more rattlesnake stories

MORE RATTLESNAKE STORIES

phys.org article on mojave green rattlesnake

after my blog yesterday on rattlesnakes my historian brother emailed me a reminder of the time i caught a rattlesnake  and brought it home to our trailer and left it outside our door on the front porch

no i reminded him with a reply email
it was two rattlesnakes called mojave greens and i brought them inside the trailer and left them inside the living room by the front door
i also had them in a large gallon plastic jar like pickles come in with a plastic lid on top

he said he couldnt sleep at all that night knowing they were in our trailer

least did he know that these two mojave greens that looked more greener than the photo above from the phys.org article on mojave greens have the most deadliest of venom of any rattlesnakes

the venom has a neurotoxic venom and a hematoxic venom
this makes it more deadly 

the neurotoxic venom travels via the nerves
it may be more painful than the other one
it can travel up the nerve to the respiratory system and paralyse the respiratory muscles that allow you to breathe

there are stories of folks who have gotten bitten by a mojave green who thought it was a simple bite with no swelling like the hemotoxic venom bites
they were found dead in bed the next day having their respiratory system be paralyzed

the hemotoxic venom causes all the swelling and discooration and tissue destruction thats seen with the typical rattlsnake bite like the sidewinder or southern pacific or diamond back rattlesnakes

let me add here
the antivenom used today works against the mojave green venom
it as antivenom to the neurotoxic and the hematoxic portions of the venom

so
my historian brother didnt know this that night he spent sleeping in his bed a few feet from these two mojave greens
he would have had days of nightmares if he had known

now i majored in biology in college
i was at the local community college in the high desert in california in my early 20s
this was pre my wife she
if she had been in the picture at that time she would have left stage left for sure

our professor kept a collection of reptiles in our lab
he would give extra credit if you brought him reptiles he could use in the lab 
he used them just for show like a reptile museum
if you had a borderline upper b grade it might be bumped up to an a 
i must say i got an a in my two biology classes and my two zoology classes
those two mojave greens helped me in one of those classes for sure

so i would go out in the desert when it got dark
way out on the highway where there was no traffic
the road was paved
in the desert at night it would get cold so the pavement would be warm
the snakes would crawl on the pavement to lay on the warm pavement

i would drive real slow
when i saw a candidate i would get out my handy snake catcher as shown in yesterdays blog
snare the snake
lift it over the gallon jar
release the loop and the snake would drop in the jar
i then covered it up with the lid

yes i kept it in the trunk of my car

i usually went by myself
i could get no takers to go with me
definitely not my historian brother

i caught a lot of different snakes and rattlesnakes this way 
the mojave green and the sidewinder rattlesnake were my favorites

a few years ago there was a show i think on animal planet called venom er about the rattlesnake doctor dr sean bush who worked at loma linda emergency room in california
he became the go to doctor for severe snake bites in southern california

if i remember right most of the deaths he took care of were from the southern pacific rattlesnake
he had a few mojave green bite patients but they survived
some of these ended up on the ventilator as the neurotoxin attacked the lungs respiratory system
of course i liked the show

when i met my wife she i had two pet snakes i had caught this way
no they werent rattlesnakes
they were a rosy boa and a patch nose snake
when she came over she would let me take them out of their cage and she would hold them

when we got married they didnt make the move though

again my advice is
if you see a snake 
leave it along
turn and go the other way
dont mess with it
thats how you get bit

if you get bitten
stay calm
dont cut the bite
dont use a tourniquet
seek medical care 
take a picture of the snake or bring it with you but dont get bit again trying to kill it
a picture will suffice
eg
the story i wrote about yesterday of the little girl that got bitten by a snake on the foot and spent several day in the hospital
the family brought the snake with them
dead of course
and 
we were able to identify it and decide the proper treatment
dont crush the head if you can help it
photos are much better than risking a second bite

if you are in the desert
beware
the mojave green
it can suck your breath away

now
thats why my historian brother couldnt sleep that night

the organicgreen doctor