disturbing info

[mommanessy247]

this may not be new info for all you owners of hots but this is newly aquired info for me & it disturbed me & made me think of you guys so maybe you can clarify this or ease some of this anxiety.
last night watching a new episode of fatal attractions on animal planet & interestingly enough it was about owners of hots, they said something about being exposed to venom over any length of time can result in your body building up an immuno-response (allergy) to it & that if ever actually bitten, your body will have a greater chance of shutting down alot quicker then it should.
they pretty much said this allergy thing is more common with owners of spitting cobras because cleaning the cages activates the dried venom particles which are then inhaled & the body reacts to it.
on that episode though a guy apparently having built up an allergy to the venom he was being exposed to daily, died within 30 minutes of a cobra bite when he should've been able to survive for up to at least 8-10 hours. i'm sure his pre-existing asthma problem didnt help matters any but still, hearing that exposure to venom can cause such an allergic reaction shook me up cuz i know theres some hots owners here & grew concerned as to whether or not ya'll know this or not. sorry if its a stupid question & if i'm getting concerned about a non issue its ok to tell me but honestly, although i admire your guy's courage, i worry too cuz your pretty much playing at death's door every time you open a cage of a venomous animal, despite all the precautions one can take it's only a matter of time before your faced with your own mortality & that's apparently not a good way to go...just sayin'.
please understand i'm not judging you guys or saying what your doing is bad or wrong or whatever, i'm fully aware that it takes experience & patience to do what you do & i respect that but i know that you must know that a venomous snake can strike, inject venom & recoil faster then you can blink once...so how do you prepare for that?
is it really & simply all about prevention & knowing what makes each animal tick & working with it with that always in mind or is it really about luck after closing a cage & walking away unscathed to live another day?
i ask cuz i simply dont know but i seek the knowledge & wisdom that can only come from your experience.
i pray for you guys, not because i doubt your skills or anything but because i just care that way. i pray for your continued safety in all that you do with your magnificent animals so you can live to post more pics on bp.net, rofl.

[Denial]

you shouldnt watch fatal attractions its bad for your health. Actually come to think of it watching almost anything on animal planet is bad for your health.

[wilomn]

Sounds like you need to start a rose garden.

Without necropsy results no one can say for sure.

Depending on where the guy got bit, his general condition, the size of the snake, the actual species of spitter involved, treatment he was or was not given, lots of things could at attributed to his death, including total fabrication for the amusement of TV viewers.

It happens on occasion that someone who is bitten by a hot snake is allergic to the antivenin they are given, this is a fact.

Still, I'd be inclined to go with, for this story, the total fabrication angle.

[wolfy-hound]

First, if you get your info from a show called "Fatal Attractions" after everything that's been said on reptile sites about how skewed Animal Planet aka PETA's personal channel, then you're never going to touch a living creature for fear it will murder you.

Second, we're "risking death" just by driving a car, or walking the sidewalk or even breathing. Any one of us could die at any point by means much much more common than bite-by-cobra, even those that keep cobra.

Third, people can develop allergies to anything and die from them. This guy supposedly was allergic, and that killed him.... even though he had ashma... if a death even occured at all. AP fabricates incidents and 'facts' as it sees fit to further it's animal rights agenda.

The expert at Venom Lab who milks their venomous is actually allergic to the antivenin himself. He works around the venomus species every day.

[jjmitchell]

First off, the episode you were watching was probably the one they made about James Bear, happened right here in New Mexico..... and it was not a cobra bite, it was the bite from a canebreak.. As far as the allergy to venom, I dont personally know. As far as the show fatal attractions.... I hate it. They make everyone in this hobby seem like desperate, social off casts. They are working to get exotics taken away from us, all of them. Stick to nat-geo wild... info there is not always perfect but it is usually unbiased

[Bellabob]

Never watch Animal Planet, lies, lies, and more LIES coming from that network.

[garweft]

That show is a joke.

I couldn't believe the way they tried to portray Joe Slowinski. Just waiting for the episode on Steve Irwin and his unhealthy obsession with saltwater crocodiles.....

Why would someone consider keeping deadly animals, explore the psychology on our website..... ie, were all just crazy and need help



Ok so that last part is mostly true, but still.......

[jason_ladouceur]

First off I’m with every other response to this thread; ANY show that appears on animal planet providing truthful or useful information is a thing of the past. I’ve never seen or even heard of this show but it sounds just like the typical highly inflammatory crap that constantly spews from that garbage channel. Repeated exposure to any toxin can cause hyper sensitivity or even an allergic response. I know that several that tried to emulate the late grate Bill Haast by self inoculating themselves with venom Almost found this out the hard way. There is a well known photographer for National Geographic Mark O’shea that has developed such a strong immune response to Horses from repeatedly being treated with anti-venom derived from horse serum that if he even touches a horse he breaks out in a rash. I remember a man named Larry Moore in B.C Canada back in the early 90’s that was severely allergic to snake venom. When cleaning any of his hot cages he would often break out in a rash. He was bitten by a Naja (I don’t remember the specific one but I believe in was Asian) he managed to return the snake to its cage and call 911. The ambulance responded in less than 15 minutes but unfortunately they found Mr. Moore already passed on the front lawn. And I have been told repeatedly by experienced hot keepers that I trust that the test to see if you are allergic to venom can actually cause hyper sensitivity. So even if you were not allergic to venom before the test, you may be after. So from what I understand about the topic I would say that prolonged repeated exposure could in theory cause someone to become allergic to venom. As a safety precaution I would think keeping an epi-pen on hand might not be a bad insurance policy for all hot keepers in any case.

[Bellabob]

There is so much CRAP on the network it's horrifying, but the show "Fatal Attractions" has to be the worst one.

"Want to know why people still keep exotic animals? Go to www.animalsarearehorribleandwillkillyouifyougonearthem.com"

They make people who keep exoitcs look like they have severe mental problems for owning some snakes or a tiger.

I wonder how many times they have called Brian from SnakebytesTV. LOL

[mommanessy247]

wow you guys.
didnt mean to stir up such heated discord for that channel, lol.
i do agree that AP has gone down the toilet but i blame the huge hole steve irwin left in his death. they just cant find any good enough programs to fill that void.
he needs to come back & reclaim his rightful place back on educating us properly!
jeff corwin is just silly (in a good way) & brady barr is pansy in the worst way & needs a lesson in "man up 101" irwin style!

Sounds like you need to start a rose garden.

thanks. i really do need to start a garden, lol.

First off, the episode you were watching was probably the one they made about James Bear, happened right here in New Mexico..... and it was not a cobra bite, it was the bite from a canebreak..

actually a canebreak was never mentioned or shown in that episode & neither were spitting cobras come to think of it, hmm, odd?...they showed a big gray cobra biting the guy's toe (apparently he was completely unaware that there was an escaped cobra slithering by his sandaled feet).
i should probably google these "incidents" to see if there is documentation proving their deaths before taking the stories for fact value...

denial - i thank you very much for your insight, lol.
i really do admire you guys here. your courage mainly, lol but especially your passion for such dangerous creatures.

i'm passionate about creatures too but the venomous ones will get my admiration from a distance, lol. i'm awed at the beauty of some of them but get one in the same room as me & i'll be climbing walls to put distance between it & me, lol.
but yet, i've boldly faced really bad beat downs by abusive guys in the past...strange how one can be so vastly different in certain situations?
eh, anyhow, thanks again everyone for your time spent responding to my silly threads, lol.