Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire SNAKE BITES on the rise!!!

In the case of snakes, the triple S theory works in Michigan.

Shoot, shovel, shut up!

scroll.....i answered in bold
Rattler, the list I saw did group some different snakes togather.

The top of the list was the Inland, or Small Scaled Tiapan, in Australia. In order of toxicity, Australia had about the top seven, including the Brown Snake, Tiger Snake, another type of Tiapan, and some others. One of the Sea Snakes was included in this list of of snakes with highly toxic venom.

As for as your statement that a Cobra kills by quantity, not quality, I am not in a position to argue with you on that. It would stand to reason that a large quantity of a mild venom would kill you just as dead as a small quantity very toxic venom.

On the list I mentioned, and I found it on the internet, I can't remember where, some snakes were in groups with others, based on the toxicity of their venom. The Mohave and Coral snake and some species of Cobra, the King Cobra I think, but I don't remember for sure, came in at about tenth place. What I mean is, these three snakes, and there might have been others, had venom, on a drop for drop basis, of about the same toxicity level.

The study was not based on quantity, but quality. I don't remember the exact method the study was made, but it had to do with the smallest amount of venom tested to kill 50 percent of the labatory mice the venom was injected in.

yeah thats LD50 ratings that is what i am talking about....measuring drop for drop toxicity

The Inland, or small scale Tiapan was first by far, but one interesting statement was that there had not been any reported deaths from this snake, although there were deaths from the Tiger snake and others that tested less toxic than the Tiapan.

There was some question that perhaps venom acted differently in people than it did on lab mice. What I mean is, while a paticular venom might be very deadly to a mouse, it would not be as deadly, or it could be more deadly, to a human as a paticular venom from another snake, so the toxicity rating might be different from mice as it is for humans.

could be......Sidney funnel web spiders have a venom that for some odd reason is highly toxic to primates(including humans) though no primates lived on the continent till humans arrived there several thousand years ago....however if your dog gets bit by one it suffers no ill effects......also these studies are done on lab mice.....if you took field mice from these snakes various home habitats i think you would find the lethality would drop dramatically.....lab mice just offer a ruler in which to compare one snakes venom to another objectivly

In the area where I live, Georgia, the Timber Rattler is the most common, although rarely seen, and further south, the Eastern Diamond back and a sub-species of the Timber Rattler, the Cane Break rattlers are found. Although the venom of the Eastern Diamondback is rated more toxic than either the Timber rattler or Cane Break, some studies show that there is a higher percentage of deaths from the latter two than from the Eastern Diamond Back.

From first hand accounts I have read, the Western Diamond back venom must be very toxic, going by all the tissue damage the bite causes.

tissue damage and lethality can be two very different things.....alot of the venom components that cause massive tissue damage in themselves arent very lethal......secondary infection is what kills, not the venom itself

It surprised me than the finger Ross Allen showed me, and stated that this was the worst bite he had experienced, was from a Cotton Mouth bite, because he had been bitten by snakes with much more toxic venom than the Cotton Mouth.

The Cotton Mouth is another one we run into occasionally in this area, and quite often further south.

Do you have any training in the study of venomous snakes? I don't have any training, medical or otherwise but I have an interest in learning about them. I read everything I can find about venomous snakes and venomous snake bites.

no proper training........been reading everything i can find on them for the last 20 years.....have kept various rear fanged species in the past and the only thing keeping me from keeping me from keeping front fangeds is the fact ive got kids in the house....state law be damned some may fall in my lap when the kids are gone .....thanks to the internet i have been fortunate to be able to converse with some of the top venom researchers in the world......if you want to take a serious look at LD50 ratings of various snakes in various situations(intramuscular, intravenious, subQ and intraperitoneal injections) here is as close as you can find to a bible.....Dr. Fry has probably done more work than anyone currently in the field and has even taken a serious look at lots of the various rear-fanged snakes that almost no real data had been around till a few years ago when he did the studies.......
http://www.venomdoc.com/LD50/LD50men.html

We live on a farm and used to raise sheep. Neighbor explained the theory to me about dogs running sheep. Never had a dog problem after that!

I never realized that the bite of a rattler produced that kind of skin degradation.

I don't believe it used to unless there was mitigating circumstances. Now it sounds like something is going on that is producing more toxic reactions.

From the article:
Scientists and toxicologists can take guesses at what�s behind the spike in extreme symptoms, but no one yet knows what�s going on. Some say it could be a change in snake venom, a change in the snakes themselves, or something altogether different.

��This is a brand new phenomenon,�� said Jeffrey Brent, clinical professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. ��It should spur a considerable amount of research in the area.��

Brent said he hadn�t seen the extreme symptoms in patients until last year, when there were five. ��They came pretty darn close to dying,�� he said. ��They were extremely, extremely sick.��

I'd guess this "phenomenon" is caused by the deterioration of the human immune system rather than a change in the animal injecting the venom.

^This stupid little bastard just pushed his luck here,...right at sundown ( how fitting)

Gracey has panned out to be the perfect home place canine unit.
Heelers are pretty infamous for just diving in and "Goin' for it"

.............she hangs back and barks,.....with a rather alarming note.

Last one she rousted it was late,...and dark,.....I thought it would be coyotes,....Nope,....a fair sized Diamondback,.....

Not wanting to leave her alone, while I went and exchanged the 12 Ga. #4 for the pistola pictured, ....I just used the big gun,,,,,combed and scrubbed snake parts outta' hair, beard and Mustache for the following 2 days

This li'l creep was copping major "I'll bite you" attitudes, Gracey hung back and listened to my advisory,.......I explained that I'd Handle it,.....she sat, cocked her head, and watched....

Wierd deal,....given that we live in wierd times,.....I had to shoot this damn thing about 5-6 times ( one usually does the trick).........it's cooling it's jets, in the freezer, as I type.

we may be in the age of the snake,......( 2 leggeds) ?

anyone for a snakecickle