{Wes Note: If you want to see some dramatic 'before & after' pics, go to the URL at the bottom of the item}



TUCSON CITIZEN (Arizona) 20 April 05 Rattlesnake class teaches dog new trick (Larry Copenhaver)

Photos: Audra and Kyle Bastie's chocolate Labrador retriever, Maisy, suffered a rattlesnake bite April 4, causing her face to swell. The dog was treated with antibiotics and painkillers and recovered within three days, with only two puncture marks on her cheeks remaining. (Audra Bastie)

Dogs and rattlesnakes don't mix.

It's a message poignantly driven home during warm months by the admission of snakebitten animals rushed to veterinary facilities, said veterinarian Annalisa Prahl of the Southern Arizona Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center.

Has the season begun in Tucson?

"Oh, my goodness, yes," Prahl said. "I think we have three in the hospital now. It's really starting to pick up in the last two weeks. Throughout the summer, we will see one to two a day."

Many dogs can be taught to stay away from rattlesnakes, said Jill Wohlfeil, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. The shelter offers Rattlesnake Avoidance Training on Saturday evenings for $65.

The two-hour session usually is all it takes to teach a dog that rattlesnakes are something to avoid, Wohlfeil said. "The dogs learn to recognize the snakes by sight, scent and sound."

The classes, taught in the Companions for Life Center, 3465 E. Kleindale Road, require trainers to use an electrified collar and a live rattlesnake that has had venom glands and ducts surgically removed, she said. When a dog-in-training approaches the snake, a mild shock comes from the collar.

"One training session and one free follow-up are included in the fee," Wohlfeil said. "The training is very effective, and it usually sticks the first time."

"If I had a dog, I probably would do it. It won't hurt anything," Prahl said.

And if the lesson takes, it could save pet owners a lot of money. Treatment for a rattlesnake bite costs from $1,300 to $1,800 at the clinic if there are no complications, Prahl said. It usually requires the pet to remain in the hospital for 36 to 72 hours.

Audra Bastie, who lives near North Silverbell and West Cortaro roads, said she plans to enroll her dog in the snake avoidance classes, even though her female chocolate Labrador retriever, Maisy, already has gone through the pain and disfigurement of a rattlesnake bite.

She and her husband, Kyle, took Maisy to a neighborhood animal hospital April 4, but they didn't have the $1,700 to $2,000 the technician said it would cost to administer anti-venom and provide other treatment, Bastie said. "We were terrified. The technician said Maisy would probably lose part of her face."

For a short time, she and her husband considered putting the dog down, but they decided to buy antibiotics and painkillers from the hospital and do their best to nurse the animal back to health.

"Within three days Maisy was doing just great. She was awesome," Audra Bastie said. "Since then, we have talked to other people who said their dogs were bitten and got through it."

Veterinarian Prahl said she didn't have data about the death rate of untreated dogs bitten by rattlesnakes because survival can depend on several variables including pet size, the amount of venom injected in the bite and the species of the snake doing the bitting.

Even with treatment, 5 percent die, she said. "Without it, they have far more problems."

If you go

Where: Companions for Life Center, 3465 E. Kleindale Road

When: 5:30 and 7 p.m. Saturdays. More classes will be scheduled if necessary.

Cost: $65

Minimum dog age: 10 months

Call: 795-6181
Rattlesnake class teaches dog new trick

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