Snake Bite Vaccine for Dogs?

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Wildlife officials release snake safety information
Diamond Hubbard - 5/18/22 7:58 PM

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - Oklahoma is home to 44 different kinds of snakes, but by nature, snakes are defensive and don’t want to bite, but some will bite if they feel threatened.

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Sarah Angiel at Medicine Park Aquarium and Natural Sciences Center said snakes can strike within ¾ of their body length.

Southwest Oklahoma has many open fields, large bodies of water and hot weather snakes are prone to be around.

Susan Roskam, a local hiker and Founder of the Facebook group Women of the Wichitas, said there are a few things people need to be on the lookout for while hiking...snakes and ticks. Here’s how she keeps an eye out for snakes.

“I’ve seen a couple of rattlesnakes,” she said. “They go on their way. They don’t hang around, and if you make noise too, they hear it. They feel it. They stay out of the way.”

As for ticks, there are precautions hikers can take before ever stepping foot on a trail.

“I generally tuck my pants in and my shirts are always tucked in, and I use spray,” Roskam said.

Sarah Angiel Biology manager and head of snakes at Medicine Park Aquarium and Natural Sciences Center said snakes are more active this time of year but aren’t always out to hurt people.

“So there not necessarily fond of people, keep in mind there more afraid of you than you are of them,” Angiel said. “They can get into defensive stances, which kind of looks like an S, they kind of curl their body up. And in that stance, they can strike within ¾ of their body length. Typically their out in the mornings and in the evenings, as well as on nice sunny days, they do like to bask in the sun. So there going to be in rockier areas basking, you can hear them obviously the rattle.”

But people also want to take care of their dogs. A local veterinarian said there is a vaccine which helps dogs heal quicker if they are bitten by a rattlesnake.

Veterinarian Larry Chambers has been offering this vaccine since 2010 to his patients.

It’s a single dose repeated 30 days later. He said it works well, it really can lessen the pain and the swelling a dog gets when it is bitten.

Chamber said this vaccine is only for dogs and recommends dogs that are outside a lot get this vaccine.

Treatment tips can be found here.