FLORIDA RATTLER

[AtlLaw]

Before I went to bed my grandmother told me that the snakes head was not far from the body and it would grow back together.

   Good story...  I'd forgotten about the "grow back together" thing!   

Snakes are snakes---they all taste the same------

Wrong wrong wrong!     Rattlesnakes is clean, purdy, mild mannered unless you tic them off and very tasty!     Them no good cottonmouths on the other hand are dirty, stinkin and just plain mean spirited!     I wouldn't waste my time skinin one...    Copperheads and corals rank somwewheres in between... 

I killed a copperhead once when I was policing.  Only reason I did was 'cause it was coming off a golf course going into a subdivision.  Beat him to death with my nightstick... logged the time on my worksheet as "Crowd Control Taining."   

Never seen a coral snake, can't say how they taste... 

[slim rem 7]

 what id like to know is why western diamond back is available to order but in my efforts i could not find eastern diamond back vacine..i can t even figure out why they would be so different .. but apparently different they are..slim

[mechanic]

Apparently the anti venom comes from the liquor store.  My uncle got bit by a copperhead once, drank a quart of cheap whiskey, then got up the next morning and went to work.  He did have a place on his leg that about rotted off for a while.  He treated it with liquor too.  I suspect that snake had to go to AA after biting him.

[slim rem 7]

 please post if anyone can say if what tm7 said is correct..id carry anti venom all the time.. but i was advised that western anti venom was ineffective on the eastern diamond back..
 if that turns out to be true ..the ones that assured me that was the case ,are gonna get a little piece of my mind..it ain t funny an you ain t gonna think so either..i go 5 mile out sometimes ,,or did before the wife got sick..understand a piece of my mind is about all i can give you .. ;Dslim
 ps thanks for any helpful input.

[45-70.gov]

rattle snake venom and other  pit vipers  are   a  co-agulant  [clots the blood]

i  am sure  there  is more to  it than  cumidin  warfin  or  asprin

but  act on the same principal

coral snakes and  cobras are  neuro  toxins [stops breathing...paralisis]


an  unknown  fact [can't reveal my sorces]
florida   was down  to  TEN  [10]   doses  of anti-venom  a few years  ago
this  i  in the  entire  state...not  sure  about  georgia  or any where  else

this  is a reliable  sorce

[Clodhopper]

Most of the rattlesnakes in the U. S. are of the hemotoxic type.  The standard (Crofab) antivenom will suffice for treatment.  The sidewinder is a small rattle snake of the desert (Mojave) and is hemo-toxic also, they are small and do not produce as much venom as the larger rattlers.  The Mojave rattle snake is different in that they are neuro-toxic like the coral snake or the cobra and (from what I have read) is approximately 10 times more potent than your standard diamond back (both eastern and western).  The symptoms for the Mojave bite is very little swelling and not near as much pain as from the hemo types.  We have an antivenom for the Mojave toxin and the doctors around here (Mojave desert) are well versed on what to look for. 

I have seen a Mojave and a Western Diamond back side by side and it is very hard to tell the difference between the two, you have to get real close!  I spent the entire summer out in the desert at night trying to get a picture of a big Mojave (about 3.5 feet) and so far all I have seen are sidewinders, we have lots of those.  Sometimes the Mojave will have a green tint to their skins, hence the local name of Mojave Green.  I have also seen reddish ones, 2 almost all black ones (caught in the black lava flows) and some with the tan desert color.  I figure the color is based on the area they live and what they need for camo.

That 7' plus eastern diamond is mr. snake to me and a very dangerous animal!   

[Oldshooter]

That 7' plus eastern diamond is mr. snake to me and a very dangerous animal!

+1 pard!

[AtlLaw]

Good luck to anybody who gets a big bite who is not in shape or is advanced age.

I was reading in Ga. Outdoor News (GON) this weekend about a hunter that died of snake bite here in Jawja.  He was 68.  He had just put his grandson in a stand and was bit when he climbed down.  He and his grandson ran  back to their 4 wheelers, rode to their truck, rode to their home where he died waiting for an ambulance.  He was bit in the calf I believe.

[Oldshooter]

He and his grandson ran   back to their 4 wheelers

Prolly what killed him,Sir! Not to mention at 68 things affect you more!

[williamlayton]

You know---In the week spent with those THINGS in the Palmetto flats---I don't recall much about size.
Blessings

[rex6666]

He and his grandson ran   back to their 4 wheelers

Prolly what killed him,Sir! Not to mention at 68 things affect you more!

I have heard that running after a snake bite is the worst thing you can do,
gets the heart pumping the poison faster. You are supposed to stay calm
lie down if some one is with you and send them for help. (yeah )
i read a report once that some of the cutting that we were told to do years ago was more dangerous than the snake bite. In the 60s i remember a 6year old
that lived close to us got bit on the leg, his mother rushed him to the hospital
15 miles away they made maybe 25-30 1/2" cuts all around his leg.
He was in the hospital about a week, was back doing what 6 year olds do
in about 30-45 days. You could not get close to him without him showing you the bite marks and explaining it all to you.