Hello :)
Im being really brave this year and taking my children and all three dogs on holiday, camping in Delamere Forest. I know that there are pretty much adders everywhere this year so I do keep a look out. However I am really unsure about how to recognise an adder bite and what exactly I should do, especially if we are walking in the forest and although there might be people around, certainly no cars. Ive got a working lines lab, a whippet lurcher and a JRT so varying degrees of liking to rummage through the undergrowth.

So has anyone got any official information?

My lab does react to some sort of fly/wasp bite as a couple of years ago she was bitten by something in the garden and ended up with a tiny lump on her hip, however her face swelled so that she ended up like a sharpei. For this reason I always carry the piriton tablets that the vet gave me anyway.
Thank you

http://www.vets-now.com/pet-owners/dog-care-advice/adder-bites-dogs/

This see a sensible advice.

I must admit I had forgotten about adders as we at spending the week in a lodge in the New Forest in a couple of weeks so will be on the look out as it is one of my big phobias !

Can't help - but I would check out the nearest vet before you go and note their telephone number just in case. Someone that came to our training classes years ago had both of his dogs bitten by adders the first day of their holiday - one nearly died :(

One thing to remember is that adders tend to be most visible when they are warming themselves up in the sunshine, usually early morning, but this also depends on the weather of course. They are more frightened of us and really want to get away, so making a lot of noise when you are out walking, will help them know you are coming. This is less easy if your dogs are loose and roaming ahead of you, perhaps a bell on the collar might help?

I remember a dog and I both coming across and enormous adder sunning itself on a rock. Luckily a grabbed the dog before he investigated this interesting object.

When I lived in Cornwall my dogs would run through the sand dunes where there were many adders. I asked my vet what I should do if one of them was bitten. She said that with larger dogs it was usually no worse than a wasp sting, so a vet visit was necessary but was not an emergency. However with a smaller dog the venom could have a worse reaction as there was not so much body weight, so this could mean a rush for treatment. To not panic as this would upset the dog, and cause the venom to travel round the body quicker, to carry the dog if possible and to keep it quiet on the way to the vets.
Luckily the sand dune adders would try to avoid the dogs if they could and I never had a dog bitten in the years I was there.
It would be a good idea to find out the local vets and their hours of opening and also their out of hours number, but before going have a word with your own vet to see if there is any emergency medication you can take with you, that could keep your dog going if you had a bit of a drive to the local vets.

> my dogs would run through the sand dunes where there were many adders

This is what happened to the person I knew - his dogs were cockers.