Rattlesnake Vaccine?
 

I just spent the past three weeks ... My mutt lived. Do any of you guys have experience with the vaccine? Thanks:(

The family dog got bitten just after I joined the army, she was given the vaccine and lived and was fine. Several hundred bucks to mom and dad...

My wife is a Vet Technician and has experience in this MANY times while living in Louisinana


Ed

Be thankful it was not you. Here in AZ a dose is $20,000 to $22,000 for humans.

Do not confuse the rattlesnake vaccine with anti venum serum. They are two different things. The vaccine is given to dogs is less than 20 bucks. It creates antibodies in the pooch for use if he is bitten. A yearly booster is recommended.
Then anti venom serum for dogs runs around 500 bucks a dose and in general a vet only gives one dose and sees if it is going to affect the bite. Rarely do they give more than one ,unlike humans where anti venom serum is very expensive..2000 dollars a dose and they might give you 10 or so depending on the severity of the bite.
Many people are alergic to anti venom serum and it can kill you before the snake bite does.
You can also have an unpleasant reaction to anti venom serum and break out in hives..sometimes days after you have taken it. Very serious and this can kill you as well.
If your dog is exposed to rattlers, see your vet about the vaccine...Jerry Burney

Thanks Jerry, The vaccination is what I was referring to. There is no way I can keep the snakes away. I live in rattler heaven. My dogs are older so I don't wan't to do the animal trainer routine on them. I do a good sweep of the property a couple times a day. I recognize the intruder bark, but it is not allways in time. My mutt ,45 lbs., real dog , 8-9 yrs. old was in such pain that he would just stand and stare at me. With a cartoon swollen face, and piddle. Which he would never ordinarily do under any curcumstance. The other dog is 65 lbs. of fragile disposition and a pretty boy, 11 or 12 yrs. old. Palmetto and scrub oak a thousand yards in each direction. A few pines where the loggers didn't get them. I have never been beyond the hundred yard point because I can't find my snake leggins in my storage. 2.5 yrs. What is there to look at?. I am going to put a 100 yd. musket target out there. I need to learn to eat / cook /clean rabbit! :cheers:

G.W., With that many rattlers around you won't need to learn to eat / cook /clean rabbit! Jerry Burney

Jerry's right! Properly prepared Rattlesnake meat is quite tasty, so I'm told. We have Watermoccasins and Copperheads down here, the Moc's stink too much and the Copperheads ain't big enough to eat. :evilgrin:

If I were starving I'd probably relish snake meat (remember the "Naked Prey"?). Until then I'll stick to things like beef and pork. :rolleyes: :D

I could tell you guys a story about rattlers you wouldn't believe about a place 350 miles or so east of where I am now and 50 or so years ago. I can't believe I was ever that young, but it really does seem like yesterday.

Rattlesnake meat is at least palatable, if not necessarily tasty. But it is tough and full of bones...takes a lot of pickin' to get a mouthful. It will never replace a good burger.

When I was in Louisiana and came across some copperheads in the grass close to some water, well, they didn't look small to me! :icon107: :D

I worked with a guy that brought turtle to work and would cook it like fried chicken. It was good. The bones were flat. The Naked Pray is a good movie. Even the smallest moccasin looks big to me as they sometimes move toward me. I got them too. And coral snakes. I have had rattlesnake. My friends eat it. I don't care for it. :) Are copperheads related to mocca I know that cottonmouth and moccasin are the same. I think.? :cheers:

I don't think Copperheads and Water Moccassins are related, other than both being pit vipers. Cottonmouth Moccassins are a type of Water Moccassin with white or light colored insides of their mouths. When they open their mouths to hiss at you, their open mouth is in stark contrast to the black body. After you have been around Moccassins for a while, you can usually tell when one is near, they have a distinct smell to them that is very strong. They also have an ugly disposition, and are not prone to running away, they prefer to hiss and strike. Also, they don't have to be coiled to strike like a Rattlesnake, they can strike from any position either in or out of the water.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/cottonmouth.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/copperhead.jpg

Copperheads are different, and and a danger where they live!. Thanks.

I grew up in South Georgia near the Florida line, and water moccasins were quite common around fresh water ponds. When we were little boys we made great sport of shooting them with slingshots. Never saw an aggressive one; they would always attempt to escape.

Never knew anyone to have been bitten, but dogs would frequently get too close and often were bitten in the head. Sad story . . . . .

