DESERT SUN (Palm Springs, California) 18 May 04 Get your dog rattlesnake ready - Three valley vets offer shot to ease snakebite pain (Richard Guzmán)

When it comes to rattlesnakes, Palm Springs resident Bonnie Smith isn’t taking any chances when she walks her dogs along desert trails.

Following a close call with a rattlesnake last fall, Jackson, Smith’s 5-year-old black Labrador and Sadie, her 3-year-old Shepherd mix, were injected with a new rattlesnake vaccine designed to help dogs survive the painful effects of a bite.

"The reaction (to a bite) is so much less and the recovery is so much faster," Smith said of the new vaccine.

The vaccine is the first available for dogs, said Dr. Dale Wallis, a veterinarian with Woodland, Calif.-based Red Rock Biologics, makers of the vaccine.

It works by creating antibodies in the dog that start to neutralize the venom as soon as a rattlesnake strikes.

The vaccine, which so far has been sold by Red Rock to three veterinary clinics in the valley, will help reduce the spread of the venom and the painful effects of a poisonous bite, which can include long-lasting tissue and organ damage as well as swelling.

While it greatly depends on the amount of venom injected by the snake, a vaccinated dog can experience minimal to no signs of the venom after the bite, Wallis said.

Although unvaccinated dogs are still likely to survive a poisonous bite if treated immediately, they are in for a much more painful and possibly debilitating experience, which can include shock and organ failure, Wallis said.

The vaccine has been tested for three species of rattlesnakes: the Western Rattlesnake, the Red Diamond and the Western Diamondback, Wallis said.

Desert Biologist Jim Cornett said there are five type of rattlesnakes in the desert.

He estimated that about a dozen dogs get bitten in the valley every year by rattlesnakes.

While the vaccine has only been tested on three species of rattlesnakes, Wallis said it should still provide some protection against the other two here in the valley. There are no other venomous snakes in the desert, Cornett said.

Although Smith and her dogs ran into a rattlesnake last fall, which slithered within three feet of Jackson before she called him back, she said she feels more secure now when she walks her dogs.

"I feel comfort and relief that this has come out," she said.

"With dogs we see it (snake bites) commonly around the face which will swell and discolor," said Dr. Steve Salk, owner of Palm Springs Animal Hospital, one of the three places in the valley that administer the vaccine.

"The head can swell almost 100 percent. It can look like a basketball," he said.

So far, in the two months he has had the vaccine, Salk has given it to about 30 dogs, he said.

One of the dogs he vaccinated was bitten by a rattlesnake shortly after.

"The reaction was truly 25 percent of what we would expect … we were pleased with the result," he said.

However, Wallis said that despite being vaccinated, dogs bitten by rattlesnakes should still be taken to a veterinarian as soon as possible.

"It’s still a medical emergency," she said.

Vaccinated dogs still run the risk of bacterial infection from the bite and may require steroids to help reduce the pain, Wallis said.
Get your dog rattlesnake ready

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