Snake sightings on the rise, officials say - Pinole

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I have rescued 7 rattlesnakes so far this year with the cooperation with the fire deptment & the residence in Pinole Valley. I gave the fire dept. a bucket with a screw on top & tongs to catch rattlesnakes instead of killing them. Not all of the Firemen are onboard, but some are & have held onto the rattlesnakes for me to pick up after the call. The article gives out my number @ the bottom to call as an alternative. I do not agree with everything in the article, but @ least I am able to start saving some rattlesnakes now.

Jerry

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http://www.contracostatimes.com/pinole/ci_9555227?nclick_check=1



Snake sightings on the rise, officials say

By Tom Lochner

West County Times



Norma Jean Brearley wheeled her garbage can to the curb one afternoon last week when she felt a sharp pain on her bare left foot that reminded her of a wasp sting.



Looking down, she saw a baby rattlesnake, bloodied but still alive. An alert neighbor gave it the coup de grâce with a shovel.



Snakes in backyards and sometimes inside homes are common occurrences this time of year, says Pinole Fire Chief Jim Parrott, especially in what experts call the "Urban Wildland Interface."



Brearley lives on Wright Avenue in the easternmost reach of Pinole, surrounded by the dry, grassy hills of the Pinole Ridge, and she said her encounter was the fourth sighting of a baby rattlesnake recently in an area of about four or five houses on her street.



Hot, dry weather drives the snakes to seek moisture in the relative coolness of people's yards, particularly during times of drought.



"We see them all over — sometimes in the garage, in the house, under fences, woodpiles, in shady spots, especially in the outer (Pinole) Valley," said Parrott, whose department gets about 30 to 40 snake calls a year.



The Rodeo-Hercules and Contra Costa County fire departments also deal often with snakes.



"Station 22 (in Concord) is plagued with a lot of rattlesnakes," said Greg Kennedy, emergency medical services coordinator and clinical educator for the county fire district. "The area is just teeming with them."



The county's Station 82, in Antioch, is another hot spot for snakes, Kennedy said.



On Tuesday, Brearley was still recovering at home after briefly going in to work the previous day for the first time since she was bitten. Her left foot is still swollen, her ankle bruised.



She was bitten around 5 p.m. last Thursday and promptly called 9-1-1. Pinole firefighters ministered to Brearley, and one tossed the dead snake in a can. An ambulance took Brearley — and the can with the snake, so its identity could be verified later — to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Richmond. On the way there, Brearley said, she felt tingling in her fingertips, then in her lips and her head.



At Kaiser, "They said, the quicker you get the antivenin, the better," Brearley said. The antivenin was shipped from Doctors Medical Center San Pablo, and it was two hours before Brearley received it intravenously, she said. She was released from Kaiser Friday evening.



A Kaiser official said Wednesday she was checking into why the hospital had no antivenin of its own on hand.



Rattlesnakes are part of the pit viper class; the so-called rattle is designed to warn off potential predators. The local species is the Northern Pacific rattlesnake. Bites from baby rattlesnakes often are worse than those from adult snakes, Kennedy said.



"They can't control their venom release like an adult rattlesnake can, so you get much more of a dose of venom," he said. The venom is toxic to blood and kills tissue.



Other fire officials agreed baby rattlesnakes release more venom, but an East Bay Regional Park District naturalist disputed the notion.



Kennedy says that if you are bitten, you should wash the bite area with soap and water, if available, and remove watches and rings and anything else that constricts in order to minimize swelling. Also, you should not apply a tourniquet, nor should you make an incision near the bite and suck out the blood.



"Don't apply ice or any cooling — that can further damage the tissue," Kennedy said.



"One of the biggest concerns: We don't want people running," he said. "Stay calm until help arrives. Panic accelerates the heart rate and gets the blood pumping through the body."



He recommends splinting to restrict the movement of the affected limb and keeping it level with the heart.



In the event of a bite, get medical attention as soon as possible, Kennedy said.



To prevent bites, wear boots and long pants, especially when you hike in regional parks.



The protocol when firefighters go on a snake call is to relocate nonvenomous snakes to wilderness areas or tell homeowners the benefits of having them around — for instance, gopher snakes eat rodents, and king snakes prey on rattlesnakes, Pinole Firefighter-paramedic Ken Deseve said.



If it's a rattlesnake, "we usually noose it, cut its head off with a shovel and put it in a container and transport it to Animal Control," he said.



Some rattlesnakes are trapped and relocated by volunteers.



One snake that didn't end up at Animal Control is the one that bit Brearley. It's back at her house, in her freezer.



"I have plans for it," said Brearley, who is a great fan of Halloween and builds a display in front of her house every year. She said she will bury the snake with its mouth propped open and eventually exhume the skeleton.



"Maybe I'll just make a shrine to it," she said.





GOOD TO KNOW

About 7,000 people are bitten by snakes in the United States each year; one out of 500 die. If you are bitten by a snake, call 9-1-1. If you see see a rattlesnake in inhabited areas, call your local fire department's non-emergency number or the county Department of Animal Services at 510-374-3966 or 925-335-8300. You can also call Rodeo resident Jerry Boyer, a snake expert and volunteer reptile rescuer, at 510-691-7493.

For more information on the Northern Pacific rattlesnake, how to avoid getting bitten and what to do when bitten, go online to www.calpoison.org/public/rattler.html

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