snake bite

[Overlandman]

One from Tasmania
From the Mercury

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasma ... d154010f6f

AN animal lover bitten by a snake she was trying to remove from a road thought she was going to die after a five-hour wait for anti-venom at the weekend.

Emma Lewis, of Glenorchy, spent her 21st birthday in intensive care at the Launceston General Hospital after first seeking treatment at St Helens.

The veterinary nursing student said she could not understand why the hospital could not administer the anti-venom she needed.

“We were driving up to Tomahawk and were about half an hour out of St Helens when we saw a [copperhead] snake on the road,” Ms Lewis said.

“I thought I would get it off, because so many people just run them over which is sad. I grabbed its tail and neck and thought ‘This one’s pretty chilled’ when it turned around and bit me on the finger.

“Initially I didn’t feel a thing, but 20 seconds later I was in excruciating pain, started overheating and felt really nauseous. I thought I was going to die.”

Ms Lewis and her fiance dashed to the St Helens District Hospital for help.

But there were no stocks of anti-venom and air transport options to the LGH were tied up with existing jobs.

After a painful three-hour wait during which her hand swelled and her vision began to blur, an ambulance finally became available and she was administered the required medicine at the LGH five hours after being bitten.

Tasmanian Health Service clinical director Peter Renshaw said there were major risks providing snake bite anti-venom without proper support, including pathology monitoring and intensive care, to reverse any resulting serious medical complications.

“Therefore anti-venom is given in a controlled specialist medical environment where intervention can occur,” Mr Renshaw said.

“With modern first-aid measures and the closeness of Tasmanian rural locations to a major hospital, clinical advice and evidence confirms this provides the safest outcome for patients.”

A Health Department spokesman said the only locations anti-venom was stocked on mainland Tasmania was the LGH, Royal Hobart Hospital, and the North-West Regional Hospital.

Despite her ordeal, Ms Lewis remains committed to a career working with wildlife.

“I’ve removed copperheads and tiger snakes from the road before,” she said.

“I hate seeing dead snakes on the road and they are so misunderstood. This won’t stop me from picking them up again, but I will take a snake-handling course.”

[DanShell]

Obviously she was wanting to do the right thing, but picking it up!

[Lindsay]

Obviously she was wanting to do the right thing, but picking it up!

"This one's pretty chilled." Seems not....

[north-north-west]

Snakes lying out on the road are doing so to sunbake and thus fire up their metabolisms. This one shows you how effective that is.

Rule 1: Never try to pick up a snake without training and appropriate protective equipment.

[lee737]

".... I thought I would get it off, because so many people just run them over ...."
There's a reason for that! Much cheaper for the taxpayer for one......

[Thornbill]

Rule 1: Never try to pick up a snake without training and appropriate protective equipment.

But once you have training and protective equipment, apparently you can do two tigers at once!
http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasma ... 148022753e

[Lophophaps]

Rule 1: Never try to pick up a snake without training and appropriate protective equipment.

This can be safely shortened to:
Rule 1: Never try to pick up a snake.

[north-north-west]

Rule 1: Never try to pick up a snake without training and appropriate protective equipment.

This can be safely shortened to:
Rule 1: Never try to pick up a snake.

Can we leave my romantic life out of this?

[peregrinator]

Rule 1: Never try to pick up a snake without training . . .

But it's gonna take a while to train your snake.

[Overlandman]

Love that pose NNW

Busy day in Queensland or should I say bitey day

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-21/s ... rs/7105712

Print Email Facebook Twitter More
Nine people treated or hospitalised after being bitten by snakes in Queensland in 36 hours
By Josh Bavas
Posted about 2 hours ago

Eastern Brown snake
PHOTO: One man was bitten by an eastern brown snake at a property near Yeppoon. (AFP)
MAP: QLD
Nine people have been treated by paramedics or hospitalised after being bitten by snakes across Queensland in a 36-hour period.

