Dog & Cat Snakebite Management
Please review the following guidelines for pre-hospital management for all North American pit vipers. Pit vipers in the United States include all rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouths (also known as water moccasins). You do not need to identify the species of snake in order to treat in the USA. VenomVet and Rattler brand veterinary antivenoms are approved for all North American pit viper envenomations. While antivenom is most effective in the first six hours, it can still benefit if there are ongoing venom effects.
Pit viper envenomation is GENERALLY characterized by local tissue injury and, less commonly, hematologic abnormalities and systemic toxicity such as low blood pressure, vomiting, airway swelling. Some pit vipers, such as certain populations of Mojave rattlesnakes, cause neurological toxicity.
NSS DVM Algorithm
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NSS DVM Supplemental Info 2/2
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A note to pet owners sharing this information with the treating DVM.
If your vet’s proposed treatment plan differs from our protocols, please understand snakebite is a niche area of medicine that many human and veterinary medical providers struggle to treat. A word from the NSS DVMs as to why some vets may offer to treat with antivenom and/or use contraindicated supportive care:
Per Dr. Crocco-Khan:
A lot of vets are not well versed in correct treatment for snakebites. It happens a lot in human medicine as well. We learn very little about snake envenomations in vet school and unless you go out of your way to read the current research and learn from experts in the field, you don’t perform the correct medicine. [Benadryl and steroids] LITERALLY do nothing for snake envenomations, but it would help with almost any other mechanism of swelling. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t realize that snake envenomation swelling doesn’t work like other swelling.
Per Dr. Burns:
Many reasons. One reason might be that small and medium-sized primary care practices often do not even stock antivenom (largely due to cost but also due to inexperience with using it and/or treating snakebites). To get antivenom for a patient often requires a transfer to a regional ER or regional specialty and critical care practice, which are sometimes quite a distance away. So many clients decline transfer. Another reason is cost of antivenom. Many clients may have antivenom mentioned and/or offered but they may have to decline it due to financial constraints. Another reason is many veterinarians are not well-trained or experienced at using antivenom and their experiences with snakebite (particularly copperhead bites) is that most patients live in spite of not getting it. This last statement is also a problem in human medicine--which NSS is working to educate health care providers about.