Oh for goodness snakes

[vigil617]

I'm an animal lover, and I admire those whose choice of career is veterinary science. Maybe there's some version of the Hippocratic Oath that vets pledge when they get their licenses, and if there is, my hat is off to the one that treated this -- yes -- cottonmouth recently at a clinic on the North Carolina Outer Banks.

The story's about the snake's stomach contents that day, which is interesting enough but not surprising, but to me the real story is that this critter was on the operating table to begin with. I agree with the poster who wondered who the Good Samaritan was who brought the reptile in. I don't love animals that much!

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article247214089.html

 

[JJEH]

Very interesting for sure...

 

[Doug M.]

I much prefer critters to people and have to admit that my default response to a poisonous snake would be shoot it if it were near where I need to be.

 

[CQB27]

Nuff Said!

 

[mckenney99]

I hope their good deed doesn't come back to bite them.

 

[Texas Star]

They're venomous, not poisonous. Not that I'm inclined to eat one...

They're often aggressive, but so are non venomous water snakes.

I wonder how vets treat venomous snakes or big constrictors.

I wrote an article on a man with a pet store. He had a bad hand wound from an emerald tree boa or a green tree python; I forget which. Those recurved teeth are hard to pry free, and infection is possible.

Many bad snake bites come from captive examples. And there's no antivenin for some, like Gold's Tree Cobra.

 

[Golddollar]

I hope their good deed doesn't come back to bite them.

< < < rimshot > > >

 

[mckenney99]

I hate snakes. If someone brought it in to me to be treated, I'd have to ask if they want it back as a hat band or a belt. Did I mention I hate snakes.

 

[Robspeire]

I like snakes. They just have a bad rep due to the bible when one got Eve to eat the apple.

 

[kozmic]

As some of you know, we breed snakes. Our snakes have had antibiotic injections here by my vet science-degreed wife, had surgery to remove a growth and been treated for respiratory ailments and bound eggs. I wouldn't own a "hot" snake and would have to be well paid to treat one. A man's gotta know his limits!

 

[Golphin]

Cotton Mouths don't get to live around my house. It looks like that one ate a couple of rat snakes. I don't mind the rat snakes but do not allow the Cotton Mouths and Diamond Backs to hang here. The wife was not happy a few nights ago when she opened the front door. She made me put him back in the bushes. He was up there thinning out the rain frogs.

 

[vigil617]

As some of you know, we breed snakes. Our snakes have had antibiotic injections here by my vet science-degreed wife, had surgery to remove a growth and been treated for respiratory ailments and bound eggs. I wouldn't own a "hot" snake and would have to be well paid to treat one. A man's gotta know his limits!

Koz, how have I known you here on the Forum for all these years and never picked up on the snake breeding? And do I understand that your wife did the surgery and other treatments as well as administering the snake shots? That lady is a keeper! But you knew that already.

What kinds do you breed? (Thread drift allowed and even encouraged since I was the OP!)

 

[Bullet Bob]

When I think of all the money I've mostly wasted on guns, who am I to say anything about how someone else spends theirs.

 

[kozmic]

Koz, how have I known you here on the Forum for all these years and never picked up on the snake breeding? And do I understand that your wife did the surgery and other treatments as well as administering the snake shots? That lady is a keeper! But you knew that already.

What kinds do you breed? (Thread drift allowed and even encouraged since I was the OP!)

My wife gave a regime of anti-biotics over several weeks to a baby snake the girth of a pencil. I quite admirably held the patient! The female corn snake is still with us after 21 years and until a few years ago, a big part of our breeding program. She also used a syringe to suck the gunk out of a ball pyhon's nostrils and give her shots. I was much less anxious to hold that patient. We rightfully leave the surgical procedures to the pros.
I'm not sure how you missed our "secret life" as snake breeders, Chip. We've bred kings, corns, rats and ball pythons over the years. We even bred some CA garter snakes for a while. They have live births, so different that the egg bearers. Nothing too outrageous, but we have created designer patterns and colors in the corns and balls. It's cool to play mother nature every once in a while.
...And yes, She's definitely a keeper.

 

[vigil617]

My wife gave a regime of anti-biotics over several weeks to a baby snake the girth of a pencil. I quite admirably held the patient! The female corn snake is still with us after 21 years and until a few years ago, a big part of our breeding program. She also used a syringe to suck the gunk out of a ball pyhon's nostrils and give her shots. I was much less anxious to hold that patient. We rightfully leave the surgical procedures to the pros.
I'm not sure how you missed our "secret life" as snake breeders, Chip. We've bred kings, corns, rats and ball pythons over the years. We even bred some CA garter snakes for a while. They have live births, so different that the egg bearers. Nothing too outrageous, but we have created designer patterns and colors in the corns and balls. It's cool to play mother nature every once in a while.
...And yes, She's definitely a keeper.

So are you, Rick, for being willing to hold those critters while she administers the whatever-is-needed!

I realized long ago that Kastle Kozmic out there in the upstate wilderness was a haven for birds and mammals, but I just never picked up on the reptile side. Fascinating!

My closest encounters with snakes was one summer when I was the nature director at our Scout camp. I was 18 and fearless and not a little naive at the same time. It fell to me to capture (if I could) the snakes that campers encountered and came running to tell me about, and by summer's end, our fiberglass "snake pit" had a small assortment of rat, copperhead, pygmy rattlers, and a few garters, if my aging memory still holds. Come the end of camp, and the question became what to do with them. Well, I wasn't about to kill 'em, so I loaded all of them up in my laundry bag, hopped a canoe, and paddled to the most remote point I could find on the Pamlico River, and turned 'em all loose on the beach. Seeya, snakes!