A little snake rescue

Those are common in Georgia. Well behaved fella.

Awesome animal, Mel. I love snakes!

Thanks for saving it.

Last year one of my students came back from a waterfall or pool near Fillmore and said he caught 13 water snakes - every one he could find. He then said he brought them all back.

Angered me to no end. Talk about putting a dent into a local population.

Love the wildlife in your neighborhood!
Lowell

Mel, do not get bit. The venom is VERY bad for humans. Very bad indeed. Please accept my testimony, their venom is very bad.

OK, I said it three times. My work is done.

BTW, despite the venom and dangerous bites, I am a HUUUUUGE fan of western and southern hognose. Jamesp can keep his toad eating easterns.

Sabre52 the hatchlings are the diameter of a yellow #2 pencil and 6" long. That is most certainly a yearling.

yes, that is a gorgeous red one. Actually that couls actually be an adult male! The males stay small like that.

Here is the link I provided earlier:



That one seems pretty mild to me.

I have a friend who got bit and it took a good 15 seconds to force the animal to release. The bite was on his heal. He was sitting on the floor with his animals cleaning cages. In that 15 seconds the animal chewed and delivered venom. He thought it was cute, except the pain kept growing and searing into his flesh. The bleeding was profuse and not stopping, he called his wife over whom immediately called 911. 15 minutes later when the ambulance arrive he could no longer see the bone of his ankle and the towel was soaked with blood. By the end of the day swelling was to his knee and skin was taught at the foot. In the morning his toes showing signs of strangulation and they were discussing all kinds of options, amputation as high as the knee, fasciotomy... .

At that time it had come out that even with a rattlesnake bite one should NEVER do anything to the wound. Let the bite run it's course. Support patient with pain killers, blood pressure meds.. whatever. But do not cut. Any cut will both get seriously infected and cause a huge life altering scar. Fasciotomy leaves a mind bending scar. Ugly to say the least.

My friend refused all treatments except pain killers. Four days in the hospital on morphine drip later, he went home with pills. It was a month before he could barely walk. Six months before the limp went away. To this day he bears a large and ugly scare on his heel/ankle from the original bite wound.

A year or two later I was having a meal with Dr. Brian Greig Fry and I described this bite. He said he was not surprised. I asked him how strong the venom is. His response was, "oh, western hognose venom is stronger than a western diamondback and overall it's more dangerous".

Anybody stating western hognose are "back fanged and mildly venomous" is just parroting old unscientific dogma. It's in all the old books. Nobody is writing new books. Hognose rarely offer to bite. They are mostly trustworthy. Please, do not allow yourself to get bit.

Yes. They wanted to cut off his foot above the ankle. The venom is strong and the volume big. The delivery method (fangs in back of mouth) and the lack of defensive bites is the only reason they make terrific pets. They come in many colors and patterns.

Interesting take Scott but I'm wondering if your friend was hyper allergic to the venom or something of that sort. Been doing still more reading on the subject and the stuff I've read says the saliva is not neurotoxic or hemotoxic or cytotoxic, the venom delivered is a tiny amount, the enlarged rear teeth not grooved or hollow, and that the Hognose has no venom sacks to store large quantities to be delivered ( uses a Duvernoy's Gland like Garter snakes). I've had guys swear up and down that Garter Snakes and Ribbon Snakes can deliver a bad bite but, I've had tons of bites from them and even had monster bloody bites by California's Giant Garter Snake which as you know, are water moccasin huge, and have only had festering due to bacteria, no signs of venom.

Not to be argumentative, but I'm thinking it may all be a matter of individual reactions to the toxic saliva and not a general reaction that would be shown by everyone. That being said, as I said, I'm not letting any snake chew on me *L* and will continue to handle snakes in an unprovocative manner so as not to encourage bad behavior. After all, the bacteria from a snakes mouth are nasty too and a bite that is not cleaned can be very infectious on it's own, even without the possibility of venom. I have had water snake bites swell up good...Mel

PS: I went to Dr. Fry's site but could find no statements about Hognose (Heterodon) saliva being anything like as toxic as a rattler. The quote was "localized swelling and bleeding, non systemic reactions" I'd of thought he'd be all over it if it were really that toxic.

No arguments here. I was simply warning a friend. Likely you will never be bitten because all bites I am aware of are feeding responses of captive snakes.

I really appreciate the warning Scott, and will pass on that info to the folks around here who I know handle snakes. I'm very firm believer in "better safe than sorry".

James: I freaking hate these giant red Polistes paper wasps here in the south. Our little yellowjackets and yellow Polistes in Calfornia were candy asses compared to these big red boogers. These are super aggressive too. Ive been stung up twice since moving to Texas and both times were really bad. Got tagged in my armpit and my whole arm swelled up like a sausage and after the swelling went down, it itched like heck for days. Friggin wasp traps don't work worth spit on them either.