Does anyone know someone in your the Austin area that snake proofs dogs. Please post contact details and info

No one can snake proof a dog, avoid snakes yes, snake proof no... PM Wal1809, https://www.snakebreaker.com/

I highly recommend Wayne (Wal1809) . He will be at my place again in Weatherford on Aug 4.

Cory Winter (512)565-1788

The shock-avoidance snakeproofing clinics are well worthwhile. Jury is out on Red Rock Biologics Crotalus atrox "vaccine." Some vets say is is worthless. I've talked to others who deal with a lot of dog snakebites who say the difference in reaction is night and day. I think it is cheap insurance for our guys and gals that we love so much.
https://redrockbiologics.com/

I was gonna say you are wrong, but you might be right. First google search I find this..

https://www.snakebitefoundation.org...do-not-recommend-the-rattlesnake-vaccine

For what it's worth, my 30 lb cocker got hit in the neck by a fat rattler down south in late February...she had been vaccinated and lived...she was treated with 2 vile of the anti-venom ($$$$)...the vets believe the vaccine potentially reduced the effects of the venom...

Thanks to everybody for the great information

The common knowledge out there, that I have heard, the vaccine just buys you more time to get your dog to the vet, and how much it helps varies by dog, but it helps.

My vet is really good, but I suspect he has never treated a dog for a rattle snake bite, simply because he is from north Dallas and not very many rattle snakes around. It would be an interesting study to call all the vets in rattle snake parts of the state and get their opinion, I would love to see a study like that. And for each opinion, ask how many bit dogs have they treated. If you only treated a few, you don’t know. If you have treated 100 dogs, a vet with that kinda experience, they are gonna know.

I'd venture to say there aren't very many who have treated hundreds of dogs as you say...folks in that part of the country aren't like us as it pertains to how they treat their pet. Most attempt to make them comfortable and hope for the best...if it's God's will, then it's God's will for that dog to make it.

I'm 100% on board with Wayne's training but never did the vaccine...there was enough negative out there about dogs having reactions or site infections I didn't feel the juice was worth the squeeze. My dog was more apt to run across a moccasin versus a rattler.

I’d be willing to bet Dr. Vickers in Falfurrias has probably treated 100 dogs. Older South Texas country vet. I took my pointer to him January 10, 2023 about an hour after she had been bitten in the snout and upper lip by a 4’ rattlesnake. I hung out about 45 minutes visiting with him while he started administering anti venom. The dog had been given the vaccine over the last 4 years. Can’t say if it helped or not, but when I picked her up 4 days later you really couldn’t tell she had been bitten.

My dog as well, but a moccasin won’t kill your dog like a rattler will.


That’s not smart, your dog gets bit by rattler, it needs to be taken straight to the vet, time is of essence.

Vet treating 100 dog…. I just made that number up, my point is that a vet that has treated a lot of dogs knows more about its effectiveness than anyone.

My advice to you would be to take your mutt to Olney on your Haskell trips.I had a dog rattlesnakebit a few years ago in the chest. They saved her and it cost just over $1000. I don’t buy Snakeproofing Dogs. I’ve shocked the chit out of dogs when watching them attack a skunk. A male pointer won’t be desuaded.

I have called the vet in Haskell several times, my plan has always been to take my dog there if she gets bit. They said my dogs gets bit when they are closed, there is an after hours number the vet would met me there. I suspect that vet office has treated a lot of dogs.

She is the best! She met me on a Sunday.

68rust...that's awesome you're dog made it. That might be one...he is definitely a well known vet in the area, you're right.

Yeah, I always carried benadryl for my dog...they get hit with a moccasin, that will normally be what is needed...unless they get infection from the bite location.

Scale...no doubt there are some dogs that just hate a snake enough you ain't going to break them. Off all people, Wayne told me about one of his that no matter what he did that dog hated snakes and killed everyone he could get his mouth around. I can confidently say it worked on mine and she would side step things she saw in the yard that resembled a snake years after Wayne's introduction...let's just say, he left a lasting impression

It’s important to do the snake breaking as a pup, as their first experience with a snake. Once a dog gets after a snake and kills it, now it is a full blown habit and very hard to break them of that habit.

And you need to keep up the training. Issue with my dog is she knows when I take her to snake training, I can’t get here anywhere near the snake to give her a correction. Even if I take her to a different location, she sees everyone and their dogs, she immediately knows what is going on. I need to do a private session with Wayne, have him set up in a field by my house I normally take her, she needs to wear her collar (I different collar she will know something is up), and Wayne will need hide in bushes to zap her because she knows what he looks like.

