bluebelly nip for xmas

[itbites]

Nasty bite you got there baxtor, but gorgeous snake!

 

[pythons73]

Thats pretty nasty,i got biten by a baby Red Belly a month ago,in had intense pain in the bite finger,pins and needles,and under my arm was swollen,something about the glands were swollen,within half an hour i was vomiting,felt ok till i got home,taken to hospital by my partner.As far as im concerned it doesnt matter how little the bite,or the species of snake you should get some medical treatment....I HOPE all is well now....

 

[elapid66]

Thats pretty nasty,i got biten by a baby Red Belly a month ago,in had intense pain in the bite finger,pins and needles,and under my arm was swollen,something about the glands were swollen,within half an hour i was vomiting,felt ok till i got home,taken to hospital by my partner.As far as im concerned it doesnt matter how little the bite,or the species of snake you should get some medical treatment....I HOPE all is well now....

did you get any av or just work though it

 

[pythons73]

At the hospital they did a venom kit,was positive for Tiger which is the same as Red Belly,i didnt get antivenom,i only had intense pins and needles in my bite finger and my glands under the arm were swollen,after 30minutes from the bite i vomited i was feelin ok,but my missus insisted i went to hospital,5 minute drive...

 

[baxtor]

G'day mate,

Good work on not being shy about your bite, and explaining how it occured and what mistakes you made.

However the above advice is pretty risky - I know of at least one case where someone has been on deaths door from a P.guttatus bite that occured in an almost identical situation to yours. From memory, they originally ignored the bite for about half an hour and then went downhill very quickly...

With regards to not seeking treatment because it's only a Blue Belly - drop for drop they are on par with Kingies.

jonno: I was only going by the CSL handbook quoted below, I was however keeping track of how I was feeling and as I said there was never anything more than very localised symptons.
"For bites by the red bellied black snake and the blue bellied black snake (=spotted black snake), antivenom is often less important, as these bites are rarely life threatening, though they may be distressing for the patient. Certainly, only cases with major systemic envenoming should be considered for antivenom therapy. As paralysis and coagulopathy do not occur, they cannot be used as criteria of envenoming. Myolysis, if present at all, is generally very mild, with peak CK of <2000IU."

Mark: apparently tiger snake antivenom is OK for the bluebellied and red bellied bites in most cases where AV is required and is suggested as a first choice because of it's lower volume and lower cost.

 

[Jonno from ERD]

G'day mate,

I was more so clarifying the point for anyone reading this thread who may cop a bite in the future and also try and ride it out. How you deal with your bites is your choice and I trust your judgement, but some people are very easily influenced...

Cheers

 

[JasonL]

Mark: apparently tiger snake antivenom is OK for the bluebellied and red bellied bites in most cases where AV is required and is suggested as a first choice because of it's lower volume and lower cost.

"Blacksnake AV" is made from Mulga snake venom, thus why tigersnake AV is used for RBB ect, tigersnake AV being a bit of a allrounder.

 

[ecosnake]

Note to all other keepers, specially those that are starting out with hots (venomous snakes) if you get bitten and it doesn’t matter what species or what you have heard...."go to hospital" you just may not have the same reaction as the next person. That a nasty bite and you will most likely lose you fingers.

 

[snakes_666]

Note to all other keepers, specially those that are starting out with hots (venomous snakes) if you get bitten and it doesn’t matter what species or what you have heard...."go to hospital" you just may not have the same reaction as the next person. That a nasty bite and you will most likely lose you fingers.

i'm with you ecosnake

 

[elapid@]

hi

Offender is this juvenile. Was not his fault lifted the substrate to feed and he latched onto the first "pinkie" he saw.
Treatment was not sought considering the species and the size of the offender. I believe it is not common practice to administer antivenom for bluebelly and RBBS unless certain symptoms are evident.

G'day baxtor : hope all goes well with your recovery, I heard of this guy once who took a similar bite to yours from a pseudchis guttatus and this person lost his thumb , He still was given the AV. By the way nice bluebelly, i would love one of them to ad to my collection. I dont know very many people who havent been bitten by a ven that own them in captivity. i havent ! yet:lol:
stay well.

 

[waruikazi]

I've always understood blue belly's to be quite a lot more dangerous in toxic terms then the red bellies, is this true?

I know it has been answered already but i was under this same impression but as it turns out they both have the same LD50 rating of 0.3(edit: Hrmmm turns out it depends which LD50 test you look at as to which is more toxic, they are either listed as the same or guttatus more toxic). Even so i know which one i'd prefer to get tagged by.

Anyone that gets bitten by any ven just go to hospital. It's a small price pay for your life or a limb. Baxtor i'm glad you're ok now and hope you keep your finger.

 

[eipper]

HI all,

I was almost killed by a P. guttatus yearling about 14 yrs ago, I thought "I could ride it out" too....

Problem was I was becoming hypertensive (from the venom) causing my blood pressure to fall. about 10mins post bite.

I was well on my way to a Coma when the first load of A/V (administered 1 hr post bite) started working along with the anti histimines and adrenaline. This slowed the progress and a further 3000 units of tiger A/V was admin later and was discharged with a very nasty looking finger, bruising up my arm, and over my ribs and swelling to the elbow.

A mate tried riding one out as well and was in a Coma for 5 days.

While they are near enough on par With Mulgas in toxicity...give me same size mulga bite anyday of the week over another Blue Belly

Cheers,
Scott

 

[Kyro]

That looks terrible, hope everything works out ok for you Baxtor. Is the swelling going down?

 

[kandi]

WOW! that looks so nasty had to show my 7yr old jaw dropped and said that is the rude finder.

 

[Scleropages]

Hope ya don't lose the finger ya poor bu gger!, Nice snake but I think I will stick to BTSs ( and still go no where near the sharp end!)

 

[AustHerps]

As previously said, thanks for sharing.

Let this be a reminder to all that it's too common to see people lifting newspaper, removing waterbowls, and looking under hideboxes using their hands, without first locating the snake. The fact is, you just don't know if the head is a half inch from where you're putting your fingers. From what I've seen, using a hook as a first point of contact goes a long way. It lets the snake know you're there so that you don't spook it.

How one handles one's elapids is up to the individual - but there's nothing to be lost by being a little more careful.

Cheers,
Aaron.

 

[AustHerps]

I was almost killed by a P. guttatus yearling about 14 yrs ago, I thought "I could ride it out" too....

I handled elapids for the first time at Scotts a while back... I was nervous enough, hook and tailing my first ever bluebelly. It was at that time that Scott decided to tell me it was the exact snake that tagged him. Boy, did I crap myself!

Cheers,
Aaron.

 

[Jonno from ERD]

One of the scariest experiences I have ever had, which was a massive wake-up call, was coming about an inch from being tagged by a Mozambique Spitting Cobra. I had become complacent, and simply leant into the top opening enclosure to place a waterbowl in. The cobra, only about 4 foot long, shot from one end of the enclosure to the other and latched onto the waterbowl, right beside my hand and sent two perfect yellow streams of venom into the water. I've never done it since.

 

[kensai]

I use a pickup stick to remove water bowl and newspaper until I can see my RBBS, Even though they are classed as nonleathal I still give him all the respect elapids diserve, by the way if you look at the clinical toxinolgy website they are reccommending Black snake anti venom for both P. Guttatus and RBBS

 

[JasonL]

, by the way if you look at the clinical toxinolgy website they are reccommending Black snake anti venom for both P. Guttatus and RBBS

CSL advise it to be used only if Tiger snake AV is not available.