Another friggin rattlesnake!!

[Brian Hamilton]

Yes, another friggin rattlesnake. This one was about 3.5' - 4' long. AGAIN. Only 5 rattles on this one. It bit our Shih-Tzu, he's at the vet now. I popped this one with a .22. Ah, the joys of living in rural Texas...

YouTube - Rattlesnake, AGAIN!!

Laters,

Brian

 

[Ed]

Yikes. That thing just gives me the willies:stunned:
Hope your dog is okay.

Hard to tell from the vid, but did you shoot it's head off? If I didn't live in suburbia, I would have personally broke out my Mossberg 12g and blown that thing into oblivion. I hate snakes.....

 

[Brian Hamilton]

I used a 12 gauge last time. LOL This time I split it's head open with a .22. Hehe.

 

[Dean Lampe]

Thats pretty good shoot'n!

 

[Brian Hamilton]

Thanks Dean.

Just heard from the wife that the vet is going to watch the dog overnight to make sure he's going to be OK. We will be in Vegas all this coming week, we leave Tues. morning, so we have someone watching him for us. I think he'll be OK. I hope...

 

[Al Jones]

Good shot,Brian! Nasty looking bastard,eh? Is there a fine in Texas for shooting politicians out of season? We don't have too many rattlers here, but we have copperheads that like to live in the rocks (New England is ALL rock). They're not as venomous(weaker, rarely fatal)) but have no rattles - that means no warning. You had better start checking the grounds on a regular basis,maybe throw some mothballs into the crawl spaces. Really hope the pooch is OK. A.J.

 

[Anthony]

Saw a program on Discovery or Nat Geo about Rattlesnakes evolving quicker than biologists thought the way Evolution did. Because rattlers rattle people know they are there and kill them. Don't get me wrong, if they lived near me I would walk round with gun 24/7 and maybe start to keep a couple of Mongoose, maybe a honey badger (i digress a little), but this program showed events like the Annual Snake round up, 20,000 plus snakes a year rounded up in weekend in a single county. That puts an artificial skew on selection and the rattlers with a tendency not to rattle when disturbed are being un-naturally selected for. Footage showed a chap find a snake, provoke it and it just sat there, not until he started to lift it with a handling hook did it start to rattle.

Taking out the ones that slither into your yard won't upset the balance, but culling/decimating whole populations might not be the best idea if your intentions are to alleviate rattler problems, eventually the only rattlers could be the ones that don't rattle, and i know version I version i would rather live with (cos you ain't never going to get rid of them all)

So what i am trying to say from the comfort of the UK, is be careful, just because you can't hear a rattle, doesn't it isn't there any more

 

[Brian Hamilton]

LOL

Ya'll are funny. Anyway, just called the vet, Zach is doing much better today. We may go by and see him. They said call back around noon. I'm here with the daughter today getting everything ready for the wife and I to take off to VEGAS tomorrow. We have a close friend who's an animal lover and she's going to take care of Zach. The Damnation (Dalmation) is going to my moms house in Austin with us tomorrow. Mom is going to keep her while we're gone.

My mom is a bleeding heart liberal and when I told her about the snake and the 25 lb raccoon I shot the other day that had eaten one of my daughters show rabbits, she said... "Honey I think you need to take a gun everywhere you go."

I swear to God I thought I'd never hear those words come out of her mouth in my life. LOL

I really should stop just blowing these things to pieces so I can eat em...

JK

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Does Racoon taste better than rattle snake?

Hope your dog is O.K.

 

[Randy V]

Brian,

You live in TX man... Complaining about snakes there is like me complaining about Mosquitos in Minnesota (state bird)... :shocked:

When I lived in the DFW area we found Rattle snakes, Copperheads and Water moccasins... Then there were the Scorpions and Fire Ants..

Wait a second - please remind me why I want to move back!!!

Does Racoon taste better than rattle snake?

No - Coon tastes more like Weasel or Squirrel. Rattlers taste more like Chicken.. oke:

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Sorry to hear about your dog.. Hope it makes a full recovery...

 

[Mike Christian]

Hey Brian,

How much time do you have to get a pet to the vet after a bite? Any idea?

Mike

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Brian,




No - Coon tastes more like Weasel or Squirrel. Rattlers taste more like Chicken.. oke:

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Sorry to hear about your dog.. Hope it makes a full recovery...

