Squaw Valley pet owner advocates for rattlesnake vaccine after dog's near-deadly encounter

REEDLEY, Calif. (FOX26) — Warm weather means rattlesnakes are getting more active.

[RELATED: Rattlesnake bites among dogs on the rise]

A woman in Reedley just learned the hard way what that can mean for pets. Now, Amber Johnson-Sparks is encouraging everyone to get their dogs vaccinated against rattlesnake bites.

Johnson-Sparks says she always wanted a golden retriever. She got Comet when he was about 8 weeks old.

She has another dog too, and says she and her husband do the best to protect them.

“They stay in their pens at nighttime because we actually have a mountain lion in the area, so we need to make sure they’re extra safe," said Johnson-Sparks. "My husband let them out around 8:30 in the morning. I think I saw him once when I looked out the wedding. Then around 11:30, I went outside and he came running in the house and his whole face was swollen, he couldn’t breathe.”

She says Comet had been playing outside, and when he came in he was in clear distress. His neck started swelling and he couldn't breathe, so she brought him to veterinarians in Reedley, who gave him two doses of rattlesnake antivenom.

He stayed in the hospital overnight and is back home now, doing okay.

"He’s not really healed up. The swelling went down, he’s breathing a lot better. So I think the anti-venom helped him a lot.”

But Johnson-Sparks says she wishes she'd gotten him the rattlesnake vaccine that could have eased his suffering a bit.

That vaccine only costs around $25-$40. That's compared to the $1500 veterinary hospital bill the Johnson-Sparks family wound up with.

"It’s been so scary and so expensive," said Sparks-Johnson. "We could have just spent $42 and he would’ve had way less symptoms than this. He’s so worth it – we wouldn’t do it any other way. But it would’ve been so much cheaper if I would’ve just went and done it. Now we have appointments for both of them to get that done.”

[RELATED:Pet Vet, 3/9 - Rattlesnake Bites]

For the vaccine, your pup will get a main shot and then a booster 30 days later. After that, you'll want to get a new booster shot every six months or so (or one booster shot a year, one month before the start of rattlesnake season if your dog is not at high risk).

FOX26 News reached out to the manufacturers of the vaccine, Red Rock Biologics. A Senior Staff Veterinarian with that company, Dale Wallis, DVM, told FOX,

The rattlesnake vaccine is one tool that can help prevent envenomation injury. The vaccines stimulate the immune system of the dog or horse to produce antibodies that bind venom...It is important that envenomed animals be seen by a veterinarian as soon as possible after a snakebite. No one knows how much venom was injected.

----

Dale Wallis, DVM was one of the people directly involved in teh testing and licensing of the vaccines for rattlesnake bites in dogs and horses. Wallis' full response to FOX26's inquiry was as follows:

"The rattlesnake vaccine is one tool that can help prevent envenomation injury. The vaccines stimulate the immune system of the dog or horse to produce antibodies that bind venom. Much like antivenom (concentrated antivenom antibodies) these vaccine-elicited antibodies can neutralize some or all of the venom dose received in a snakebite. This has advantages.

For one, the vaccine-generated antibody is already present when the snakebite occurs. There is no delay between envenomation and when the antibodies can start to work. Necrosis (death) of tissue can begin in as little as 20 minutes after an envenomation, and this is an irreversible event -- once the cells are dead, they have to be cleared out and new ones grown to fill in, which results in scarring and possible loss of function. Early neutralization of venom is key to reducing or preventing necrosis.

For another, not all venom components (typically 10-15 or more different peptides and proteins) are active when injected. Antibody binding of venom components prevents activation, and thus lessens the severity of the envenomation. It is well established that early treatment with antivenom requires fewer vials than delaying treatment of a snakebite.

It is important that envenomed animals be seen by a veterinarian as soon as possible after a snakebite. No one knows how much venom was injected, and no one knows how high the vaccine-generated antivenom antibody titer is. If there is sufficient venom to overwhelm the vaccinated animal's immunity, they may require antivenom to control the rest of the venom their own immunity couldn't.

Two doses of the vaccine spaced a month apart are required in the first year for dogs; three doses at monthly intervals are required for horses. Dogs under 25# or over 100# may benefit from a third dose one month later in the initial sequence. Thereafter, annual boosters are recommended.

The vaccines can cause injection site reactions; this vaccine is only available through your veterinarian."