what chance said is true to a point. they have a potent haemotoxic venom the does cause all sorts of coagulopathy. For a while in south africa the boomslang and the vine snake were thought only to be mildly venomous like alot of the colubrids there. One of the reasons is that it is fairly hard to get envenomated by these guys. When they finally figured out that these guys were deadly and the first few vine snake bites where diagnosed, they treated them with multiple blood transfusions that when done enough (up to 7 times), and symptomatic treatment, these people survived. Boomslang serum is available in very limited amounts (SAIMR monovalent serum) and the preference is to use multiple blood transfusions in cases of severe envenomation.

[ Hide Replies ]

• questions about twig snakes - throatoyster, Fri Jul 9 09:33:29 2004
• RE: questions about twig snakes - TraceH, Sat Jul 10 11:25:58 2004
• RE: questions about twig snakes - Chance, Sat Jul 10 12:16:12 2004
• RE: questions about twig snakes - throatoyster, Sun Jul 11 18:45:36 2004
• RE: questions about twig snakes - donalds4, Tue Jul 27 03:39:42 2004