Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For those of you who remember a while back, yes, this is my male that mistook me for one of these monster rats apparently and set me up with a hospital overnight visit. (haven't made that mistake again!) Thought that I'd share some of the excitement!

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Conrad
Too Fast Reptiles
www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com

This rat took him maybe five minutes to put down, which is a long time for him...speaking of five minutes...that's about how long he was trying to eat my hand before I got him off! lol

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Conrad
Too Fast Reptiles
www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com

Did you really let him chew for 5 minutes?

Doug T

>>This rat took him maybe five minutes to put down, which is a long time for him...speaking of five minutes...that's about how long he was trying to eat my hand before I got him off! lol
>>
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>>Conrad
>>Too Fast Reptiles
>>www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com

When your by yourself, and a 6' long, healthy, strong, FWC latches onto your hand in a feeding response, there isn't a lot you can do unless you plan on hurting the snake. I know I'd survive whatever he threw my way, but you can't make broken necks get fixed, or put his head back on, which were the only two other options, except for maybe sticking him in the freezer for a bit on my hand, which would have probably killed him too. I tried holding under water, but with snake as comfortable with water as these guys, it didn't do much untill I was finally able to get his mouth open long enough to get a mouthfull of water. So no, I didn't "let" him, but it took me 5 minutes to get him off my hand.

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Conrad
Too Fast Reptiles
www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com

Hi Conrad:

Nice your "Big Boy" hit the right target this time. I had to laugh at Dougs question, Yeah everybody loves to let their FWC hang out and "chew the fat" once in a while...Duh!!!

Please describe the symptoms and supportive treatment you recieved at the hospital.

Also in the future if you get chomped you can get them to release very fast by using two methods in sucession:

1) Pour any kind of hard alcohol into their mouth, Vodka, whisky..etc. This get them to release pronto most of the time. So keep some handy.

2) If the above fails, run their head under HOT water from the sink. This gets their mind off eating and into survival mode, quickly convincing them to let go. This one of course carries risk of scaling you and the snake but if you "ramp" up the temp of the water till it works them risk it minimal.

Both of these methods will also dilute the venom/saliva and wash it out.

Good Luck,

Al
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You can't enjoy your collection if it kills you.

Al,

Thanks for being understanding from my stand-point! Yeah, I considered both methods you had mentioned, however I didn't want to risk injuring the snake at any cost with hot water, though I knew it would be more efficeint than my attempt with cold water. And the alchohol is out of the question, because I don't drink, and therefore don't have ANY alchohol around, surpisingly even rubbing alchohol doesn't exist at my house.

Symptons ran as such:
1.)Imediate pain and swelling, spreading at a rate of one inch per hour, untill my hand had reached a maximum diameter of 11"!
2.)Ozzing bite areas caused by the concentration of fluids in the localized area.
3.)After the first hour, pain fading but swelling continuing up my entire arm, untill I looked like a one armed Pop-eye!
4.)Swelling began receeding after about 24hrs. but not completely back to normal for one week.

Again, the speed of spread, and the longevity of symptons more than likely had to with the amount of chewing I recieved. The doctors were clueless in my area and basically had to go by what I told them to do. Including refusing CROFAB antivenom, which they were about to tie me down and give me untill I told them to call Arizona, and eventually Miami venmon institues. (which I'm sure the are glad I did to save them a very pricey law suit...which in hindsite would have good for me if I made it through the treatment!) Get this, they even called Australia Zoo to see what they new! The only reason I went was to basically make sure that if I turned out to be allergic, I'd be in the right spot...things were alright though, and aside with some noticeable discomfort and missed work, it was nothing to worry about.
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Conrad
Too Fast Reptiles
www.toofastreptiles.bravehost.com