SNAKEBITE!!!!

[bigred]

sorry-been away for a while and have just found this thread. here's an interesting envenomation story:
I spoke to this guy who has an awesome hot collection. We were chatting outside the cage of a black mamba, the longest venomous snake in Africa. The mamba in the cage was about 7ft long, and it agve me the willies. It came to the front of the cage and and just stared at me. that coffin-shaped head is freaky [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]
Anyways, the guy went on to relate a few mamba stories. They are renowned for their intelligence and a rather unfortunate habit of doubling back on anyone or anything that comes into contact with them. A guy was doing a herp show in Namibia about 15 yrs ago. Now doing shows in namibia in summer is not a great idea as the average daytime temp is about 32 C. He was a bit agitated as the snakes had been very active and came to his grand finale - a wild caught 10 ft black mamba.
He took it out using 4 ft tongs, dropped it onto the ground and looked up to explain to the assembled crowd. The mamba immediately doubled back, climbed the tongs and his arm, over his shoulder and was gone into the surrounding bush. On the way up his arm it bit him 3 times.
He suffered a stroke on the way to hospital and was left mentally retarded for life.
Maybe that coffin-shaped head has something to it ...
Anyone got any mambas??
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[CraigC]

Hi Folks,
I took a hit from a 9" pigmy on Christmas day '74. I will admit it was my own stupidity. One fang entered the middle finger of my right hand directly on the tip. I felt an immediate burning in the finger and a necrotic area began developing within 10 minutes. I was at the hospital within half an hour and recieved antivenin within an hour of the bite. The antivenin took care of the systemic effects but I lost the tip of that finger to gangrene(sp). I spent 17 more days in another hostpital, most of the time waiting for the swelling to subside enough for the plastic surgeon to repair the damage. I guess thats what happens when your a punk kid [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] who is not allowed to have snakes and sneaks the into the his bedroom [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] !
CraigC

P.S. The high school teacher who let the punk kid take the snake home from the field trip was sh#tting bricks for a while!!! [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] He didn't lose his job or get sued because I convinced my mother that it wasn,t his fault.
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[Johnny801]

Does getting tagged by a Western Hognose count as being envenomated?? As their saliva is categorized as toxic. Just curious. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]
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[Bry]

Also, I've heard that more snakes w/ more docile temperaments are less likely to milk as much venom as more aggressive species. Like I heard mojaves are rather jumpy and quick to inject a lot of venom, but other more docile rattlers (can't remember the species) are more likely to just give a dry bite or drop very little venom. Then again, more docile species are also less likely to bite. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif[/img]

Does getting 40+ mosquito bites in a single night count?

Bry
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