Why idiots shouldn't field herp.

[heloderm]

The last reply on youtube was a pretty good one. Everyone reacts different to venom. I show 0 effects when bitten by mangrove snakes. I've never let one chew on me either though. Although it's not the smartest thing to allow a FWC to chew on you, many of you are just getting your panties in a bunch, it's not that big of a deal. I free handle FWC's, never used a hook with them, never had a problem. they aren't cobra's....

The only place he went wrong was not knowing what he was grabbing which does possess a pretty potent venom. Their delivery system is anicent, but if they had front fangs they would surely give a nasty bite! I'm sure if he knew the snake was rear fanged and venomous he wouldn't have done what he did. He's not stupid so to speak, just ignorant.

[MegF]

The hydros I have now are relatively new in my collection and while I handled them at the show, they aren't always the same. I choose to use a hook to pull them out until I'm sure they aren't in feeding mode. I feel that would be one of the few times they would bite and chew, and judging from the female the other night, a hungry hydro (sounds like a board game!) will bite anything....and I mean anything including themselves. I wasn't going to be the one that got bitten....and I sure wouldn't want to explain to my hubby how that happened. Since the venom is not well understood, and one doesn't know if they are sensitive to it (I've never shown sensitivity to anything including bees but you never know)I treat them with respect. I don't want to get bitten by them anyway. They are large enough to hurt. Certainly much larger than my chondros and those guys can give a painful, large bite accompanied by hematomas....and their teeth aren't that big! I agree with you though. I said the same thing.....why would you snatch a snake up out of the grass if you're not sure what it is or if it's venomous or not. It did have plenty of time to chew on him...a long time. If it was going to deliver venom, it did. My e-mail was out of curiosity. I've only found 2 cases of hydro bites. One chewing...resulting in necrosis and muscle damage but no medical care at all, and one bite (no chewing) that resulted in 3 days in the hospital. I presume the last was someone allergic to the saliva of the snake. I was purely interested to find out if there was anything done or what was done for the bite. My husband is a bit apprehensive about them...especially since they are so large, so if I could put his mind at rest it would be very nice. I've already passed on your thoughts Heloderm and also those of Venomdoc.

[snakedude-uk]

A friend f mine got bitten by his big female and ended up in hospital for a few days too, he was however having chemotherapy at the time so his immune system was low. The result was a mess though, the skin on the finger he was bitten on was split very similar to the results of a rattlesnake bite but there were no other ill effects. After he unfortunately passed away due to his cancer I took the female on and she was a very gentle snake, easy to free handle once out of her vivarium but I tended to use a hook to get her out, the male I had with her was also fine once out but he was a bit of a psycho in the viv! There have been a few bites I am aware of in the UK but none with any nasty consequences and over here, they are considered to be mildly venomous which places them alongside hognoses etc. The main reason I can see for this classification is the fact that they have a very poor venom delivery system. I still feel these are not a snake to be taken lightly and they are best handled with care and kept by experienced keepers rather than beginners. I had another younger one many years ago which used to take me about 20 minutes to get out of its viv, then about 5 minutes to clean the viv, then another 20 minutes to get him back into his viv! Quite a lot of time when you've got 30 other snakes to deal with too!!!

As for the competency of Mr Marvin, he is regarded as an experienced keeper and has worked with many animals over the years, I think this episode was something which he did in all innocence and possibly at the request of the film company to increase the ratings? He has also done other things in previous programmes, 1 of which involved allowing a large Theraphos blondi (Goliath Bird Eating Spider) to walk over his face, what wasn't shown in the programme was that his face became swollen in reaction to the urticating hairs shed by the spider as it walked over him!

In conclusion, there are a lot of things shown in TV which are done to sensationalise the subject and get people talking about the show, I guess this has worked in this case!

Kind regards,

Mike

[heloderm]

Plenty is known enough about the venom of these guys. Get ahold of Brian Greg Fry and he'll give you the scoop. They are far more venomous then a hognose, the delivery system just isn't there. I hope to find some high gold/yellow ones again!

[MegF]

There's a guy in California who breeds super hypos like I have. I'm sure that's who I saw many years ago in Pasadena. He had a beautiful patternless golden hydro. Back then I didn't know what they were supposed to look like. If I had, I would have picked up a baby then. Just wasn't ready to keep something like that then. Didn't have the experience and I didn't think I'd have the room for something that large....still don't have the room, but I'm making room!!

[MegF]

Originally Posted by heloderm

Plenty is known enough about the venom of these guys. Get ahold of Brian Greg Fry and he'll give you the scoop. They are far more venomous then a hognose, the delivery system just isn't there. I hope to find some high gold/yellow ones again!

I wouldn't mind doing that. When I first researched these animals, I read what I could find. There were a million arguments about the venom and exactly how potent it was. Whether or not the venom is something that could kill the average person...watching those suckers mangle a rat makes me less than excited about having them chew on me....venom or no venom! I'm thinking it would hurt!

[heloderm]

I'm not big on the hypo's. Before I sold mine I showed them to the guy who breeds the hypo's (forgot his name) and he believed mine were a different type of hypo. They glowed I'm talking bright yellow/gold! I've never seen anything close, I'm not to into the brown ones.

[MegF]

My super hypo male is cream with golden markings that barely show in the sunlight. He's a little more yellowish at the rear.

[MegF]

I e-mailed Dr. Fry and he referred me to Dr. Wuster. Here is the response I got back when I enquired about bite incidenced with FWC's:

Hi, I am aware of one case of brief hospitalisation after a relatively short
chewing bite from a juvenile (swelling to elbow, swelling of lymph
nodes), and a number of other similar cases with swollen arms,
discolouration etc. There was one reported case in which the patient
collapsed, apparently paralysed, several times in the times following
the bite, although it is very unclear whether this was really a venom
effect. There was also a report on an internet forum speaking of kidney
failure, but no real details. Overall I would be very careful of larger
specimens of this species, and particularly to avoid feeding bites.

hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Wolfgang Wuster

[siz]

Thanks Meg, interesting!

[MegF]

I received a reply just today from Nigel. I've asked him if I might post it and the pictures he sent. Sounds like there was not much effect from the bite other than swelling in his hand. If he says it's fine, I'll post the whole note and the photos as well.

[Will0W783]

Cool- thanks Meg!

[T.O-SK8TER]

maybe he is paralyzed now and can t write an email! lol

[MegF]

He replied. I just said that! I've posted a separate response along with the pictures he sent me.

[Predator678]

lol ! ! ! what a dumb *** freakin doosh ! funny as **** ! know a guy who mistaked a southern stiletto snake for a brown house snake( i mean,come on !) and got zapped twice and ended up in hospital for a few days.