabbit the next morning. Of course, I yelled at him and he stopped - giving me a great big smile. I am still tapping to assure the skin around the wound will not deteriorate as happens in some snakebite cases.

You will be pleased to hear that Rowdy totally recovered from his rattlesnake bite. I can never know if his phenomenally fast recovery was in part due to EFT or only because of medical science or his own youth and strength, but I am so happy that I knew EFT in use it on him when he was so ill.

I continue to use EFT on my new puppy, Naura Rocket and my friend's and family's pets.  Many of my clients report success using EFT on their animals as well.  There is no way to be positive that EFT is effective with animals, but it is gratifying to watch an animal perk up and actually smile while I use the technique on them.  Dogs in particular seem to enjoy the treatment.