"Poisonous snakes and anti-venom" sigh....

[KarenC]

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Tropical Life magazine of today's Miami Herald.

SNAKES
Don't panic if a snake bites you. Try to determine whether it's poisonous because anti-venom can cause anaphylactic shock, a potentially fatal allergic reaction. Poisonous snakes in America -- water moccasins, rattlesnakes, copperheads -- have vertical pupils.Nonpoisonous snakes usually have round pupils.

Here's the link for the whole article.
Taking the sting out of summer - 05/22/2007 - MiamiHerald.com
Not only did she not get the terminology correct, but in the paper used a picture of a Green Tree Python, which obviously is not native to Florida, nor is it venomous.
Karen

[BWSmith]

As usual, the article is outdated. The risk of anaphylaxis from administration of CroFab (the current "standard" AV for NA Crotalidae envenomations) is virtually nonexistant. It is referring to risks from older AVs such as Wyeth Crotalidae Polyvalent.

I would never rely on a lamen's identification of snakes. I rarely would even if the person "claims" to know snakes. I remember one story relayed to me of a "cottonmouth" envenomation in Florida. Of course, the dead snake they brought in was a Rough Green. Certainly what happened was someone got stuck by a briar that happened to have a very unlucky Rough Green near it.

The wound and symptoms should be the primary indicators to severity of envenomation. And since all North American Crotalids are treated with the same AV, it makes little difference what species it was (other than what to expect like heavy hemotoxic or heavy neurotoxic symptoms).

I don't even want to read the rest of the article.

[telefrag]

they also forget that most elapids have round pupils.

dont they have coral snakes???

[VoodooChile]

I was thinking about Corals as well..

[KarenC]

Well if you'd followed the link and read the article, she devotes a whole paragraph to coral snakes, their indentification and having round pupils, and yes we have them here.

It just bugs the you know what out of me that people can't even get the terminology correct. It's pretty obvious she got the majority, if not all, of her info using Google. One sentence is almost word for word from one of the first returns when Googling. While I was surfing, found a picture of an Amazon Basin ETB that was labeled as a green tree by the Encylopedia Britannica people! Think they'd change it if it was pointed out to them?

Karen

	Emerald Tree Boa The Emerald Tree Boa (Corallus caninus) is a species of bright green snake that lives in the rainforests of South America.

[telefrag]

I didn't read the article..

[BWSmith]

Originally Posted by telefrag

I didn't read the article..

and now you look dumb lol

[X-Factor]

The only accurate, good advice regarding snakes in that article was the walk slowly don't panic bit and to acquir