Black jaguar Samba dies following rattlesnake bites at California sanctuary

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Set us as preferred California’s latest victim of a deadly rattlesnake bite has emerged, and it’s not a human but a black jaguar living in a Central Valley sanctuary, underscoring the dangers of rattlesnake poisonings this year.On Monday morning, Samba was rushed from her home at Project Survival’s Cat Haven in Dunlap to the Fresno Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center, about 44 miles west, after suffering two rattlesnake bites.Dale Anderson, founder of the 93-acre exotic cat haven, told The Times the sanctuary staff members start their day at 7 a.m.

to tend to the animals.Around 10 a.m., a staff member noticed that Samba wasn’t leaving her den.

“Then she noticed [Samba’s] left paw was twice the size of her right one and the swelling went all the way up her leg,” Anderson said.In the veterinary emergency room, Samba was anesthetized, and the medical staff was then able to draw her blood.

“The echinocytes (a type of red blood cell) in her blood were 100% which means she got a real big dose of venom,” Anderson said.Samba received two doses of anti-venom, which brought the level of rattlesnake venom in her blood down to nearly zero, “but then you have to go into the recovery process of trying to get her woken up and out of anesthesia,” Anderson said.

“That’s where we lost her.” The fallout was largely documented on the cat haven’s Facebook page with posts of veterinary and haven staff working together to administer heart compressions on the large black cat lying on the medical table.Samba died surrounded by the veterinary staff and her sanctuary family, including Anderson.The sanctuary sent Samba’s body to the UC Davis California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory for a necropsy to understand if she had any underlying health issues or complications that contributed to her death.This...