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Blue racer bite requiring medical attn

SMELLtheGlove Sep 08, 2009 07:50 PM

Sorry this is kind of long, but I really need closure on this issue. I couldn't think of a better place than the racer forum here on KS, so thanks in advance for reading and/or responding!

This happened in southeast Michigan in a newly developed neighborhood, built on marshland. 12 years ago, I was running across a patch of grass in a marsh in the early evening, late summer (I was 12 years old). I tripped and fell on my stomach, immediately feeling a deep pricking feeling in my left calf. Assuming I'd falled on a picker bush, I just brushed myself off and walked home.

I got in the shower and noticed that the spot on my left calf that landed on the picker bush was quite swollen, and didn't look like I'd landed on a picker bush AT ALL. I had just two punctures, 3/4 of an inch apart, and it was beginning to develop a burning sensation. Both punctures were swollen enough to the size of a pea.

I panicked and ran downstairs and showed my mom, and she became quite concerned at what she saw. She took me to the emergency clinic, and after an examination, the doctor told me I'd received a bite from a blue racer. This didn't seem quite right in my mind, because to my knowledge at the time (and today), blue racers don't have fangs, let alone teeth that would leave a wound with such characteristics (just 2 punctures, 3/4 in apart, slight burning sensation and by the time I was at the clinic, extremely irritated).

Anyways, I was given a Tetanus shot and some antibiotics, as well as some iodine to put on the bite every few hours. To this day, I've wondered if I was really bitten by a blue racer and not a massasauga.

Thanks for reading this long post, and I'd greatly appreciate and feedback!!!!!!!!

Replies (3)

BradleySturgeon Sep 08, 2009 08:12 PM

A blue racer with fangs huh? HA. That is like saying there is a snake that has legs. Obviously a moron who knows nothing about snakes, just like some of our politicians who know NOTHING about our economy. Doctors seem no different as well most of the time. Forget about it. It was SURELY some type of Pit Viper, with a light envenomation. Maybe a copperhead? Thats just my 0.2 cents worth of closure.

FRoberts Sep 16, 2009 04:33 PM

>>A blue racer with fangs huh? HA. That is like saying there is a snake that has legs.
That is like saying there is a snake that has legs.

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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

a153fish Apr 22, 2010 09:39 PM

I think i remember this being debunked as a snake that ate a lizard and the leg ripped thru its abdomen? You can see the lump where the lizard is.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

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