Among those was a woman in her 30s who was fighting for her life after being bitten on the ankle while walking along a track at Agnes Waters, near Gladstone, about 3:00pm this afternoon.

A man in his late 30s was also in a serious condition after being bitten by an eastern brown snake at a property near Yeppoon about 5:00pm.

The spate of attacks began in the state's far north yesterday when a 57-year-old woman was transported to Atherton Hospital after being bitten by a snake in her house.

Within hours, two adults and a child also presented to Atherton Hospital after being bitten in separate incidents.

In the state's south-east today, another four people were bitten by snakes at locations from Gladstone to the Darling Downs.

A 13-year-old boy was taken to Nambour Hospital in a stable condition after being bitten on the leg at Woombye on the Sunshine Coast just after midday.

An 18-month-old baby was bitten on the forearm at a property in Helidon and transported to the Toowoomba Hospital in a stable condition.

On Erub Island in the Torres Strait, paramedics treated one adult for a snake bite just after 1:00pm.

A swimmer was also transported to hospital after being stung on the face by a potentially dangerous jellyfish near Tangalooma.

Heat, floods driving snakes from their natural habitats

Bryan Fry, from the University of Queensland's school of biological sciences, said many factors could be leading to increased interactions with snakes.

"Normally when it gets warm, the snakes will be on the move, but now it's boiling hot in many areas so the snakes will be trying to seek refuge," he said.

"Another factor is in some areas they've had huge amounts of rain so the snakes would have been flooded out of their natural refuges and trying to seek higher ground, which is likely to be someone's house."

He said the best way to help a patient was to keep them calm and get to professional medical help as soon as possible.

"If the person gets hysterical and they start running around, they're going to move the blood around faster and obviously the venom effects are going to kick in that much quicker," Dr Fry said.

"Never ever put a tourniquet on but apply proper pressure bandage and immobilisation."

Dr Fry said the number of snake bites in Australia paled in comparison to rates around the world.

"We're talking about a vast geographical range, through an area where there's a lot of snakes in peak season," he said.

"But to put this in perspective, someone is bitten in India every five minutes and someone dies in India every eight minutes."

[north-north-west]

I wish they wouldn't use the word 'attacks'. While we don't know the specifics of these incidents, I'd bet my bottom dollar that the humans were more to blame than the snakes.

[Overlandman]

Now more than a dozen
I would have thought that a 13 year old would know that you don't run home after being bitten


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-22/m ... rs/7107070

More than a dozen people have been treated for snakebites in Queensland in the past two days, with nine victims treated in just 36 hours.

One victim, Bridie Fenech, was not planning on ending her school holidays in a hospital ward.

The 13-year-old was on her family's property at Sarina, south of Mackay, when she was bitten on the foot.

"We were playing spotlight because we had a family barbecue and I found the other team, so I jumped over the fence and I was running towards them," the teenager said.

"I thought I stepped on a thorn, and then I stood back, and I saw it was a snake. I yelled out 'snake' and I ran back home."

How to treat a snake bite

Assume all snakes are venomous
Call triple-0 immediately
Keep calm and restrict any unnecessary movement (this will prevent the venom from spreading)
Do not wash around the wound (hospitals may decide to test the venom to assist with accurate snake identification)
Use bandages from a first aid kit
Start by wrapping over the bite site and then work your way up the limb
Use additional bandages to wrap from the extremities (fingers or toes) upward to the bite site
Wrap the bandages firmly, like you would for a sprained ankle
After bandaging, splint the limb to reduce further movement
(Source: Queensland Ambulance)
The high school student said she still felt shaken up by the ordeal, but had some advice for others.

"Probably use a torch and keep your feet covered," she laughed.

The 13-year-old is expected to be released from hospital later today.

Bridie's mother, Brigid, said they were concerned when they heard about the bite.

"We were first of all worried about what type of snake it was, and there's always experts at a barbecue that think they know what it was, but you just can't take a risk," Mrs Fenech said.

