Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Now I realize everyone's reaction to it is different and alot of things factor in like species, ld50, amount of venom delivered and so on. But when I see pictures of bites it's hard to imagine how one man may only end up with a 24 hour overnight ER visit and another has half his hand fall off from the smae species of snake. In the nasty cases is the more behind the story than just the final result? I mean, there has to be, right? No AV, lack of promt treatment, something? Is it really that circumstantial?

involved in the outcome of a venomous snakebite. The amount of venom injected (obviously, someone who got a massive dose is going to suffer worse effects than someone who got a smaller one), whether the bite was feeding related or defensive (correlates to amount of venom injected), individual sensitivity to venom (though not so much a factor), etc. Those are just a few. But if you think about it, you can see why bites can vary so much. Every bite is different.

Psilocybe is right, there are many factors. Most cases fall under the mild envenomation category, which are those 24 visits you speak of. Usually those are smaller snakes, as larger ones typically inject more venom. One other thing is time until treated. The longer it takes to get treatment, the more damage can occur. Even a mild envenomation can have bad effects. The more time the venom has to go to work, the more it can destroy. Some people also try to start treatment, like tourniquets or cutting the bite to get venom out, and doing such can actually make the bite worse.

i was looking at pictures and I happened to notice to copperhead bites next to eachother. One was just swelling and the other had some wicked necrosis happening. It just blows my mind.

copperheads arent highly venomous and dont often have serious bites. Im sure one was typical and the other was a rare case demonstrating that you should never underestimate the power of venom. The bad one was probably a case where the snake thought the victim was a food item and injected more venom, or mistaken identity.

An example of what could cause the rare extreme reactions. Feeding responce. I never thought of that. Like I said, I definitely know you don't wanna get tagged by anything. Heck, I don't even like getting bitten by nonvenomous snakes. I'm just trying to get a better undestanding of all the aspects invloved with hots. The more you know the less likely you are to find out the hard way, right?

I sure hope so.