It's not very P.C. calling them Coons is it?

 

[Al Jones]

Hey Brian,

How much time do you have to get a pet to the vet after a bite? Any idea?

Mike

Mike,it depends on the type of snake or insect,e.g. scorpion, the size and therefore the amount of venom transferred into the bite and the size of the pet. Here's some more info:
www.peteducation.com/<WBR>article.cfm?<WBR>cls=2&cat=1681&articleid=478

 

[Brian Hamilton]

Hey Brian,

How much time do you have to get a pet to the vet after a bite? Any idea?

Mike

Mike,it depends on the type of snake or insect,e.g. scorpion, the size and therefore the amount of venom transferred into the bite and the size of the pet. Here's some more info:
www.peteducation.com/<WBR>article.cfm?<WBR>cls=2&cat=1681&articleid=478

It also depends where on the animal the bite was along with the actual size of the snake. Baby rattlers do not know how to control their venom release and dump the whole load into their prey. Older snakes know that just a little goes a long way.

If the strike was on the snout or head of the dog, it's better. There's no major blood arteries in the front of the head really in a dog. That being said, head wounds bleed like a sombitch. This is good for 2 reasons.
First - there's nowhere for the venom to go that's extremely dangerous. I.E. It's not going into the blood stream instantly.
Second - The bleeding effectively flushes out the wounds.

Now, if the dog gets hit in the armpit, or leg, or something like that, then you might as well kiss 'em good bye. My wife had a dog years ago that got hit in the armpit and was dead inside 15 minutes.

Sooooo, my word on the subject and to answer the question "How long do you have?" is...

How fast can you get them there? Haul ass!!

 

[Price Walton]

Living in the country that hosts 15 of the 20 most deadly snakes in the world, you have to accept that if the dog/cat/chook gets bitten, there's often not a lot of point heading for the vet if it gets a good fang full.

For ours, the bigger the snake, the more venom you get. They'll often give a bit hit when they get a good strike and some of them will keep biting and envenomating until they've got nothing left. Your best chance is from a single fang or shallow bite that doesnt get the full quantity in.


Hey, my list of justifications for a '40 just got longer........

 

[Mike Christian]

Thanks for the advise guys...maybe a kevlar body suit for the mutt?

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Or get a fox terrier, or a Jack Russell you wont have a snake or a rodent left for miles after a couple of weeks.

 

[Al Jones]

That's no guaranty but they are quick,as Pete said. I watched my older Jack,then about 3, face off with a snake (about 3ft). Didn't know what he was staring at until I got close,then saw it. The snake was slowly coiling up but the dog stayed motionless even as I warned him to 'get back'. I didn't want to make the snake strike by moving towards the dog(didn't have a stick or weapon) or distract the dog's concentration. Suddenly the snake struck at the dog, but the dog was long gone when the snake reached it's target length, then end of snake. I've never seen reactions like that in a canine. As far as vermin are concerned, most anything in the small rodent family(under 20lbs) will be toast. Still, I would hate to lose a cherished pet to an snake bite or similar fate. Better to get rid of the offenders in a safer(for you and the dog) manner.

 

[Mike Christian]

My dog Gromit is a 16lb terrier mix...I am not sure he what he is mixed with. He was a shelter dog. Some say Parsons Russell Terrier. He wants to chase squirrels and birds, not sure what he will do with a snake.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

I guess I'm biased, years ago I was sun bathing by a friends pool at Airlie beach in Far North Queensland wearing only the budgie smugglers when I looked up to see an eight foot Taipan (one of Australia's and the worlds deadliest snakes) only a couple of meters away.
I did not have a weapon and was trying to figure how fast I would have to move to avoid being bitten when this streak of black and white lighting my friends Jack Russell attacked the snake. While he was distracting the snake I showed my true colours and headed for Dodge out of harms way.
The contest was over in seconds with the Taipan the loser.
The brave little dog, who's name coincidentally was Hero, would not let me go near the snake but stood guard over it until his owner got home.
He then proudly re-killed it to show his owner what a great hunter he was.
After that he left it to us to bury it.
I have had a soft spot for the breed ever since.

Oh and yes I did have to have the budgie smugglers laundered.