Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone know where i can get a tranquilizer gun with a low dose of trangquilizer to knock out rattlesnakes for a brief period. I have heard this method is much safer than tailing or pinning.
Thanks for the help.

...Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints...

Even assuming you could properly guess the weight and thus inject a proper dosage of sedation, the hit from a dart gun on such a small animal is quite likely to cause some devestating effects. Dart guns are made for larger animals; specifically range roaming mammals. Consider verifying your sources on this topic.

In addition, all anesthetics on animals are to be used only by a veterinarian or under direct veterinarian supervision (in the case of research teams for instance). Doing so without a veterinarian is practicing vet. med. without a liscence and against the law (I'm certain the this law pertains to the states as well as Canada)

I should've had this in the above post...
"take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints"

What exactly did you need to tail and pin or tranq. a rattler for?

Tranqing a snake by dart gun is like performing acupuncture on a balloon, there will be a marked loss of pressure when initiated.
Knocking out a snake for telemetry studies or surgery (the only reasons)is accomplished through respiration of fumes from whatever agent you choose to go with.
Good luck!
Lat

np

I couldnt resist. Actually, Matt Goode over at ASU has experience with knocking out tigris. C. Schwalbe told me about it once on the phone, cant remember the agents used but it would be simple to find out, and with PROPER instruction, easy to do.
Cheers
Lat

Matt and Cecil are at the University of Arizona, not ASU. Matt, like me, was a student of Cecil's in Renewable Natural Resources. Also, for anaesthetics, Halothane was used until recently, when Isoflourane was deemed a more suitable anaethesia. These are inhaled, NOT injected, and are controlled substances obtainable only by trained individuals, primarily veterinarians. I have never heard of anyone needing to use a dart gun or any similar apparatus to knock down a snake. Which, of course, begs the question: why are you asking about tranquilizer guns to knock out rattlesnakes?
Eric

Did you premed with any injectables or just use an induction chamber? I agree that iso is much more beneficial than halothane. Funny though, it isn't a controlled drug here in Canada; but hard to obtain if not in a clinic of some sort.

np