AN adder has killed a beloved pet dog.

Carol Toplis, 57, from Canvey thinks ten-year-old King Charles spaniel, Daisy-May, was bitten while she was playing in the garden.

Mrs Toplis was looking after her while owner, Maggie Vinten, went into hospital for knee surgery.

Mrs Toplis said: “It was really nasty. I nursed her and she was being taken to the vet every day. I think initially they thought it was a cat bite.

“She did become very sleepy. It was as though she’d had major surgery. The venom attacked other organs.

“They did blood tests and found it was an adder bite. We don’t know for sure when she got bitten.”

Daisy-May was either bitten in Mrs Toplis’s garden in Waarem Avenue, Canvey, or in Beverley Avenue, Canvey, where Mrs Vinten, 69, lives.

Mrs Toplis’s husband, Len, noticed a lump on Daisy-May’s back and they rushed her to the vets.

She had emergency surgery and was taken home after the operation. But her condition worsened.

Her kidneys failed and she had to be put down.

Mrs Toplis said she wanted to make people aware of the dangers of dogs being bitten by snakes.

She said: “This must have been in the back garden because she is never off the lead. I think she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I just did not realise they would be around residential areas. I think that somehow she had disturbed one.

“Apparently they come out when it’s hot. I am quite shocked, I knew we had adders, but I assumed they were tucked away.”