Had any encounters with a snake? Tell us about it.

First snake encounter in the wild: 6yrs old and had just moved into our new house "out in the country". Running back and forth across a fallen pine tree while playing out in the yard with brother and a cousin. Spotted a snake next to the fallen pine after I'd run and played in that area for some time. The snake was coiled, not moving. I thought it was dead until I stuck my face up close to get a good look and it rattled its tail and flicked its tongue out rapidly. I ran to tell mama about the snake and it was gone by the time we got back to the fallen pine.

Behind our house and throughout the woods were three farm ponds and three creeks. I roamed those woods alone from the age of 6. I was an adventurous and curious child. Mama allowed me in the woods on my own as long as I didn't get any further than she could yell and she could yell loudly when she wanted to. Over the years I came across so many snakes in and around the woods and waters, that I swear I developed a sense of when a snake was nearby.

There was a beaver dam I was walking across one hot summer afternoon. I sensed a snake, looked down and saw a shimmering black snake body moving between my feet and through the branches in the dam. It was the largest Cottonmouth Water Moccasin I'd ever seen. Instantly startled, I jumped straight into the air and somehow teleported myself about ten feet away and off that dam. Adrenalin can do amazing things.

So may snakes and so many more snake stories from my youth. I loved those woods and waters and spent countless hours alone out back there and roaming around. Beautiful as they are, never found a love of snakes though. They did their thing and I generally left them alone and gave them distance.

Here where I live now, I've seen plenty of snakes, mostly harmless. But one evening in 2010, dark was just settling in as I was sitting in the swing in the backyard. Behind me and only a few feet away, I heard my dog, Rowdy, making a commotion and turned to see him wrestling with a Copperhead snake. I secured Rowdy inside the house and went back out to finish the injured snake so it wouldn't suffer.

30 minutes later, Rowdy's jaw on the right side had swollen up pretty good and Rowdy was listless and drifting. I got him to the after-hours emergency vet. He got 10ml of antivenin, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds. The vet kept Rowdy overnight. Next day and $1500 later, I brought Rowdy back home. After two days, Rowdy was completely back to his same 'o normal self. Never would have known he'd tangled with a venomous critter.

I took the snake with me to the vet along with Rowdy. I thought the vet might need to identify the snake for proper meds, but the vet said there is only one antivenin that covers all venomous snakes in North America with the exception of a Coral snake. Coral snake bite treatment has an antivenin all its own. Vet said that in humans, antivenin is given until swelling stops and starts to go down, how ever much antivenin that might take. But the 10ml of antivenin that Rowdy got, was $800 a vial and that was all I could afford at the time. Thankfully it was enough.

Thing is though, Copperhead snakes are the least venomous snakes in North America and often dogs get over bites from Copperheads without any treatment. But I wasn't taking any chances with my boy and maybe I eased some pain and discomfort while helping to speed Rowdy's recovery. After all, it was the least I could do. Rowdy may have taken one for me, given the close proximity I was to that Copperhead snake.

I was a moderator on a pit bull forum for several years and some "dog people" I know who routinely have encounters with their dogs and snakes, treat their dogs with a large amount of Benadryl when bitten by venomous snakes but I don't know the specifics, so wouldn't recommend it. They use the liquid Benadryl and give the dog a shot. Benadryl helps reduce some of the allergic-type swelling and histamine reaction, but it does not neutralize venom and it does not stop tissue damage.

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Paco Dennis said:
I'm using voicemail here so I'm gonna be talking about this story now we saw a snake under our porch but it wasn't until the chickens kept looking under the porch and they would stop crying until finally we started looking under the porch and we saw a snake head a big 1 and then we saw that it was a copperhead and they're poisonous so I took a risk and I took 122 rifle and stuck it in the pipe where it was in and shot and that was the end of that story
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I know I understand that totally.
 
My encounters with snakes around here consist of tipping a log or flat rock over and watching a 6" or 8" long fire (red belly) snake slowly move away, with me feeling a bit bad for disturbing his home. We just have so few snakes, and no poisonous snakes at all.
 
Naturally said:
First snake encounter in the wild: 6yrs old and had just moved into our new house "out in the country". Running back and forth across a fallen pine tree while playing out in the yard with brother and a cousin. Spotted a snake next to the fallen pine after I'd run and played in that area for some time. The snake was coiled, not moving. I thought it was dead until I stuck my face up close to get a good look and it rattled its tail and flicked its tongue out rapidly. I ran to tell mama about the snake and it was gone by the time we got back to the fallen pine.

Behind our house and throughout the woods were three farm ponds and three creeks. I roamed those woods alone from the age of 6. I was an adventurous and curious child. Mama allowed me in the woods on my own as long as I didn't get any further than she could yell and she could yell loudly when she wanted to. Over the years I came across so many snakes in and around the woods and waters, that I swear I developed a sense of when a snake was nearby.

There was a beaver dam I was walking across one hot summer afternoon. I sensed a snake, looked down and saw a shimmering black snake body moving between my feet and through the branches in the dam. It was the largest Cottonmouth Water Moccasin I'd ever seen. Instantly startled, I jumped straight into the air and somehow teleported myself about ten feet away and off that dam. Adrenalin can do amazing things.

So may snakes and so many more snake stories from my youth. I loved those woods and waters and spent countless hours alone out back there and roaming around. Beautiful as they are, never found a love of snakes though. They did their thing and I generally left them alone and gave them distance.

Here where I live now, I've seen plenty of snakes, mostly harmless. But one evening in 2010, dark was just settling in as I was sitting in the swing in the backyard. Behind me and only a few feet away, I heard my dog, Rowdy, making a commotion and turned to see him wrestling with a Copperhead snake. I secured Rowdy inside the house and went back out to finish the injured snake so it wouldn't suffer.

