Child Bitten By Adder in New Forest

[Wild Thing]

Saw this on Yahoo news

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110423/tuk-nine-year-old-in-hospital-after-snak-45dbed5.html

Not too much detail in the article, anybody got any more detail.

Phill

 

[m.durston]

oooh nasty still its nice to see she is responding well to treatment.
it looks like the sunny weather we are having at the moment is encouraging all the cold blooded creatures we have to come out and bask in the sun. the little girl most probably stumbled upon the adder and the adder struck as a last ditch attempt to get away.

 

[Laurentius]

I am sure she will survive, well I certainly hope so, I had a morbid fear of encountering adders as a youngster, yet I am still to meet one.

 

[Dogoak]

Ouch, painful and distressing but luckily, adder bites are vary rarely serious. Hope she gets well soon.

 

[JonathanD]

Male adders are very active at the moment due it being the mating season and will exhibit curiosity more than fear due to the abnormally high temperatures and drive to mate that inhibits their usual flight reflex. This won't be the only reported adder bite in the press if the weather keeps on as it is. Adder bites are very serious if not treated, especially if a full dose is injected by both fangs into a major blood vessel of a child. I was floored for a week and a half with exceptional agony the second time I was bitten, and the experience was worse than a puff adder bit I recieved in Kenya. Steve Backshaw was also hospitalised for a week by an adder.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Mind your dogs too,if bitten, your'll only have a couple of hours to get them to a vet.

 

[JonathanD]

Mind your dogs too,if bitten, your'll only have a couple of hours to get them to a vet.

That's true. Symptoms are only usually apparent after swelling has occurred and bites are often in the face, which is usually one of the worst areas to get bitten, whatever species you are. Dogs however, have an amazing immunity to adder venom. If a human was bitten in the face, I'd really hate to see the results. That would be bad.

 

[kINGPIN]

Thats terrible, I hope she is ok. I have not seen an adder for years, if I'm honest I would probably like to keep it that way. haha

 

[bojit]

Sounds like they got her to hospital in time . I hope she will be ok .

The only adder i have ever seen bit my boot just as i saw it and stopped , it had been sunning itself on the southern upland way just outside Peebles .

Craig.......

 

[_mark_]

She had an allergic reaction, ended up in intensive care poor lass.

 

[Rups]

Saw this one last week on the North Yorkshire Moors.

 

[JonathanD]

She had an allergic reaction, ended up in intensive care poor lass.

Everyone has an allergic reaction to venom, it's venom. It had nothing to do with allergies or anaphylaxis. That is a long held and exaggerated myth with adder venom and is certainly not the case in this incident or they would never have administered anti venins as this really can cause a severe allergic reaction.

 

[santaman2000]

That's true. Symptoms are only usually apparent after swelling has occurred and bites are often in the face...

I suspect that's because dogs are usually sniffing at the snake or the area where it's hiding. All snake species.

 

[JonathanD]

I suspect that's because dogs are usually sniffing at the snake or the area where it's hiding. All snake species.

Yeah, they lead with their noses and then get bitten on 'em. Spaniels more than any other breed.

 

[Barn Owl]

This is why I wear boots and long legged trousers in the height of spring and summer..

Always let the kids wear their shorts and sandals but i'm a sensitive wee thing...:sadwavey:

 

[JonathanD]

This is why I wear boots and long legged trousers in the height of spring and summer..

Always let the kids wear their shorts and sandals but i'm a sensitive wee thing...:sadwavey:

Explains Liams wellie obssession too, although someone should tell him that kraits, mambas and Russell's vipers aren't to be found up there.

 

[_mark_]

Everyone has an allergic reaction to venom, it's venom. It had nothing to do with allergies or anaphylaxis. That is a long held and exaggerated myth with adder venom and is certainly not the case in this incident or they would never have administered anti venins as this really can cause a severe allergic reaction.

I stand corrected.

 

[JonathanD]

I stand corrected.

Don't know where it started, by whom and to what agenda. But there is a prevailing notion within the UK that adder venom is the same as bee/wasp stings. That is the one thing that gets my soapbox alter ego going. They are very very very very very very different. Snake venom is as different to bee and wasp stings as granite is to water. Drop for drop, our humble little adder has a venom that is very high up on the scale of worldwide potent venomous snakes venom. It's just the size and reluctance to deliver full quotas of venom and the less lethal location (extremities) that they are delivered that makes them less than lethal. As well as the distance from medical assistance that we have anywhere within the UK.

 

[_mark_]

I was just rehashing what I read in the papers. As a kid I was told their bites were no more painful than a bee sting, I was later told the pain is excruciating and could last for a couple of weeks?

 

[JonathanD]

I was just rehashing what I read in the papers. As a kid I was told their bites were no more painful than a bee sting, I was later told the pain is excruciating and could last for a couple of weeks?

Certainly is a wicked amount of pain. I really wanted to die it was that bad at one point, and that is no exaggeration. The effects can actually last for months, or even years or a lifetime. I still have the scars.