My poor poor Puff...

Poor guy! Hope he's ok! I'm so glad the biggest snakes we have around here are little garter snakes, no bigger around than my fingers. I'm not afraid of snakes in general but the venomous ones would worry me.

[color=#8000BF][b]So far so good.
He still walks around & is drinking water.
Just gotta makes sure he doesn't get too hot.
I HATE snakes!! They creep me out!!
We got all kinds down here...the worst ones you gotta watch out for are the Rattlesnakes.
I did find this lil bit of info...
"Copperhead snake bites can cause swelling, local tissue injury, abnormally low blood pressure, lack of blood clotting and general pain in all limbs. It is however [u]very rare[/u] that bites from copperhead snakes leads to death."[/b][/color]

I just did a quick google search and check this out!

[img]http://www.goldcoast.com.au/images/uplo…]

Here is the accompanying article: http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/200…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Someone needs to LOL that photo!

[color=#8000BF][b]OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah I'd be TOO scared to take it off too!!!

He kills snakes often, but this one was up under the porch & he couldn't move as quickly as if her were in the open.
I think the one that got him was a baby or a small one.[/b][/color]

Poor Puff, I hope Puff recovers fast!!

I don't get why so many people are afraid of snakes. I think one of my biggest pet peeves is people that kill snakes for no reason at all, I think that's right next to people that kill spiders for no reason.
I hope Puff recovers without any bad effects from the bite, hes a cute dog.

It's a rule in my barn that you can't kill spiders. :) All beneficial critters (spiders, barn swallows, snakes, shrews, dragonflies, etc) must be left alone.

Thats a good rule.

[color=#8000BF][b]I just flat out don't like em!!
They give me the creeps!!!
I hate spiders & snakes with a passion!!

When I was younger I nearly got bit by a Rattler & the last year twice nearly stepped on, what I believe was a chicken snake, while opening up & fixin to walk into my feed shed.
They're not venomous & feed on the mice & crawdads we have around.

But as they say to each his own.
If you like em you can have em, but not me!! No siree bob!![/b][/color]

I used to be afraid of spiders (although I never killed them -- always put them outside) but there are so many around now that I live on the farm that I've gotten used to them. I'm especially used to them since I moved my bedroom into the basement. Spiders like it down there. :) I just memorize where all the big ones live so we don't surprise each other.

I don't care about spiders except for the evil Hobo spiders....those suckers attack and will chase you down. With those, it is either kill them or get bitten and develop huge necrotizing wounds...I choose kill.

Bugs are not allowed to live in this house, period. Other places I can deal with them, but not in my house.

I can't stand snakes. I generally won't kill them because I'm too busy getting AWAY. :laugh1 However if there is someone around I can "sick on" the snake... I will. I realize they do good, but they can also do alot of harm (the poisonous ones I mean) and you just never know where they'll end up.

[quote="Monsterpony"]I don't care about spiders except for the evil Hobo spiders....those suckers attack and will chase you down. With those, it is either kill them or get bitten and develop huge necrotizing wounds...I choose kill.[/quote]

See, I think I must be the spider whisperer because I never get bitten. I had one bite about ten years ago that made me very ill (vomiting and delirious for a couple days and a lump on my calf that was there for about a year) but that was from some sort of garden spider, not a house spider.

I've just found this article which says you can only identify the aggressive house spider (hobo) with a microscope so I'm really not sure what I've got in my basement. They're biggish and brownish. :lol:

edit: an actual link to the article would be helpful! http://pep.wsu.edu/pdf/PLS116_1.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I base my conclusion that it is an aggressive house spider based on behavior. If it jumps off of a wall to land at my feet and then chase me down a hall until my roommate saves me, it is more aggressive than I am willing to live with and it will die. If it runs across my pillow and tries to attack my face, it is more aggressive than I am willing to live with and it will die (as I am jumping up and down screaming in the middle of the night *shudder*). Also, the ones I've killed (not that many of them) don't have the markings that that article mentioned (and I have been up close and personal enough to ID many of those things).

non-poisionous lives, poision dies...simple rule here. I squish all the black widows and rattlers and corals, the rest get to live.

Awwww. Poor dog.

That cat pic is a hoot! I have found dead (baby) snakes in the cats possession, so I assume that some cats may try bigger fare? One of mine managed to come up with a paw that had swollen to twice it's normal size, so there appears to be a cut off in what they can handle. :?

[quote="Heather"]non-poisionous lives, poision dies...simple rule here. I squish all the black widows and rattlers and corals, the rest get to live.[/quote]

That's my kind of attitude! 8-) But I will admit that even non venomous can move itself to the endangered list by eating my swallows, eying my bluebirds or scaring my plumber. :mrgreen:
Do you have a lot of corals Heather? I had one a few years ago, and after I convinced him not to come back I had a local wildlife biologist tell me that he had really wanted it alive and in 1 piece, (for a zoo) and my vet said he'd lived here all his life and never seen one. :o

i once found a copperhead in my bedroom....that one DID get killed.

If I see them outside, which is actually a rare event for as common as they are around here, I leave them alone. Same with timber rattlers (have only ever seen one of those near where I live....and they are protected here in OH....most Timber rattlers I've seen have been at Tar Hollow while I was out trail riding)

black rat snakes and king snakes I love. Black rats keep the rodent population down...and king snakes help keep the rodent AND snake population down.

