So I do live in rattle snake county. Not tons of them but have killed a few over the years on the place. This year feels worse. Lots more mice than any year before. Had no winter last winter to kill anything off. I worry more about my heeler mix than the Chihuahua. But both get outside enough to be concerned. Not so much with the tiny one.
I do not like to give then needless vaccines. And do not anything about them. I wonder if my 45lb heeler would survive a snake bit.
I do not live in a place where I could take them for emergency care quickly. It would take me 2 hrs to get to 24 hr. emergency care. Thoughts?.

I’m not a vet…I’d be concerned with a 45lb dog and a 2+ hour transport time. Would definitely weigh the pros/cons of the vaccine.

That said, rattlesnake bites are rarely fatal with prompt treatment. And I think 2 hours would be within that window as long as it wasn’t a bite to the face.

Valid concern.

I've had my dogs vaccinated and my herding dogs went to avoidance training. Our vet is good and he's in favor of the vaccine. Both our late Border Collie and current Borderdoodle have alerted to something in the area, I've never confirmed a rattlesnake, but they sure reacted.

I had our late Morkie vaccinated as a precaution, she did hike off leash but wasn't as curious as the herders.

These folks seem to be the experts on the subject. Link below.

They say the vaccine isn't effective and it can be harmful in some cases. Do a search of their page and you can read other posts on the Rattlesnake vaccine subject.
They also mention a number of other old wives tail type treatments that are between not effective to harmful. They include Benadryl, antibiotics and various over the counter medications.
All North American venomous snakes get the same prescription anti-venom treatment except for Coral Snakes.


Just be sure to read only, do not post in an ongoing thread unless you have an active snakebite situation. You can post specific questions in a new post.

Once you read a few of these cases you get the idea.

https://www.facebook.com/national.snakebite.support

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 220-9er,

As an alternative to a prophylactic vaccine, talk to your vet about maybe putting together a canine-specific post-bite emergency kit that might include an anti-venin, suction implements, anti-histamines, etc. It appears that there are a number of "snake bite kits" available that could be a good starting point. They appear to be more focused on venom extraction through suction than medicinal treatments, that's where your vet would come in.

Good luck, sincerely hoping you'll never need one.

Ask your vet? When I moved to Arizona, I asked the vet about rattlesnake vaccine for my dogs. He talked me out of it but, then again, we live inside the town even though we get families of javalina going through our front yard and we get occasional alerts of mountain lions and coyotes in the neighborhood.

My vet said it was bullshit. Expensive, doesn’t work for all species, usually unnecessary. I’ve had dogs and cats both get bit, the last one by a baby rattler. They just needed some antbiotics to help with infection. The swelling went down over a few days.

We lived in the Arizona desert for years. I think a better course of action is aversion training for your dog. There should be trainers locally available. Most use an e-collar and captive rattlers to condition a dog to avoid them altogether.

Thanks for the info. As I said, not want to vaccinate. Just wondering what is what when it comes to snakes and a bite if it happens.

Avoidance training, if you can find a good trainer, sounds like a solid idea regardless of what else you do.

When my bassets were around I had my vet give them the vaccine, as he said all the vaccine does is give those bitten time to get to a vet or if alone for longer time a chance to survive the bite. Both my hounds were bassets all the way and their noses ruled their lives. I thank God they were never bitten. My father in laws beagle was bitten when he was 8 months old and also got the vaccine. We were out for the day so we were not sure when he gotten bitten but it was a couple of hours. Thankfully he survived and yes vet bill was high but at time the vaccine was about $100 a year and so worth it. Vet said only reason he survived was the vaccine, hate to put a price on a pet but give them a chance to survive the bite.

We live in Central Arizona and there are rattlers about. We had one in our yard last year, next door neighbor had one in her yard about a week ago. So we had our ~80# boxer vaccinated, and go back in a few weeks for a booster. The vet emphasized that a bite is an emergency vet situation, even if the dog has been vaccinated. Emergency vet would be about 2 hours or so away. We figured that if bit, the vaccination might give us time to get him to the emergency vet.

We did the aversion training with a previous boxer, and may do it with this one. I do think it has value, but thought he'd probably have stuck his nose right up in the face of a rattler anyway. Thankfully, he never encountered one...

I did not know there was even a rattlesnake vaccine, but I know about the rattlesnake treatment after a bite to a dog and it is effective. I do not know the timeframe.

My asshole brother had a dog I loved so much get bit by a rattlesnake and he didn’t want to spend the close to $500 for the anti-venom shot that would have saved his life. Instead, he let him suffer all night and finally die in the morning. I was PISSED! I loved that dog and told him if he had told me, I would have paid for the shot to save his life.If it was me and I lived close enough to a vet to deliver an anti-venom shot, I would go with that before a pre-vaccination route.

Dad lost a hunting dog..we think it was because of the vaccine...not due to any snake bite. I'd never give it to my dog ever again.

Make a plan with a vet you can reach in that 2 hour time, now.

If it happens, immobilize the dog in a carrier/crate and get straight to the vet.

So not waste any time trying to "treat" the dog.

Call when you get rolling to give them a head's up.

That's about the best thing you can do in your case.

Heelers are pretty tough and have a very high recovery within 4 hours, depending on the bite location, venom dose, age and health of the dog, keeping the dog calm and getting to the vet to be treated.

Most dogs in a crate/carrier will "nap" in a vehicle. Dark helps, but keep airflow so they do not overheat.

Hope you never have to make the run.

Skip it. There's no real evidence that it does anything beneficial as far as I can see, and as with any vaccine there is a potential for harm. We got it for our dogs at first, but elected not to update it after reading more about it.

Yeah, I agree guys, ain't gonna happen. We will be as careful as we can.

Took our chi chi in for a teeth cleaning yesterday. I was a nervous wreck about putting her under to have it done.