It is snake season

oh thank goodness all we have around here are garter snakes! I don't mind snakes, but I REALLY don't like spiders, and even the regular house spiders send me racing for the bug spray!

My family out west (B.C) live near a place called "rattlesnake point"... guess what's around there in high numbers?

I've already drug one snake out of my basement this year and its not been warm but a few days off and on..right now its an off..

my landlord has had the foundation sealed but they are still getting in somewhere, I usually get one or two a year down there biggest one was about 2 1/2 foot long. All garter snakes so far!

Yes it is, so be careful people! Nellie, my beloved 6.5yr old Australian Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix, was bit by a rattler nearly 3 weeks ago (March 16) on a hiking trip at Enchanted Rock (a huge state park in Texas). She put herself between the snake and my little sister (who was only a few feet away from the snake) and suffered 2 bites on the face. She was rushed to the nearest vet and spent 10 days afterwards in and out of vets, most of the time in critical condition. She's had 2 plasma transfusions, 1 red blood cell transfusion, several IVs (she's had them in all 4 legs), numerous blood tests, etc, and we almost lost her (at her worst, the vet said that "she was as close to death as she could be without being dead"). Her big problem right now is necrosis: she has a hole about the size of a dime strait through her face and is missing skin all along her muzzle and chest. She's still pretty weak and has lost 10#, but she's doing *so* much better now and is well on the road to recovery. She's eating food again, is going on short walks, snuggles up in bed with me, and feels pretty good, etc. She's going to have surgury next week to fix her face/chest, but all things considered, she's doing great although this was a horrifying experience for us.

So, be careful folks; no one should have to go through something like this. This page has all of Nellie's pictures (be warned that some are graphic):

http://www.picturetrail.com/aimsterz23

Oh my, what a brave dog she is Aimee...what caused her face to do that? Was it the venom from the bite or infection? Those pictures are awful to look at, but she looks like its healing up nicely now..Do they expect a full recovery? Give her extra treats for being such a trooper!!!

Rattlesnake venom is hemotoxic, meaning that it causes blood to leak out of the vessels, inpairing circulation and causing tissue necrosis.

Neurotoxic venoms affect the central nervous system, causing muscle paralysis, leading to suffocation.

Spider venom is a combination of a neurotoxin and a digestive juice. The neurotoxin paralyzes the prey and the digestive juice dissolves tissue. People bitten by certain spiders, such as the brown recluse, have had to have skin grafts and reconstructive surgery, at and around the site of the bite.

With the link jcat providet I could look up what we have around here . And we have 6 poisiones snakes around here . I know we had a lot of Copperheads last year in our yard . That's one of the reason we have to keep our grass short for sure , so they wont hide and may bite one of us or the dogs . I had a big dog a while back and he got a good bite from a snake and almost died . For sure I don't want that to happen any more . I like snakes , but i don't like when they are poision and bite .

Aw Poor doggy.

I remember copperheads, from when we lived in NC. My parents were walking down a dirt road and my mother jumped over what she thought was a stick. A few steps later, she turned around and saw the "stick" moving across the road. It was a copperhead. Mom freaked!

We also had to keep an eye out for cottonmouth moccasins and Eastern diamondback rattlers.

Oh Aimee, poor Nellie! She looks like a big strong dog though, pre the bite. She might not have pulled through had she just been a little thing. How brave.
Sooooo glad we dont have nothing in UK (as far as I know) to rival anything you lot have got. We have little snakes (grass snakes) which are actually quite cute.

Tulip, correct me, if I am wrong but, don't the British Isles have one species of poisonous snake - the adder? I seem to remember reading that, somewhere.

Of course, there is that old myth, about St. Patrick chasing the snakes out of Ireland. Makes for a good story, except for the fact that there never WERE any snakes in Ireland, in the first place.

There is a similar story, about St. Paul doing the same thing, on Malta. While being transported to Rome, for trial, Paul's ship was wrecked on Malta. The survivors built a bonfire on the beach and a snake crawled out of the woodpile and bit one of the party. It is said that Paul picked up the snake and threw it into the fire. Since then, there have been no snakes on Malta. As in Ireland, though, Malta never had any snakes, to start with.

Cindy - what do I have to look out for in NC? I know copperheads, but what else?