Western Rattlesnake

Western Rattlesnake

The most commonly seen snake in our area is the western rattlesnake.  This has been a “banner” year for rattlesnake spotting in our area.  Zell found one in mid-June, curled up just beyond where he was sitting on the ground, petting Coda.  A few weeks later, I was coming up a hill near the house after a hike with the dogs and we almost stepped on one under a tree.  In both cases, Zell was able to “escort” the snake to a far-away wash.  He uses a long hiking stick to get under the snake, which drapes itself over the stick.  He then moves it to a bit further away from the house.  (A rattler can’t strike if it’s not coiled.)  He developed and perfected this technique when he was a volunteer hawk enumerator at the Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch in Morrison, CO–a place with numerous snakes sunning themselves in the spring sunshine.  You can see a video of Zell escorting a rattler out of one of our dog runs here.

Sadly, our neighbor down the road came across a rattler just last weekend; somehow, her old dog sat on it and it bit her on the thigh.  The dog died later that afternoon.  We had a young dog (who is no longer with us, but for other reasons) bit by a rattler as well; it looked like only one fang made contact on his nose.  It was a long night before we could get him to the vet–his face swelled up dramatically and he was having trouble breathing.  But luckily, the nose doesn’t have as many blood vessels in it to carry the toxin to the rest of the body (unlike our neighbor’s dog’s bite in the blood-vessel-rich thigh).  That night, we did one good thing and one bad thing to try to help him (and us) through the night.  The good thing–we gave him a dose of Benadryl for the allergic reaction; the bad thing–we gave him aspirin for the pain (which thins the blood and could have made the situation much worse).  By the time we could get him to the vet in the morning, he had passed the crisis stage and we mostly just treated him to prevent infection.

A vaccine exists for dogs, although it appears to be a bit uncertain as to whether it is really worth the time, effort, or money.  Antivenin is available at many vets, but it has to be administered pretty soon after the bite.  Our neighbor was unable to find a vet  in time who had the antivenin.  It was a Saturday afternoon–not prime vet clinic time in our area.

Life in the country isn’t always the most pleasant.

© 2008 Tina Mitchell