My SSH pony however, does not like snakes....I seen her kill, and then play with, a 4-5 foot long black rat snake a few years ago...flinging it all over the place...and I'm terrified of snakes, so I wouldn't even touch it as a dead snake. She soon grew tired of it and flung it to the side and I scooped it up with a shovel.

[quote="TheRedHayflinger"]My SSH pony however, does not like snakes....I seen her kill, and then play with, a 4-5 foot long black rat snake a few years ago...flinging it all over the place...[/quote]

:o So your pony is a snakeflinger, Hayflinger? :lol:

yes..i have a red hayflinger and a pinto snakeflinger :D Known to most people as haflinger and spotted saddle horse...LOL

[quote="vneerland"]Awwww. Poor dog.

That cat pic is a hoot! I have found dead (baby) snakes in the cats possession, so I assume that some cats may try bigger fare? One of mine managed to come up with a paw that had swollen to twice it's normal size, so there appears to be a cut off in what they can handle. :?

[quote="Heather"]non-poisionous lives, poision dies...simple rule here. I squish all the black widows and rattlers and corals, the rest get to live.[/quote]

That's my kind of attitude! 8-) But I will admit that even non venomous can move itself to the endangered list by eating my swallows, eying my bluebirds or scaring my plumber. :mrgreen:
Do you have a lot of corals Heather? I had one a few years ago, and after I convinced him not to come back I had a local wildlife biologist tell me that he had really wanted it alive and in 1 piece, (for a zoo) and my vet said he'd lived here all his life and never seen one. :o[/quote]

They were all over my farm in FL, I had one that was im positive the record size and I almost got him 2 times, he didnt get that big from being a dumb snake, I never was able to catch that one..here I am holding one LOL

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/…]

and my 6 ft rattler i caught
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/…]

I think those spiders smell your fear, Monsterpony. ;)

The venomous dies, non-venomous lives tactic makes sense to me. There's nothing around here venomous enough to really worry about so I kill nothing. Even the article I read about Hobo spiders suggested taking all Pacific NW spiders out to your garden rather than killing them, which is what I do. I poked around on the internet and there has actually never been a documented case of the Hobo spider causing a necrotizing wound although they are well "known" for that trait around here and everything vaguely brown and spidery gets called a Hobo (not saying this is what you do, MP!). It seems they were native to Europe and are still quite common there and no one says that about them on that continent.

[quote="Heather"]They were all over my farm in FL, I had one that was im positive the record size and I almost got him 2 times, he didnt get that big from being a dumb snake, I never was able to catch that one..here I am holding one LOL

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/…]

Lord woman! Are you immune to neurotoxin? :shock: (holding a coral? Are you [i]nuts[/i]?)

LOL no but i guess I have no fear of being bit by the "north america version of a cobra " lol..I can say however that they head will still try to bite 24 hrs after its off the body (experiment i did with its reflexes)

[quote="Heather"]LOL no but i guess I have no fear of being bit by the "north america version of a cobra " lol..I can say however that they head will still try to bite 24 hrs after its off the body (experiment i did with its reflexes)[/quote]

:roll: Tell me about it. Six shots and the fool was still moving......... :oops:

I just wanted to say to Monsterpony that I wasn't running around on the internet trying to prove you wrong. I was just reading what you wrote and giving myself the creeps... it wouldn't take much to tip me back into a spider phobia. :shock: So I poked around until I found an article that told me what I wanted to hear. :)

I wonder if her "hobo" is actually a brown recluse...they are agressive and [b]DO [/b]caused horrible necrotizing wounds...we have them here and they are atrocious.

As for snakes, I am not afraid, but hubby would break his neck tripping over his own feet :bounce trying to clear the fences running away - :laugh1 . Let us just say that there is still a weedeater in a ditch somewhere because he hit a copperhead's nest while doing landscaping at a local horse farm when we first moved down here.

I waited 2 days before I told him I'd seen one in the raised tomato box the other day (it looked to be an eastern garter snake - and they are endangered). He can't understand why I will not kill them (they eat frogs, lizards, and bugs) :BH

Now if it'd been a copperhead, rattler or similar venimous snake, that would have been a different story...even I don't tolerate them that close to the house or my garden boxes.

We don't have brown recluse here and even black widows are exceedingly rare. The only spiders that could actually cause serious illness or death are the accidental strays that come in with fruit or in people's luggage from other parts of the country or world. They speculate that the few cases in the Pacific NW of necrotizing bites are from these accidental spiders because only rarely do people even see the spider that bites them. I know when I was bitten I didn't even feel it but I've been told the only thing that would have made me as sick as I got is a spider... and I guess we do have ones around here that could do that... but it was not a necrotizing wound. Follow that sentence the best you can, I guess. It's late and I've had a lot of sake.

[quote="Sara"]I just wanted to say to Monsterpony that I wasn't running around on the internet trying to prove you wrong. I was just reading what you wrote and giving myself the creeps... it wouldn't take much to tip me back into a spider phobia. :shock: So I poked around until I found an article that told me what I wanted to hear. :)[/quote]

No worries. Like I said, I only smash the ones that attack *shudder*

We have Hobos over here but they are less vicious and less painful bite !

Poor doggy BTW ! :(

AWWW poor dog!!! hope he feels better soon!!!!