A family near our farm cooked "chicken fried" turtle one day and invited me over. Actually, it was quite good.

Luke

Turtle is OK but I perfer to cook it like rabbit. The trouble is that those snapping turtles are nasty and can throw their head back almost the length of their shell. Have to be carefull. Not worth the effort compared to a good steak or Johnsonville brat.

Jerry

Copperheads smell like cucumbers. True story...many years ago when I was a youngster, I was hiking in the woods in Pennsylvania. I was about to step over a fallen log on the trail when I smelled cucumbers. My uncle had told me that is a copperhead smell, and sure enough when I went around the end of the log, under the log on the other side was a nice sized copperhead. Copperheads are kind of shy snakes, so even if I had stepped over the log he probably wouldn't have moved, but it was still a relief to see him first!

My home town, Waurika, Okla., has an annual rattlesnake hunt and snake meat is consumed by the gross weight. Barbeque, steaks, soup, meat salad sandwiches, etc. For many decades it was the largest rattleshake hunt in the world. And the largest gathering of fools anywhere! (And, yes, I have been bitten.)

Rattlesanke roundups have severely curtailed the population in my part of the world--not a bad thing in my estimation. I was around a lot of snakes in my early years before these got going, but I only knew of one boy who got bit. Not fun for him for sure.

Hope you suffered no lingering effects, Wes.

Luke,

Apparantly you had domesticated Watermoccassins in South Georgia. In south Louisiana & Texas swamps we have wild ones, and they prefer to take to position pictured in my previous entry rather than flee. :evilgrin:

Hugh -

Maybe the little boys with slingshots in Georgia were just too aggressive . . . or too dumb. :D

Luke

Geez, I'm staying in Michigan!!!! We ain't got no snakes here except for a few politicians. While I was in Kentucky for a couple of years working for Chrysler, the guys there told me that it was great sport to grab a black snake by the tail and whip its head off. Just make sure that it is a slow moving black snake and not a faster cotton mouth. I had to be careful during the rainy season in Kentucky. Lots of flooded areas there and the snakes tend to crawl on peoples pourches until the water goes away.

When I was in Oklahoma in the army, I saw a big snake slither out from under a log in a creek. I couldn't tell what it was because I was looking over my shoulders and running like hell. Actually, I didn't waste time looking over my shoulders. But this did break me of my habit of jogging during the early evening.
Big Norm

When I was in college we took a geology field trip to Batesville Ark one summer to learn how to map geologic formations. It involved a lot of hiking through the woods looking for different outcrops. There was one particular area where we followed a dry creek bed up a mountain. It seemed that there was a Copperhead about every ten steps all the way up that mountain! I think the class of 10 counted over 150 total Copperheads that day. Sure glad they aren't aggressive by nature. After jumping out of our skins over the first few, we finally just carefully stepped around them and kept going! :rolleyes:

My Wife has never asked about the hoe handles I have leaning against the stairs to our front and back porch. I have the funny yard ornaments and such. Bird bath and front and back picnic set ect. Pin wheels galore even. If she knew the real reason..... A guy thing.;) :cheers: Norm, come on down. I'll spot you as you sight in and visa versa. We will buy our meat at Winn-Dixie. Maybe. Everyone, Ya all come too....::) I am very proud of the front /left 25% as a junior high kid cuts across there. I pulled sand spurrs up by the roots and poisened all along the track. I pulled the sand spurrs up out of most of the property and after 2 1/2 yrs am amazed. Little ones instead of great big crop.!!! Killed 3 hog nose as they pretend they are rattler. Enough of my yard, I have finally grown my driveway with grass. With the two tracks.:roflmao: The kids some times run because of the snakes sunning themselves.:(

Speaking of hoe handles...

When I was a boy there were lots of rattlers. One night there was a commotion out at the hen house. Daddy thought it was a fox, but it was a rattler. When he went to kill it with a hoe, the snake struck the handle. Daddy killed the snake and went back to bed.

When we awoke the next morning we found the hoe handle had swelled into a huge log! Being frugal, my dad took it to town and had it sawn into lumber. Then he built a new hen housewith that.

A couple of nights later, another commotion outside. Again, he investigated. Seems there had been a shower earlier and the rain washed all the poison out of the wood which shrank back to its original size and squeezed every hen to death. Lots of squawking, I'll tell you.

Oh Boy, I liked that story. Back to the vaccine. I searched it on the web and decided I will give it to the dogs on the next checkup and shot visit. Thanks for the stories.