Over what kind of a time period (on average if thats known) are you talking about being exposed to a certain venom before something like that would happen?

There are too many variables involved to be able to predict the outcome. For example, I went into anaphylactic shock when I was injected with antivenin the very first (and only) time for a Crotalus triseriatus bite. The bite wasn't that serious, the reaction to the antivenin could have killed me had I not been in a hospital at the time. This was probably a result of being exposed to other horse based sera earlier in my life (such as anti-tetanus sera).

Generally it takes several exposures to develop severe Type I reactions, but it can occur on the second exposure if the original exposure is serious enough. It depends on the person and the foreign material.

I dont know if youve seen it or not but there is a guy who deals with venomous snakes and injects himself every day or week with small amounts of venom, but not directly in his veins. I think hes been doing it for years and hasnt had any problems. Im not sure that its necassarily helped him either.

Several people have done this, most notable Bill Haast of the Miami Serpentarium. It probably has saved Haast's life on a number of occasions. But, he could also have died 30 years ago from a Type I hypersensitivity reaction after the third or fourth dose. Then how would we view the process?

Is he just lucky not to have become hypersensitive or is it a low number of people who this happens to?

Everyone is different in the way they respond to allergens. It isn't really any different than the fact that some people get hayfever and others don't.

A very few people can have violent, negative, potentially fatal responses to specific allergens. There is no way to predict how you will respond (although there is some hint of a genetic link due to the fact that many family members share the same allergies). But in reality, there is simply no way to predict what will happen in any individual case.

One last thing, is anything known about how much "venom" a hognose can/does inject and do they control that amount depending on the situation: feeding, defense, and just plain chewing

The problem with hogs is that I have never heard of anyone being bitten by a hog as a defensive reaction. There have been a few people grazed by a tooth as the hog did its bluff lunge, but they simply don't bite is self defense.
Every bite I have ever heard of was a stupid feeding error on the part of the handler. Those bites are likely to be serious as the hog is more likely to chew to subdue to "prey item".
-----
Chris Harrison

[ Show Entire Thread ]