Adder attack !!!

[pumbaa]

There is a dog just up the road from me that has been bitten by an adder , again !! He is a bullmastif and caught it right in the face , again !!!
This has led me to wonder , how to deal with this situation . Obviously trying to keep the dog out of the way of the snake would be one way , but i was wondering how this should be dealt with if a tad further from home ? I know an adder is no where near as poisonus as some of the snakes in other countries , but i have never been told how to deal with this .
We seem to have quite a lot just over the road , there is a pair in the "hippy field" and quite a lot more up the bridleway . I think i must be the only one to never have seen them .
Pumbaa

 

[spamel]

There was talk about tourniquets years ago, not sure how you'd apply that to a face bite, around the neck seems to defeat the object. You may as well amputate!!!

I think the general consensus is to do none of the following:

Panic and run around, gets the venom moving faster!
Suck the wound to remove poison, you can get the venom into your own bloodstream through small capilliaries in your mouth.
Cut the wound out, it's just plain stupid!

As I recall, these are good things to do:
Try to immobilise the limb by splinting, if you can apply a cold compress, that may help, and bandage with a crepe type bandage, not too tightly, but tight enough to try and stop the venom racing through the body.

Seek immediate medical advice, stay calm and try not to move the affectd limb any more than necessary.

 

[TimB]

This link has some useful information.

http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40001328/

 

[Butchd]

Well unless you intend to start attacking adders, as the dog obviously was, then I wouldn't really worry about it too much. The only people I've ever known to get bitten by adders were all being stupid...

 

[Fenlander]

I have to survey and count Adders once a week and have never had any problems.

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[w00dsmoke]

I was bitten by an adder once when I worked in the wods, i was strimming gorse and must have stood on it or scared it before it could get away. It was like a bad scratch, no poison or very little appeared to go in as it was through trousers, I felt dizzy with headaches and had flu symptons, I cleaned it and hospital did nothing. Local swelling nothing major, but I guess I was lucky.

 

[jon r]

I take it an dder couldnt kill a man?

Nice pics Fenlander! That looks like a beast!

 

[w00dsmoke]

I take it an dder couldnt kill a man?

Nice pics Fenlander! That looks like a beast!

It could and has done however, there have only been ten recorded deaths in the last 100 years. So be realistic, adders are not dangerous to mankind! I hate it when I see adders strung on fences up north. I'd like to string those keepers up who did that. Dunkeld keepers beware woodsmoke is gonna hang you on a fence!

 

[saffy]

Not so long ago my uncle got bitten by an adder in Newport whilst sitting and fishing a canal lock, maybe a stupid sport in itself - but not out to tease snakes.

His leg discoloured to a shade of black and he was pretty ill, suffering with problems to his nervous system for nearly a year after the event. Not a lethal snake (to a fit and healthy adult) but hardly like a bee sting that can be shrugged off as I have heard said.

Defo not something I would want to experience that is for sure.

 

[bambodoggy]

I was bitten by an adder once when I worked in the wods, i was strimming gorse and must have stood on it or scared it before it could get away. It was like a bad scratch, no poison or very little appeared to go in as it was through trousers, I felt dizzy with headaches and had flu symptons, I cleaned it and hospital did nothing. Local swelling nothing major, but I guess I was lucky.

My last dog (a very strong well built GSD) was bitten by an adder on his neck.....he bearly broke step and despite it swelling to the size of a tennis ball he didn't seem in the least worried about it.
I nipped him into the vet on the way home to have them check him over and they said that although it might be more serious for a smaller dog, the bigger breads don't seem bothered by it.

So be realistic, adders are not dangerous to mankind! I hate it when I see adders strung on fences up north. I'd like to string those keepers up who did that. Dunkeld keepers beware woodsmoke is gonna hang you on a fence!

Aren't adders protceted now? Maybe a quick call to the rspca to inform them that people are hanging them on their fences might be in order next time you see one mate?

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[Dougster]

I have to survey and count Adders once a week and have never had any problems.

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They are attractive things aren't they - or is there something wrong with me?

 

[Gwhtbushcraft]

Every year one of the local villages has a music festival (Fairport), I go most years and in 2004 we asked the ambulance men what their biggest problem had been that year and surprisingly it was adder bites.

 

[w00dsmoke]

[


Aren't adders protceted now? Maybe a quick call to the rspca to inform them that people are hanging them on their fences might be in order next time you see one mate?

Cheers,

Bam. [/QUOTE]

Yup they are protected but in order to convict you need proof not just circumstancial evidence... You need witnesses to the crime...

 

[bushtank]

I adore adders every year i go up to the local woods and see if can catch them
just to o and r. my mates think im nuts maybe they are right.The eyes on a adder are beautifull up close i have never been bitten by one and handled hundreds over the years

 

[andy_pevy]

It could and has done however, there have only been ten recorded deaths in the last 100 years. So be realistic, adders are not dangerous to mankind! I hate it when I see adders strung on fences up north. I'd like to string those keepers up who did that. Dunkeld keepers beware woodsmoke is gonna hang you on a fence!

Apparently, there are more people killed by bee stings every year than have been killed by adders in the last 100 years.

Andy