Hog nose, Venomous?

[Solid Snake]

i read in care sheets that these are snakes are midly venomous. the law in the city i work in does not allow any type of Boids, venomous snakes, and large lizards, but in this pet store i work beside has'em... wiered. this is Burlington btw, which sucks. Lucky me i live in Hamilton which allows everything...

[Andy_G]

Yes hognoses do have a very mild venom. I do not think they are labelled as venomous though...

[Smilts]

I doubt they would be considered such by authorities

[Solid Snake]

how bad is the venom? does it hurt?

[Andy_G]

At the worst it will cause minor redness and swelling and mild pain, but most cases there are no ill effects.

[reptiledude21]

Andy G, what is that picture of on your avatar.

[Invictus]

If you are allergic to insect bites, there is a very good chance you will also have a bad reaction to a bite from a hognose. Use your discretion before you pick one up. (I personally have a level 3 anaphylactic allergy to insect bites, so I don't think I'd ever own one, even if they were legal in Alberta.)

[Stalabros]

They are rear fanged, so it would take quite a bite for them to actually get under your skin. As for Hamilton allowing every type of reptile...Hamilton by-law states that there is absolutley no reptiles to be kept as pets. The only way you are allowed to keep them is if you own a registered reptile business...I called the city to check this about 3 months ago. You should double check for yourself...who knows, all of the by-laws were up for review this year because of the amalgamation.

[zhiv9]

Its not even widely accepted that hognose are venomous, so I doubt you would have any problems.

[Andy_G]

reptiledude, it is my Irian Jaya Carpet python, hes ugly there though...

I have a bad reaction to spider bites so I don't know if I would own a hoggie myself.

[gonesnakee]

Hognoses are mildy venomous & if you are allergic you can have quite the reaction. I saw pics once of a guy who was dumb enough to let one chew on him for a while so he could document what happened. He obviously reacted & his whole hand/lower forearm ended up swelled up for a couple of days. The guy let the thing chew on him for quite a while first though to ensure he got a good dose. I'm pretty sure he used a prey item to entice the snake to bite also. I can't remember where I saw the pics, but maybe Ryan of SCALES ZOO may recall? Possibly at a site called www.snakebite.com ?? The guy was an idiot anyway & his pics scared alot of people away from a basically harmless snake. If I were alllergic to bites/stings I would exercise caution & definitely would not let any snake "chew on me" intentionally whether I thought it was mildy venomous or not. There is no reason to fear Hognoses because of their venom (or more like the lack of).
IMO Mark I.
P.S. well folks the site I quoted doesn't work so I am at a loss as to where I viewed the pics. Anyone else know the ones I mean?

[beth wallbank]

Mark. The pictures of the hog bite were posted on Queensnake about a year ago. There were around 20 pictures showing a period of a week and the swelling if I am correct. But I do remember the post. Quite the memorable pictures

[Simon R. Sansom]

According to my references, the first published account of unusual effects from a Heterodon nasicus bite were described in 1960 by Arthur N. Bragg.
Two hours after the bite swelling and itching were evident and he was unable to close his hand due to the swelling.

Grogan, in 1976, described dizziness, nausea, pain and hematoma around the site of a bite from the Eastern Hognosed Snake (Heterodon platyrhinos).
Also in '76, an H. nasicus bite was reported by Kroll, although the symptoms were very mild.

Michael A. Morris was bitten on a finger while hand-feeding an H. nasicus in 1985. In this case the snake held on and chewed for a couple of minutes. The bite produced two punctures which bled freely. The finger was swollen and purple, with clear fluid oozing from the punctures for almost 24 hours, accompanied by numbness of the whole hand.

Add to this the more recent bite posted on ************** last year.

So...
However "harmless" we may consider our hoggies, we would do well to always remember that they DO have Duvernoy's glands and enlarged rear teeth, both of which are characteristics of a rear-fanged, or opisthoglyphous, serpent.

As "Invictus" has duly noted, persons allergic to such things could have a serious anaphylactic reaction to a bite by a Hognosed Snake. This is why I would tend to think twice about using them in school reptile presentations. I mean, heck, here in Ontario we can't even send peanuts or peanut-butter products to school with our kids in case someone has a reaction to them! All it takes is one publicized, acute bite to a kid and there go all our Hognoses! Just something to think about...wouldn't want to see anyone get sued, either.

I got my information from an old copy of
"Reptile and Amphibian" magazine, Sept./Oct. 1994.

Simon

[Clownfishie]

I seem to remember hearing somewhere that Eastern Hognoses are more venemous than Western Hognoses? Is that true?