To continue a thread that claimed a shed Puff Adder fang could contain enough venom for a serious envenomation.

I took a shed Puff Adder fang from a specimen that was 15 to 20 inches long. See image below. This ~1mm fang could only hold ~ 9ul of water at 20 Deg C. Clearly not enough venom to require 8 vials of SAVP Polyvalent to counter-act.

As Prof. Wuster noted it could be dangerous if you get stuck with a shed fang from a hyper-toxic snake but not from a Puff Adder in this case. I think the main danger is allergic reaction to the the venom left in a shed fang.

Cheers,
Al



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• How much venom can a shed fang hold? - phobos, Wed Mar 29 16:48:06 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - texasreptiles, Wed Mar 29 17:10:15 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - Shane_OK, Wed Mar 29 17:14:42 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - LarryF, Wed Mar 29 20:50:38 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - phobos, Wed Mar 29 22:29:16 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - WW, Thu Mar 30 02:31:50 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - phobos, Thu Mar 30 05:44:09 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - WW, Thu Mar 30 06:24:59 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - rhodostom, Thu Mar 30 10:07:27 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - phobos, Thu Mar 30 16:31:55 2006
• RE: How much venom can a shed fang hold? - WW, Fri Mar 31 01:56:56 2006