My new pet snake *PICS*

[gypsy2621]

Quote:
Takw care of your self, and get pics when you can.
be carefull and god speed getting the booger. some people just dont get it huh? dog got bit could have been her child , she is lucky,
Cant wait for more new pictues.

 

[chilling in muscadine]

Well the snake job we did yesterday we ended up empty handed. The snake bite on the dog happened three days ago so the snake had a lead on us. We educated the woman on what to do and we baited up some spots for us to go back and check for the snake. What baiting up some spots means is we lay out some peices of tin and sheets of boards in shady areas. This is typically where you will find a snake during the day whens its hot, lying up under some kind of cover.

Hopefully Mr. snake will use one of them and we will catch it. We asked the woman to take a long stick and lift the edge of the boards and check for us to see if the snake was there. We told her if she saw one to just gentle lower the board back and the snake would most likely stay there until we could make the 30 minute drive but this woman is to terrified to do it. We will have to go and check the boards very few days.

This is a job we really want to complete. She has other dogs and her child is under two years old so there is some urgency there. I hope we can catch it so that she will feel safe for her child and dogs.

I wanted to share some info about dogs and snakebites. If you think your dog has been bit you need to look for the two puncture wounds it would have, one puncture wound if the snake didn't get a good bite in. Shave that area of the skin. Larger dogs can take bites to the head, snout, legs, rear end and tail better than a human can. A bite to the stomach is almost always fatal without medical treatment. With small dogs and depending on how much venom the snake delivers I think your dog could be in trouble rather quickly.

When snakes bite it depends on how aggitated they are as to the amount of venom they deliver. A snake does not want to waste its venom because it needs it to kill its food. Sometimes they will give whats called a dry bite meaning no venom. Usually with dogs, the snake is pretty mad because the dog is aggitated and barking, and snapping at the snake and the snake sees the dog as a threat so its going to defend itself.

The best thing is to get your dog to the vet, but a dog can survive. I just wish this woman had taken hers to the vet. I have had several dogs get bit through the years and never lost one over it.

What I do now with any new dog I get is to catch a black racer which always have a bad attitude but harmless. I get the snake good and mad and let it strick and clamp down on the new dogs snout. This may sound cruel to some but all my dogs now know what will happen if they go after a snake. Since I started doing this I haven't had any more dogs get bit.

Its really funny to see this black racer clamped down on the dogs snout and then see the dog looking crossed eyed at what has its snout.

Of cource the dog doesn't think its funny.

 

[gypsy2621]

I think I would have been in hysterics watching that , poor dog I can see the crossed eyes now.
maybe a tad mean but hey it teaches them not to mess with snakes.

I jumped over here to this thread to talk about the snake hook. the other thread was making me cranky to be honest, I think I was a bit harsh with the other poster but darn it that made me angry.
anyways. back on topic
Cassi has never even so much as thought to use a hook or a stick for that matter to pick up a snake, we dont have but one venomous snake here and its a bit further north of me and a little more south, weird none in the middle that have been found as yet.
Timbers. eep healthy respect here and she knows to listen for the rattle and if hears it she is to come get me especially so I can get a picture for Fish and Gasme documentation. then we walk away and make a phone call.

She is such a hands on kid, if it looks like a snake, slithers like a snake well she has it picked up after ID is made.
I dont know how many Pine Snakes she has caught and that escaped into the floor boards of the old trailer lol. if memory serves me right there was even a few garden snakes down there also lol.

She gets the biggest kick out of sneaking up on me with a snake and it doesnt bother me, then she will sneak up on me with a stinking frog and I am screaming like a little girl. she giggles and walks away all proud of herself that she made me get the willy chillys, I can not tolerate a frog, dont ask why I have no clue,
snakes, spiders, scorpions etc I love and have no problems with go figure.

You should have seen cassis' eyes light up when I told her You and SnakeMan would love to teach her how to handle rattlers, forst words out of her mouth was " when can we go" lol, I told her not untill school was out and we had saved up plane fare. she is good with that, I am hoping for a week before school goes back in session.
this probly should go in a pm but she says she is going to teach you about sneaky carbs that trick your body into eating. I hope you dont mind but I told her of your problem and she understands,
she is diabetic and is learning all about sneaky carbs.lol
I did tell her you were on the road to recovery and she said awesome but I still want to teach her about the sneaky carbs.
She is such a good kid.
I cant wait for you to meet her.

 

[redhen]

I lost my Cocker Spanial to a Copperhead many years ago..she didnt die right away....but it made her start to have seizures and i rushed her to the vets and they couldnt bring her out of the seizure and they said i should put her down because she was 10 years old and her quality of life would be no good. The thing is i didnt know at the time we even had copperheads here! (maybe they could have given her anti venom?)... i brought her to the vet at first because she was vomiting and her face swelled HUGE! the vet had no clue what it was either... so the vet gave her benadryl and sent her home. Within a week i noticed she was having seizures..but it was to late to save her. Then a few months later new next door neighbors moved in and they were telling us how they had to have copperheads removed from their basement. And then the neighbor across the road chimed in and said."ooh yeah, i get them alot out by my shed" i was like

Why didnt you people tell me we had them here!

My foster son saw one last week in the middle of the road and came to tell me..when i got there it was gone! Darn! I had my shovel...I cant risk them being around my yard..i have way to many pets that i love.