30 minutes later, Rowdy's jaw on the right side had swollen up pretty good and Rowdy was listless and drifting. I got him to the after-hours emergency vet. He got 10ml of antivenin, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds. The vet kept Rowdy overnight. Next day and $1500 later, I brought Rowdy back home. After two days, Rowdy was completely back to his same 'o normal self. Never would have known he'd tangled with a venomous critter.

I took the snake with me to the vet along with Rowdy. I thought the vet might need to identify the snake for proper meds, but the vet said there is only one antivenin that covers all venomous snakes in North America with the exception of a Coral snake. Coral snake bite treatment has an antivenin all its own. Vet said that in humans, antivenin is given until swelling stops and starts to go down, how ever much antivenin that might take. But the 10ml of antivenin that Rowdy got, was $800 a vial and that was all I could afford at the time. Thankfully it was enough.

Thing is though, Copperhead snakes are the least venomous snakes in North America and often dogs get over bites from Copperheads without any treatment. But I wasn't taking any chances with my boy and maybe I eased some pain and discomfort while helping to speed Rowdy's recovery. After all, it was the least I could do. Rowdy may have taken one for me, given the close proximity I was to that Copperhead snake.

I was a moderator on a pit bull forum for several years and some "dog people" I know who routinely have encounters with their dogs and snakes, treat their dogs with a large amount of Benadryl when bitten by venomous snakes but I don't know the specifics, so wouldn't recommend it. They use the liquid Benadryl and give the dog a shot. Benadryl helps reduce some of the allergic-type swelling and histamine reaction, but it does not neutralize venom and it does not stop tissue damage.

DNTNDXG.jpeg


wc1m9tN.jpeg
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Poor dog, but what a hero he was, glad he came out fine.
 
Michael Z said:
My encounters with snakes around here consist of tipping a log or flat rock over and watching a 6" long fire snake slowly move away, with me feeling a bit bad for disturbing his home. We just have so few snakes, and no poisonous snakes at all.
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A harmless one, once I identify it is a different story. I will freeze soon as I see one though now. I am not toting around a shovel
anymore :ROFLMAO: Be my luck I would miss and chop off a toe instead, not so fast on the draw now.
 
Yes, many times here in Florida. Mainly black racers (little and big ones). I am not afraid of them but they always suprised me when I am doing my gardening. Once I found one in our swimming pool filter. Like Crocodile Dundee said to do, I picked it up by the tail. Supposedly, they cannot reach your hand that way. Well, that is a lie, because he could! I was however, able to release it in the woods across the street.
Through my years, I also encountered coral snakes as well as rattlesnakes. My little dachshunds were good at spotting them and barking to alert me, which was great!
I had to kill a few but for the most part I was able to remove them from our property and release them in the woods.
 
JustBonee said:
oh the poor snake …my thought too…. he didn’t do anything wrong.:)
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If Maud had simply backed away or run back in the house, I probly wouldn't have had to shoot the poor thing. But she stayed right near it, screaming and hopping from one foot to the other, and when I ran out there I saw the snake lunge at whichever leg was flailing in the air, one and then the other.

My bad for not emphasizing what she should do. I mean, I'd told her once, but she was only 4 or 5, so I should have reminded her now and then.
 
i used to have a neighbor who at the time cooked meth and i didn't know. he had an aquarium of snakes in his house for reasons i don't know. one day one of his snakes got out and slithered into my apt without me knowing. i came home from work and my cat was meowing at me funny. i didn't know at the time he was under my dresser and had bit the cat in the corner of her eye.

i made tea and went to bed. nothing. next night i'm sitting on the sofa in my flannel jammie set balancing my check book and i feel something push against my right ankle. it took a second for it to register that the cat was to my left playing with her toys.

i look down and a green snake about an inch and a half to two inches around was fixing to slither up my pant leg. i shot off the couch swearing and ran out the door of the apt and was banging on the neighbors doors to try to get help.

the druggie finally answered and i made him come help me. he took my broom and backed him up against the kitchen cabinets. and as he's fixing to grab him he's talking to it telling him don't you bite me. i said is this your snake he was like no. i made him take it outside and throw it as far as he could.

next morning i called the landlord and he went into the guys apt and made him get rid of the snakes. no clue if it was poisonous or not. it hadn't bit me and the cat didn't die so...

not a fan.
 
There's a short poem that's supposed to tell you whether a snake is a poisonous coral snake or just a colorful imposter:

Red touches yellow,
kill a fellow.
Red touches black,
good for Jack.

That's all very good and well, but if I were to have a snake sinking its fangs into my foot, I'm not sure I'd remember correctly. "Now, was that 'red touches black, whoopee for Jack or was it yellow touches red, whoops you're dead or was it black touches yellow, he's a nice fellow?'" I'm sure not going to trust my memory these days. I never was any good at reciting poetry.
 
Della said:
My first husband collected reptiles as a hobby. His biggest and favorite was a boa constrictor, about 7 feet long. One night our old house was cold so he put the big guy in a pillow case and put it in bed with us. We woke up in the morning and it was gone.
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Are you kidding me 😳 no way I could have slept in that bed!

when my son was about 11, we were going through an old family home that had stood empty for several years. He went into the bathroom and immediately screamed. I ran in and there was a large snake in the toilet. The snake stuck his head up from the water, looked at us, turned and swam down inside the toilet out of sight. We ran out of the house.

Until that happened I had always sort of thought ‘snakes in a toilet‘ was along the lines of an urban legend. Now I know it’s possible and it creeps me out.
 
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