So What About All Those Rattlesnakes

You might have read the post from Tuesday about our backpacking trip with Miles. It was all about how to prepare your dog for an adventure in the back country and our preparation and experience with Miles. It sure did pay off and as you know, we had a great time.

One of the contingencies not mentioned in that post, but covered in detail elsewhere on the blog, was rattlesnake preparation. In our part of the country rattlers are a fact of life. I ran into four Black Tailed Rattlers in one day on a three day backpacking trip in May. That, my friends, was an eye opening experience. 

When I got home and told my wife Chris about those encounters she was concerned. Concerned about Miles, that is. She knew we were planning our big trip and we'd be in snake country.

As you know we did everything we could to get Miles ready. We took him to rattlesnake aversion training and I vaccinated and boostered him with a special rattlesnake vaccine.

I was really looking forward to seeing a snake on the trail just to see how Miles would react. Well guess what? In seven days, four of which were in prime snake country we didn't see a one. I even bush whacked along two streams while fishing for three days without so much as a buzzzzz. I even wore special snake gaiters on my lower legs. Nary a snake. Oh, I did see a Garter Snake, but no rattlers.

I guess that's a good thing because nothing is for sure and you don't want to tempt fate. Snake bite treatment can be difficult and very expensive. You can easily rack up over a thousand dollars or more between, corticosteroids, antivenin and hospitalization to treat a snake bite. 

That reminds me. I told you about the vaccine and aversion training. I forgot to mention perhaps the most important precaution you can take. A pet health insurance policy covering emergencies.