 

[gypsy2621]

Quote:
I am so sorry Red Hen, that is totally sad.
Yes unfortunately they are in Mass especially down near the Quabbin.
The Fish and Wildlife people dont want people to know they are there for fear of them killing every one found,( sorry they are dangerous and must be removed)
we also have whats called a water moccosin but its just a different type of adder , mostly a checkered adder and while not overly venomous they can make ya derned sick if your allergic.
Unfortunately they look like a few other snakes so you have to watchthe head and eyes to see which variety it is.
I am not sure the Vets in both our areas carry anti venom. I dont think they do because Fish and Wild life has everyone convinced they cannot tolerate the cold winters here , thats total BS, they can they just den up like they do everywhere else.

Its not only the pets that can get whacked by those miserable snakes ( yes dear they are one of the few snakes that will chase you down to bite) you have kids, they definately need to go to where ever it is bad snakes go in the after life.
disclaimer, I wont normally advocate killing a snake but if its too close to kids sorry it has to go , and there is no one up here that will deal with venomous snakes let alone believe there are any.

 

[chilling in muscadine]

Redhen, I am so sorry about your dog . If the vet had shaved its face he would have immediately known what had happened. This time of year folks if your dog has a mystery illnesss check its entire body and look for fang marks. {puncture looking wounds} I mean check it snout to tail. This could save your dogs life. Not all vets will be thinking snakebite.

There are two different types of venom that snakes have. Most have only one type {like the copperhead} but others have both types. FYI Redhen copperheads are real low on the venom strenth for all snakes in the world. If one bit you I'm not saying it want do anything, but it will mess your day up.

Are you sure a copperhead got your dog and not a rattler????? The cocker being a small dog and all worked against it, plus not getting any treatment didn't help. Benadryl is the best thing to take right after a snakebite, even for humans.

What the venon from a copperhead does is start working on your blood veins, its starts rupturing them, bacically starting the digestion process while its victim is still alive.

Most likely what happened is the dog had the snake good and mad and the snake gave him a full dose. This is what they will do when they are trying to protect themselves.

You will know what to look for just in case it happens again and hopefully it want.

 

[chilling in muscadine]

Quote:
I am so sorry Red Hen, that is totally sad.
Yes unfortunately they are in Mass especially down near the Quabbin.
The Fish and Wildlife people dont want people to know they are there for fear of them killing every one found,( sorry they are dangerous and must be removed)
we also have whats called a water moccosin but its just a different type of adder , mostly a checkered adder and while not overly venomous they can make ya derned sick if your allergic.
Unfortunately they look like a few other snakes so you have to watchthe head and eyes to see which variety it is.
I am not sure the Vets in both our areas carry anti venom. I dont think they do because Fish and Wild life has everyone convinced they cannot tolerate the cold winters here , thats total BS, they can they just den up like they do everywhere else.

Its not only the pets that can get whacked by those miserable snakes ( yes dear they are one of the few snakes that will chase you down to bite) you have kids, they definately need to go to where ever it is bad snakes go in the after life.
disclaimer, I wont normally advocate killing a snake but if its too close to kids sorry it has to go , and there is no one up here that will deal with venomous snakes let alone believe there are any.

How tall is Cassi? Just wondering because I think Snakeman wants to make her a snake hook just her size to send to her. They are not real fancy or anything but will get the job done.

You mentioned mocassins. I may be wrong on this so don't hold me to it but I think you guys are not in an area where they live. Mocassins are the same thing as we call cotton mouths. If you have ever looked inside one of there mouths you will know why they are called that. We are in the middle of Alabama and we are just a little to north for them but we still do find them sometimes.

A lot of people mistake banded water snakes for cotton mouths, I guess just because they are on the water. You mentioned a checkered pattern but mocassins do not have that kind of pattern. They have whats called a saddle pattern. They are narrower on the top and then on the sides the patterns get wider. Do you have a pic of one of these snakes? Would love to see it.

 

[gypsy2621]

No pictures and its been a while since I have actually seen one in person,.
Years ago we lost a dog to what was thought to be a cotton mouth up here in the north. but after 10 years we found the den of Timbers so I am thinking maybe a juvie rattler.
when they open their mouths they do have a whitish look to them so maybe my mother was wrong? I am not sure I was kinda young. we are talking over 30 years ago and as a tweenager I wasnt all that interested in which snake was which.

Cassi is 59 inches exactly, for the moment anyways lol.
She has been growing steadily since putting her on insulin 2 years ago, the first year she shot up 3 and 3/4 inches. and at last check up she had grown another 2 inches, so since the diagnosis she has grown almost 6 inches. which was amazing to be honest.

Lol I just measured her for Snake Man and she wants to know why she needs one?
I told her Snake Man wants her to be safe and she says Ok but do I really need one?
I will let you explain it to her lol. she isnt about to listen to me the little booger.

I got thinking about it and where Red Hen lives it is quite possible it is a timber rattler, I am not all that far from her only about 40 miles give or take, I know to get to my friends house in the same area it takes about 1~ 20 minutes. and at the old house it is even closer by10 miles , so if the timbers were at my place it isnt a streatch to think they could be at Red Hens place.

I am going to have to look it up but there is a slightly venomous snake here in NH/Mass that mimicks a cotton mouth. ugh its going to drive me nus till I find it , I know Fish and Game will not admit to it being here, but its here. I will find it and let you know.

 

[redhen]

We do have Mocassins here also. We see them alot here (we live right by a river and we have a swamp/wet land right in my back yard) I was always told that the northern ones wernt dangerous and so i never bothered with them....*now ya got me wondering..UGH!*

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Hey Gypsey, We do have timbers here also.(my hubby caught one when he was a kid ...LOL..).i just have never seen one myself on our road. But..i had never seen the copperheads until my neighbors told me that we had them here. So its a very strong possibility that is was a rattler. She was allways sticking her little spaniel nose in holes and under rocks and such...