Recommendations on Rattlesnake Bite Management

[whinny]

Recommendations on Rattlesnake Bite Management
by: Stacey Oke, DVM, MSc
July 06 2008, Article # 12185
The United States is home to 26 species of rattlesnakes, making rattlesnake bites relatively common events in equine medicine. A talk entitled, "Just another Snake Bite? Pathophysiology, Treatment, & Long-Term Effects," was included at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Forum, held June 4-7.

According to Lyndi Gilliam, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, assistant professor in the department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, Oklahoma State University, "rattlesnake bites can affect horses in a number of ways because the venom contains a mixture of natural products that can cause extensive tissue damage, coagulopathy (clotting abnormalities) and/or thrombocytopenia (low platelet counts) leading to bleeding disorders, cardiovascular toxicity (heart damage), and neurotoxicity (nerve damage)."

Horse owners definitely need to resist the urge to begin sucking the venom from their horse's rattlesnake bite, as this was certainly not one of the recommendations made by Gilliam.

Instead, Gilliam provided a concise description of the appropriate management of rattlesnake bites which includes:

Seek veterinary attention;
Immobilize the horse as much as possible to minimize the spread of toxins;
Don't apply ice or a tourniquet.
A veterinarian would then:

Perform blood work (e.g., fibrinogen, red blood cell morphology, clotting times) to assess severity of the bite;
Administer of intravenous fluids (if indicated) to improve blood flow to the affected tissues;
Utilize pain medications appropriately, and;
If financially feasible, use antivenin.
"I also recommend the routine administration of tetanus toxoid (if the horse is not current) and prophylactic antibiotics in cases of envenomation. Corticosteroids are controversial in the scientific literature but have been very beneficial in my patients," said Gilliam.

While death due to rattlesnake bites is rare, long term complications can and do occur. In particular, cardiac dysfunction is not uncommon and follow-up examinations should be performed at least 12 months following the incident.

Gilliam's research at Oklahoma State University funded by the ACVIM Foundation has documented that heart muscle damage does occur in horses bitten by rattlesnakes. Research is ongoing to determine the exact portion of the venom causing the damage and to try to establish optimal treatment/prevention for potential career or life-ending cardiac damage.

[Meeka]

Very inturesting.

[Tuffyspop]

We had confirmation from our vet about 3 weeks ago that Tuffy had been bitten by a Copperhead or Massauga Rattler. More likely Copperhead .

We were at a day ride at the park, had brought Snazzy, Jake and Tuffy, and noticed after washing the mud and muck off Tuffy, that he had a swollen right hind leg above the fetlock joint.

I noticed two small pencil sized wounds. As the day wore on, his ankle swelled and he became a bit lethargic. We did water therapy, treated the wound for infection with viodine soap, dried it, then iodine, and started him on 20ml penn. when we got him home.

After day two, the swelling was worse, the wound was oozing badly, so we called the Vet. He took one look, said yes, it was snakebite, and told us we had done right. He gave him a dose of Banamine for the swelling, told me to keep up the 20ml penn for 5 days, and gave us some DMSO for the wound to dry it up and kill proud flesh.

After 2 more days, he really looked a lot better. After day 5, you could hardly tell. Snazzy will post some pictures we took of the wound from the start. Now, it's completely healed.

[Snazzy]

Iam posting a picture of Tuffy horse snake bite. It is all gone now and looks so much better. <br><br>Post edited by: Snazzy, at: 2008/07/09 03:53

[Snazzy]

another

[Snazzy]

one more

[whinny]

YUCCY..I AMOST GOT IT THE OTHER DAY WITH A COPPERHEAD.WAS IN MY STALL THEN SLITHERD DOWN TOWARD THE WOOD AND JUST LOOKED AT ME,,BEAUTIFUL SNAKE BUT DEADLY..THANK GO I WAS ON THE TRACTOR OR I WOULD OF BEEN BIT AND THE HORSES WERE OUT THANK HEAVENS