Recent hognose bite

I have not been on the forum in a while but I wanted to share with you my unexpected experience. It was feeding day and I thaw my rodents in the room with my snakes. When I was ready to feed I opened the tub that my 5 month old hognose is in. She was hiding under the aspen so I dug her out to set her in a small clear dish that I have inside her tub to feed her on. Well she turned around and grabbed my ring finger. No surprise, she was hungry and I was in a hurry and being careless. Not her fault at all. I thought she would let go but continued to gnaw a bit. Those little rear fangs don't feel good by the way, even on a little baby, lol. Well a little bit of Listerine on a paper towel near her face did the trick and she let me go. It bled of course but I didn't think much of it. I washed it with soap and water like I would any bite, wrapped it up with a paper towel and went on feeding. Within 5 minutes the tip of my finger began to swell a little bit and there was numbness at the site. I didn't think much of that either. In the next 20 to 30 min my finger continued to swell and become quite tight. I did get my wedding ring off in time :). Long story short the swelling moved from the top of the finger to the middle of my palm with numbness and inability to bend within about an hour to an hour and a half. It was quite strange. Felt a little like I had a nerve block in my hand that was starting to wear off. It took 48 hours for my finger to have 100% mobility and the swelling to go away completely. Now I know that my life was not in danger or anything like that, but I have to say that I was very surprised at the reaction my body had to the bite. I could see how they could incapacitate something very small.

I just thought it was noteworthy and wanted to share with you guys. I have attatched a couple of pictures because it would be no fun without them. This is not intended to put anyone off about hognose snakes AT ALL, but you just so rarely hear of bites from these guys that I thought I would share.

Here is the cute culprit, Jubilee
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps3c816acc.jpg

Right after the bite.
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps145cd070.jpg

A few pics of the finger later.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps2613e056.jpg
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps320b06eb.jpg
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...pse2de0cc1.jpg

Nothing too crazy, but the feeling in my hand was so odd. Let me know if anyone has ever had this experience as well.

That is crazy! I've never seen the result of a hoggie bite. That's a pretty strong reaction (stronger than I would have thought anyway), and serves as a good reminder that as cute as they are, they are still venomous. Thank you for sharing!

This was a really cool post. No one likes being bitten, but it's still neat to see a relatively safe venomous snake bite. I bet the feeling was very weird. Your little hognose is super cute :) :snake:

People react differently to the venom; I remember reading one account where a keeper came close to losing his finger. It's almost like a bee sting - for some people it's a quick 'Ouch', while others end up in anaphylactic shock.

In the future I'd suggest using a small hook to dig your hoggy out for feeding, if you think it's really needed. For mine I just leave the warmed, thawed feeder on top of a hide and it's usually gone an hour later.

I did take a benadryl as soon as it happened. Not sure if it helped at all but I guess it made me feel better to take it.

Yeah luckily we have always gotten away with head butts from our little hoggie. Ours is quite territorial, which seems to be rare with hognose snakes, so we respect her and use a hook. She is fine once out of her enclosure. Thanks for sharing, my partner and I have talked about what it would be like many times. They do gnaw quite a bit... Ouch.

Mine latched on to my finger in a similar manner once but I got it off fairly quick. I did not have any reaction but it did bleed more than any other bite Ive had.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KMG

Mine latched on to my finger in a similar manner once but I got it off fairly quick. I did not have any reaction but it did bleed more than any other bite Ive had.

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Yea I did notice it bled a lot. She was on my finger less than a minute.

I remember reading an account of someone who had an even more severe reaction to hognose venom than you. He documented the whole process with photos, and it was actually quite impressive. Obviously it wasn't to the level of a "real" venomous snake's bite, but his whole arm swelled up.

Here it is.

http://www.herpnet.net/bite/