# Rattlesnakes



## Habitat Hugger (Jan 19, 2005)

My dog got nailed by a Western Diamondback yesterday! We are snow birding and still in Arizona, about to go back. We had given her the usual once a year rattlesnake vaccine about two months ago, so luckily her blood titles of antibodies should be quite high.
We had also had her in a great rattlesnake aversion program down here two years ago and ironically had checked her back on a real defanged snake just a few days ago. She really avoided the defanged rattler, smelled it right away,a avoid is it and even barked when I approached the snake. 
Yesterday I took her for a short walk in the desert and she ran into a flock of quail, some flying, some running from patch to patch of brittle bush. The wind was wrong and she busted into a brush patch after a running quail and suddenly slammed on her brakes, body and tail wagging stiffened, and BANG, gotta full loaded venom in her nose! An accidental " drive by!"
I picked her up, ran back to the road and got her to the Vet hospital within15 minutes, her nose swelling like mad. 
They started antivenin ( at 900$ a vial) and IV fluids and kept her there. Platelet count, the blood cells that make blood clot, went down to 20 K, the normal being 140 to 150 K. Platelets get too low and they spontaneously bleed to death.
Luckily because of the vaccinations, she would have already had her own anti venom antibodies on board, and getting her to a Vet. within minutes of the bite, so she should be OK. 
My wife and I went back to the bush clump with our hiking poles and managed to find the snake way back in the dense brush. Luckily it was only a Western Diamondback, about 3 feet long, and NOT a Mojave green, a bad one that dogs usually don't survive. Human Often don't too! 
The moral of this story. If you live or hunt in a snake area it's a good idea to have your dog vaccinated, so her/ his own antibodies are already present in case of a bite. The vaccination is not cheap, but pales with the cost of anti venom at $900.00 a vial, often several being needed. Two vaccinations are given, then one a year thereafter.
Snake aversion training. Works really well, button layoff a dog sees, hears or smells the snake. Trouble with hunting dogs, especially flushing dogs, is that they hit the brush at full speed and can wake up a grumpy snake before the poor pup can realize its there. 
Hooray! Just got a call from the VET! She'll be OK and maybe pick her up later today!


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## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

glad your pup is OK. One of our loggers got bitten this morning (38 degrees) when he got under a skidder to hook up a hydraulic line. He got hit in the chest, but will be ok. They are OUT!!!


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

I always wonder when they are out in Texas and Arizona when I am down there. I bought a light set of snake leggings, but never use them. After your story I think I'll have them on next winter in Arizona. Glad to hear your dogs ok.


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

Wow! Glad it is turning out alright but scary none the less. Are you using Red Rock vaccine?


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## Habitat Hugger (Jan 19, 2005)

Yes, I'm pretty sure it's red rock.
One problem with the vaccine is that it has to be sold on lots of 24, and as there's little call for it in central and eastern ND, most Vet clinics don't stock it. A year ago several vet clinics in Bismarck would go together and buy a lot of 24 vials and divvy it up. Still not enough call for it, so when I checked last summer they all had discontinued it. If I remember correctly, it has to be kept frozen and there's an expiry date on it. So they stopped stocking it. Might have it in Western ND vet clinics. 
I hunt a fair amount in ND rattlesnake country so have been getting it when we snowbird here in AZ. Luckily she got bit about two months post vaccine, which was when her own anti venom immune system was at its highest. According to the veterinary literature, that would have given a jump start with her own anti venom roughly equivalent to two to there units of commercial snake anti venom. At $900 a vial, the snake vaccine is sure cost effective,
Our dog still has a very swollen nose and throat. Getting better by the hour. Though they thought she must have gotten a full load of snake venom, it would have been much worse had we not had the vaccine. She only needed two anti venom vials at $900.00 each, but then who ever said Veterinary pup costs were inexpensive!?! And for a family member, who's counting? Wonder if I can sign her up for Obamacare? LOL


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

Plainsman said:


> I always wonder when they are out in Texas and Arizona when I am down there. I bought a light set of snake leggings, but never use them. After your story I think I'll have them on next winter in Arizona. Glad to hear your dogs ok.


You can't see the damn things even when you are looking right at them and if its warm out they are out. I almost stepped on one in Kansas in January one year he was outside a hole sunning and it was in the 30's the night before.

If its not cold out my dogs don't go out in rattle snake country, I am lucky in the area of Georgia I live in there aren't any, but just 15 miles east of here they are common. My dogs have been bitten by copperheads though, that snake breaks them.


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