"So we got on the phone to triple-0, and they were excellent.

"We had already started wrapping it because we know a little bit and they guided us through the process, and the ambulance was there within 15 minutes."

Mrs Fenech said her three kids now had to wear shoes outside.

"We're on a farm so I don't have much choice. We've already told them all they have to wear shoes," she said.

"I don't know if that's going to happen but we try."

Python swallows two-month-old kitten in Rockhampton

A python that ate a 2-month-old kitten in Rockhampton.
PHOTO: A python that ate a two-month-old kitten in Rockhampton. (Supplied: Ben Hanson)
Humans were not the only ones targeted by snakes over the past two days.

Snake catcher Ben Hanson said he got a call from a frantic woman in Rockhampton on Thursday, who watched her two-month-old kitten get eaten by a python.

"One of my technicians went out to get him [the snake]," Mr Hanson said.

"He had to get on top of the A-frame and unwrap him and bring him back through and unfortunately he had eaten the kitten."

Mr Hanson said it was not uncommon for snakes to eat small pets.

"Carpet pythons will eat anything they can get their hands on," he said.

"Usually they eat bats and birds and things like that, but they'll eat cats and they'll eat small dogs. If they get big enough they'll eat little wallabies."

Bryan Fry, from the University of Queensland's school of biological sciences, said the summer heat was flushing snakes out.

"Normally when it gets warm, the snakes will be on the move, but now it's boiling hot in many areas so the snakes will be trying to seek refuge," he said.

[Lophophaps]

Rule 1: Never try to pick up a snake without training and appropriate protective equipment.

This can be safely shortened to:
Rule 1: Never try to pick up a snake.

Can we leave my romantic life out of this?

LOL! Okay, no more details.

[Overlandman]

Lucky lad

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/quee ... y-comments

[Overlandman]

Heard on the radio where a male was bitten by a Tiger Snake at Riverside, Launceston last night.
He was taken to the Launceston hospital and transferred by air ambulance & is currently in intensive care in The Hobart Royal.
No reports in the papers yet so no links.
Regards OLM

[eggs]

"Carpet pythons will eat anything they can get their hands on," he said.

Corny..

[walk2wineries]

My wife spent over 5 hours sitting on a chair immediately after giving birth last Sunday night as we were not moved into another room afterward, nor was the bed in the room fit for use (still covered in blood and afterbirth, 5 hours later). The reasons we were given was that the staff were "doing some work on the computer" and "I'll sort it out when I'm finished".

Bureaucracy in hospitals can go suck a fat one.

Couldn't agree more Strider that really stinks.

But more importantly congratulations on the new arrival.
Thinks........ Strider and Toddler????

We seem to have wandered off track a bit -and maybe this belongs in the "Wildlife last seen on your..." but it could have been. worse.....http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-19/f ... ck/7096536 <didn't post that before did I? Ol' memory aint what it used to be.>

[Tyreless]

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/girl-dies-from-brown-snake-bite-in-walgett-nsw-20160215-gmucqw.html

A six-year-old girl has died after being bitten by a brown snake in Far North NSW, prompting emergency services to issue a state-wide warning.

The girl was bitten on a property near Walgett about 3pm on Friday.

She was taken to Walgett Hospital, where doctors administered anti-venom, then flown to the Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick where she was placed on life support.

After her condition deteriorated significantly, she was transferred back to Walgett Hospital where she died on Saturday.
Advertisement

NSW Ambulance and NSW Police have issued a reminder to people to be wary of snakes in warmer months.

Tips from NSW Ambulance include:

• If you are bitten by a snake, ensure someone calls triple zero immediately.

• Until help arrives, if the bite is on a limb, apply a pressure immobilisation bandage but not so tight that it will cut off circulation.

• If the bite is not on a limb, apply direct and firm pressure to the bite site with your hands (it is also important the patient is kept still).

• Check items of clothing that have been left outside before wearing them and if you lift something such as a rock or log, lift the object so it's facing away from you.

