Snake Bite Treatment Considerations and Indication

It is certain that many mild and moderate rattlesnake bites in vaccinated dogs are going un-noticed and/or unreported by dog owners.  It has also been reported that many dogs who are victims of severe rattlesnake bites have been given enough time by the vaccine to receive emergency veterinary care, survive, and recover more quickly and more completely. 

How will rattlesnake vaccine change the way vaccinated dogs are treated for snakebite?  Dog owners should know to treat any rattlesnake bite as a veterinary emergency even in vaccinated dogs.  People often ask why snakebite is still a veterinary emergency if the dog is vaccinated.  The answer is that although many vaccinated dogs bitten by rattlesnakes have enough protection to recover quickly without any veterinary treatment, rattlesnake bites can be complex.  A veterinarian is better qualified to identify the special situations where the vaccine does not give enough protection and give the extra necessary care to help the dog survive. 

It is important to note that rattlesnake bites in vaccinated dogs are often so mild that they are sometimes initially diagnosed as bug bites until the fang marks are found.  Sometimes a dog owner may have seen the dog bitten once but not know that the dog was bitten repeatedly by the same snake. 

If more care is necessary, any of the common treatments for rattlesnake bite are also appropriate for vaccinated dogs.  A veterinarian may still use antivenin, steroids, antihistamines, and fluids to treat snake bites just as she can for a non-vaccinated dog.  Since there are no horse proteins in rattlesnake vaccine there is no contraindication to the use of antivenin.  The vaccine doesn’t protect against post-bite infection so antibiotics may be necessary.  Since the vaccine reduces the severity of the snakebite, an otherwise lethal or severe bite can often be treated as a moderate rattlesnake bite and an otherwise moderate or mild rattlesnake bite may need little or no treatment at all. 

Red Rock Biologics recommends monitoring a dog for 24 hours after snakebite because antibody protection created by the vaccine can be overwhelmed with enough venom.  This is particularly true for small dogs or multiple snake bites to the same dog.  When a vaccinated dog gets a rattlesnake bite, he is usually given an intramuscular injection of venom.  As that venom begins to leach into the dog’s blood system, the antibodies in the dog’s blood quickly find and bind to those venom proteins to neutralize them.  In some snake bites, a dog starts out doing quite well as the first of this venom is neutralized but later gets worse as his antibodies are all used up and more venom leaches into the dog’s blood system unchecked.  Though the vaccine still buys the dog time and neutralizes some of the venom, this type of snake bite situation can require more therapy than initially indicated. 

Dogs recently bitten by rattlesnakes should wait at least 30 days after full recovery to start or continue vaccination.  It is common that people who have already had their dogs bitten by rattlesnakes suddenly become very interested in the vaccine.  Wait for a month after full recovery because you don’t want to re-challenge the dog’s immune system until he has had a good chance to clear out most of the previous venom. 

How do you know which dogs should get this vaccine?  Here is the problem:  Since specialty vaccines are not prescribed as often as core vaccines, dog owners don’t know to ask about them and vets may forget to talk about them.  This is unfortunate because most dog owners in veterinary clinics are there because they want to know what is available to protect their “family members” and are depending on those veterinary clinics to tell them.

Over 75% of veterinary clinics have neither standard forms nor procedures to evaluate dogs for special risks or inform clients about vaccines that minimize those risks.  Many veterinarians have problems recommending procedures because they don’t like to be seen as pushy.  Along with Rattlesnake Vaccine, kennel cough, lyme disease, and leptospirosis are all serious biological threats to dogs.  These risks can be identified by asking a few quick questions about the dog’s environment and activities. 

Dog owners will be upset if they are not given the option of a protective vaccine before it is too late.  It is a whole lot easer and safer for a vet to just mention a vaccine and have it declined by the dog owner than to have to explain why the vet never mentioned it after the unprotected dog gets sick. 

The simplest solution is to inform pet owners while screening for risks with standardized forms.  This is standard practice in human medicine.  A pet health examination form can be a template with which a veterinary technician can interview a dog owner to screen a dog for dozens of obvious and hidden problems for which the veterinary clinic has services to help. 

Other benefits of standardized forms include that they brief veterinarians better before entering the exam room to see the pet, increase the quality of care for the pet, maximize the doctor’s time efficiency, improve communication between the clinic and the pet owner, increase clinic sales, they are simple, cost effective, and can limit legal liability. 

Red Rock Biologics provides a toll free number for customer support and consultation for both veterinarians and dog owners.  They also provide titer testing in special situations to see whether dogs have received full protection from the vaccine.  They provide client brochures, posters, reminder post cards, and counter top displays to raise the awareness of the vaccine and rattlesnake risks.  Red Rock can also provide free templates of pet questionnaires and evaluation forms that clinics can use to help screen pets for risks while educating pet owners.