Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is a story some of you might get a kick out of. My day job is working in an office. I write contracts for the dept. of the air force. Most of the people I work with and a few of the customers and contractors know about my herps and nearly all agree that I am "not normal" any way, a feww weeks ago I was relocating a 7.5 fot male peruvian with an attitude problem and he was not in a good mood about it, he struck at me 15or 16 times and scared my wife right out of the snake room. I got him in his new cage without getting bit, or so I thought. I had a small trickle of blood on my right thumb. I cleaned it up and had 2 tiny punctures but it didn't look ike there were any teeth in them. All in all pretty good. over the last couple of weeks that joint has swelled and gotten a bit infected. I have opened it up, first with a needle, then with a knife, I have dug and squeezed and probed but could not find a tooth in there. So this morning, sitting in a meeting i must have been absent mindedly piking at it when i felt a pop and a quarter inch boa tooth landed on the other thumb nail. I let out a comment like "holy [bleep]", completely inappropriate for the meeting, and then had to explain and show everyone the tooth. If they though I was abnormal before you should see the way they look at me now. It has only been a couple of hours but the swelling is almost gone now, guess that was the only tooth in there. Just thought you might enjoy the story, I am still laughing at the looks people around the office are giving me.

np

That's a good story to point out the fact that if you were bitten by a boa, and it still hurts or swells the next day or more, chances are about 99% that you still have teeth or teeth fragments embedded in the skin.

I say this because i've always been asked by those 'normal people'... are you gonna die? do you have to go to the hospital to take out the venom?! (*LOL*) is it going to get infected? and so on..

I did the same thing. Probed with a needle, with a knife, squeezing, moving, etc...
found nothing...
still hurt for some strange reason? got worse and worse for the next 2 days.. I go to check, and the tooth is now hanging out of the finger about to fall out... lol

There should really not be pain or infection lasting longer than the initial shock, unless we are talking about a really ugly situation.

On another note, I was bitten by a 4 foot albino the other day, right on my wrist. I had red lines covering my wrist and over 60 teeth holes directly over my veins! I must've looked like the biggest dope fiend out there!!! LOL

Anyway, it didn't hurt, but the puncturing of blood vessels and the movement and pulling of the skin when the snake and you pull away from each other causes a bit of internal bleeding. Minor bleeding, just looked like a black and blue, but you should've seen the size of it!!!
The mouth mark was about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide,
the bruise was about 6 inches long and 4 inches wide !!!!

Nothing serious, all is well... usually looks much worse than it is..

Play safe kids!

Bci Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

You make a good point, something I tell people all the time. don't pull away when you do get bit. And yes I know it is a natural reatcion, but over many years and many bites I have learned to keep still. when you stay still and let the snake let go on his own you get lots of little pin holes and very few teeth. if you pull away the skin tends to rip and there will be lots of teth, and worse, tooth fragments, left behind. I will admit that it is harder with a big boa or python also. I was doing a lecture once at an elementary school, using animals from Superpets (an east coast chain) they paid me to do the lecture and insisted that I use stuff that was for sale in their store. I had 4ft kingsnake that bit into my thunb and just kind of chewed. I just turned my hand so the kids couldn't see it and kept on talking. When I was done I told them the snake was sleepy and didn't want to be petted. the funny thing was their teacher was standing behind me and watching the snake chew my thumb. She asked alot of those same questions, was there venom, did I need a tetnus shot, could a bigger snake bite off the finger etc. I don't do lectures with other peoples animals anymore, good way to scare people off instead of educating and intriguing them.

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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

don't forget that by pulling back, you can also launch a small one across the room, I've done that several times with my newly laid/hatched/born BRB's

It's so amusing at the shows when one is biting me and I just ignore it, drives the customers and even more so the lookie-loos crazy
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12.100 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

.
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

Sad memory, I killed a bay corn snake once because I din't notice it had bit my finger and I was trying to close the cage quickly so the other 30 in there wouldn't get out. I squished the one hanging on. I have never flipped one through the air though, and, I have learned a few things about proper housing for baby snakes since then also.

I was talking to a girl at school who is afraid of snakes. She asked how I get the venom out of the snakes I keep, and was SHOCKED when I told her most snakes aren't venomous (not getting into the rear fanged colubrids being very common though harmless though). She did say she would like to overcome her fear, but she wouldn't even look at a picture on my phone of a snake!
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1.1 Cal Kings
1.1 Northern Pines
1.2 Honduran Boas
0.1 Tangerine Honduran Milks
1.2 Pueblan Milks
1.2 Blue Beauties
1.1 Irian Jaya Carpet Pythons

thats so funny because i work at a law firm and when i tell my co-workers that i have a freezer full of dead rats they freak out and think that i am nuts. Glad to know that i won't expect them coming over for dinner soon. LOL
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1.3 Columbians

LOL, I do the same thing with My stories from work. I work at a vet hospital and I always have the most interesting stories to tell at fancy dinners with Steve's mother where I am blah blahing on about vomit or retilian surgery and I always get a smack on the knee from Steve for the "Hey I know you and I think its neat but you are grossing mom out" or a thats not dinner conversation Rose... LOL... I guess we are all a little bit... different.

Thanks for sharing the great tooth story!
Sincerely,
Rose Hipskind
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www.srsnakes.com

First of all, thanks for all the replies and stories, they are better in my opinion than some of the arguments that get posted. anyway, the story continues today. Last night I smashed my thumb in a weird reciprocating saw accident, this is the left thumb, the one the tooth landed on after it popped out. The nail is turning black and probably will fall off. But the same people from yesterday saw a snake tooth land on that nail and now see the nail turning black and they are convinced that it is some how related and the "boa venom" is killing my thumb nail. I even talked to one who doesn't believe me that they are unrelated, she thinks I am lying because I don't want people to know how dangerous the snakes really are. The thing that bothers me most is the people with the strongest fear and most negative opinions have never even seen a live snake. although a few of them have seen the movie annaconda. They don't believe that that movie is all BS either. Oh well, if they can't appreciate snakes it is their loss, I am just glad I am not "normal".