Numbers of eastern brown snakes have proliferated over the years due to large-scale land clearing, which provides a ready supply of rodents for the snakes to feed on, the Australian Museum says.

They are most commonly found in scrublands, rural areas that have been heavily modified for agriculture and on the suburban outskirts of large towns and cities across eastern Australia.

The brown snake causes more deaths from snake bite than any other species of snake in Australia.

Many bites are caused by people trying to kill the snakes or move them, causing the snake to react viciously.

They typically have small fangs but extremely potent venom that can cause progressive paralysis and uncontrollable bleeding that can spread to the brain.

The initial bite is generally painless and often difficult to detect, the Australian Museum says.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/girl-dies-fro ... z40D1yBWA5
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

[Overlandman]

Very sad

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-15/w ... tt/7169050

[aloftas]

Yep.

Cuddly they aint.

I always, keep as much distance between me and a snake as I can.


[youtube]https://youtu.be/08ATTWIOPss[/youtube]


I think the reason this video is only 19 seconds long, is because, that snake just kinda gives a look as if to say, "Yep, I am nearly ten feet long and yep, I can probably strike convincingly.


Snakes are NOT to be handled, unless you are a QUALIFIED Snake Handler.

Any other interaction, other than a zoom lens is folly

I also fear the snakes are less inhibited and more likely to show aggression because of the dry.

Sad, indeed.

[jackhinde]

I also fear the snakes are less inhibited and more likely to show aggression because of the dry.

I can reassure you that the defensive behaviour of snakes is unlikely to be affected by a dry spell.

The tragedy is an unfortunate reminder to parents to know the correct first aid and be prepared.

[Gadgetgeek]

this weekend I watched a bunch of kids harassing and trying to feed a goanna. Of course you can't tell parents anything about their kids, and they were encouraging the silliness, so we watched and hoped for the best. It was a very habituated critter, obviously fed at that picnic area often, but missing the end of its tail, and scarred up, an old fighter. nothing like watching a small predator eye up a kid who is doing their best to act like prey.

Kinda makes me miss bears.

[criscjk]

post removed by admin

[MickyB]

criscjk - Can I ask, do you work for Arborgreen? All three of your posts have mentioned Snakeprotex and Arborgreen.

[jackhinde]

There is no "critical need", you are preying on people's fear.

[aloftas]

There is no "critical need", you are preying on people's fear.

This.

A snake will be aware of you 100 feet away as you stagger and bash through the scrub.

Give em a wide berth, scan the immediate areas around your feet

and leave reptiles da fuk alone


its really not difficult...


"they" are protected from "us" for a reason

wear gaiters....keeps the shi t out of your boots, will even keep your feet dry if you use em correctly, and a heavier gaiter is the first protective mechanism against the strike.

This notion that they are perhaps like wombats or wallabies and happy to engage is crappola...


They want to be left alone, and so it should be.

[aloftas]

I also fear the snakes are less inhibited and more likely to show aggression because of the dry.

I can reassure you that the defensive behaviour of snakes is unlikely to be affected by a dry spell.

The tragedy is an unfortunate reminder to parents to know the correct first aid and be prepared.

Thanks.

The point I make is that as it is hot and dry they will be both more motile and more mobile with a greater range


Wait till breeding season....


Besides, I think if you ask folks in Melbourne, as an example, if there are more, if they are more aggressive you may get an "aye"

[taipan821]

Wait till breeding season....

That's the fun part
snake keeper: "oh, it's only a little one, the mother will be elsewhere. they've moved down for food"
me: "great, where's the mother than"
snake keeper: " doesn't matter"
me: "if the baby snake came down here for food, why wouldn't the mother?"
snake keeper: "oh... right then"

mother was seen later that night...2m-ish brown

[aloftas]

yes, I don't know if electronic repellents have been tried....

are brown snakes protected?

[lee737]

are brown snakes protected?

All Australian snakes are protected.