Do you own a vizsla?

Here you go, Guy. Podcast from the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation with vet in Sweetwater. This vet claims he treated 65 snakebit dogs and horses just in one year. He thinks the vaccine is great, but he admits there is not science, it is anecdotal.
Link
Here is a copy of their summary of the podcast.
Nothing can ruin a quail hunt like a snakebit bird dog, and warm weather during early-season hunts increases the odds and risks of encountering rattlesnakes while afield. To learn how to handle such encounters, join us for this month’s episode of our Dr. Dale on Quail podcast for an interview with Dr. Bud E. Alldredge, Jr. DVM of Sweetwater. Given his tenure (51 years of practicing) and his location (Sweetwater, long-time home of the world’s largest rattlesnake round-up), Dr. Alldredge has treated hundreds of snakebitten dogs. Click the button below to hear what Dr. Alldredge has learned and what to do if you run into a rattler this season.

The vaccine came up here years ago and I posted something I had read in the Houston Chronicle, an interview with a doctor who treats HUMAN snake bites. He said unequivocally that the dog vaccine is a scam. Obviously, he would not have had first-hand experience, and he just made a quick remark without explanation, but I think he was saying the science showed it couldn't work.
My vet recommends, so I get it in all my dogs. I had one dog get a swollen area at the injection site for a few days, but no other problems personally. If I recall correctly, my vet said it helps on rattlers, may help a little on copperheads, and probably not at all on cottonmouths, but, like already said, those bites don't usually kill.

Thanks, that great information, an experienced vet like that knows. Yeah apparently there is just anecdotal information. The only way to do a study would be to have a lot of vets participate on logging snake bite treatments and answering standard questions of the treatment and outcome where a statistical analysis could be done over a study period.

That Dr shouldn’t be making comments that it is a scam when has no first hand experience. Nothing wrong with him saying there is no science to back it, if that is indeed a fact, I don’t know really. I suspect there is some science. I have always heard the vaccine is just for rattlers.

Rhetorical question?

The thread made me contact an old high school/grade school friend. He has been a vet in Abilene for 30 years, he is retiring end of the month. He said he treats a lot of dogs for rattle snake, he said the vaccine definitely helps.



Have not talked to him in 30 or 40 years, this is old high school pic, he is top left, I'm right. That is my red corvette too, which I paid for, I roofed houses back then and made big bucks for a kid. He was smart as hell too, that old car of his, he completely rebuilt that motor and transmission. He was the one got me into labs, he had 2 labs, and talked me into getting one.

Last year early teal season, Tara's snake training did not work very well. Tara was on my right, she had no idea the there was snake on my left. I looked to my left and it was 2 foot from my face wiggling its tongue at me, skart the pee pee out of me...





I know it's nonpoisonous, but it still f'n bites, and I don't like snakes trying to french kiss me..

Was out with Junior one day when he jumped sideways, I looked down and here was this guy. Normally he'd have attacked it, he had a very high prey drive. On the second dog now. I've always taken them to the snake clinic and vaccinated them.

This was from a long time ago. My girl Molly (RIP 2015) was injured, so I was hunting without her. Good thing too, because this little fella was right in our path and this path I tipically let Molly run ahead of me. I would hope with her training she would have stayed clear of it, but you never know. When I walked up on it, it was right in the middle of the path, up in the air, and its mouth was wide open, it was all white mouth and it was like shaking it was so ready to bite, it was wicked looking. By the time I got my camera out it shut its mouth.

Only asked because one of my Vizslas quickly figured out if it was a avoidance clinic, you could not get her near a snake. Off lead, away from there she would still try to track them.

the gsp club of san antonio hosts events twice a year for snake avoidance training!

Our dogs are similar on your first sentence, but not the last sentence. I have not seen where she has any interest in snakes. She is a funny girl, she is crazy about ducks and dove, any other animals she has no interest. She has a very interesting unique personality, she gets corrected on something, and she is like "ok, I get it". The pic where I shot that snake, she completely ignored it. I did see if she would go after it, she would not even look at it.

I snake trained several of my labs myself and had great success. Except for a yellow named Drake. He loved to hunt, loved everyone but was dumb as a box of rocks about certain things, snakes being one of them.