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Message: <blockquote data-quote="( deleted account )" data-source="post: 222387" data-attributes="member: 5993">I can can attest that it definitely APPEARS to me that it at least helps with a western Diamondback bites.  My spaniel got nailed on the nose by a diamondback probably just out of hibernation and likeley full of venom, about 10 am. By 5 pm despite a couple units of avtivenom and Iv’s she looked so swollen in her front end that we actually thought they were showing us the wrong dog!  By next morning she was pretty well back to normal and had no gangrenous sloughing of necrotic tissue on her muzzle like pictures the internet is full of.was it the vaccine? The anti Venom? A young healthy dog? Luck? I don’t know.  Also we don’t have any way of knowing how “loaded” the snake was, butIMHO every little bit helps, and compared to the cost and family value of a dog it is dirt cheap with minimal if any negative side effects. Not a bad idea to have all the odds on your side, even if arguably the vaccine doesn’t help all that much.  The vets recommend it, and if I remember, it isn’t all that expensive, about the same as any other mutt vaccine. We had done snake avoidance training, too! And Ironically I had rechecked her avoidance 2 days before she got hit with the snake avoidance guy and a defanged diamondback, but she was on the butt of a running quail through desert bitterbrush and got nailed by what the handler calls a “a drive by” which is pure bad luck. The snake instinctively strikes before a running dog has a chance to avoid it. . I’d sure recommend avoidance training, too! I’ve run into a couple diamondbacks and several prairie rattlers with my dog over the yers and wow, her body language, like MSA  says, really lets you know,what is going on.  Unmistakeable.  I’ve had her indicate SNAKE, and looked and looked in high grass or rockpiles for quite a while,before I’ve found the snake.  Every time  I see a live rattler on a warm road I take her out on leash and check her memory. She avoids them like crazy!Best get all the luck on your side you can.  Dogs like family members are too valuable to risk. ImhoMSA, do you know anyone who can do avoidance training in this area?  I’d bet they’d be busy, especially with thiswebsite’s collection of gun dogs.- - - Updated - - -I met a vet from Montana who did recommend vaccine, but said they didn’t stock or use anti venom for prairie rattlers.  Said Conservative treatment was usually sufficient, though some got pretty sick, only rarely did they ever die.  A older Rancher friend said that of the dozens of dogs he has had over the years he’s never had one NOT get bit sooner or later, and had never had one die, though some of them had got pretty sick, some unable to drink or a day or so when nailed on the nose. He gives the dogs vaccine with the usual vaccine now, FWIW.</blockquote>

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