Poecilotheria ornata

Warning: Dont get bit by this

Hello,
In May 2002 I was putting sub adult female 3" Poecilotheria Ornata into a larger enclosure that she grew out of. when she decided to bolt out of the container and landed on my hand, I flinched alittle (natural reaction) she got defensive and then sank her fangs into my lower thumb palm side (meaty area there), she then ran into her new enclosure (go figure) if she hadnt done that I think I would have squashed her out of anger but anyway. the area of the bite gotten painful. I sealed the lid went to kitchen washed the area then I went to living room and laid down on the couch and by now the adrenaline was rushing, I was sweating really good. by a half an hour of lying down. The pain went from bite to my elbow. hour went by thats when I started to vomit. for around 3 hours still nauseated I started to feel abit feverish with chills. I fell asleep woke up in the morning. completely still nauseated and had shortness of breath. My wife went to the store and bought me dramamine (they didnt work) took percacets (which I had from an injury at work) the pain subsided, for 2 weeks I was always nauseated (like car sickness) I rode it out I guess until venom passed out of my system i felt better but all I can say is DO NOT GET BITTEN BY AN ADULT FEMALE, she can mess you up bad. If I was bitten by a an adult I probably would have been laid up in a hospital for awhile or even worse go into a coma from high fever. Right now as I speak I feel no ill effects from the bite
[]D EACE

Thanks for this account... A good friend who runs a prominent local herp-store got nailed by a small P. fasciata a few years ago and had similar symptoms, although I think he managed to avoid vomiting.

He did continue to have muscle spasms (very painful) in that arm and actually twitching all through that side of his body (evidence of a full lateral systemic reaction to the toxin) for almost a year thereafter.

What I worry about are less informed people buying these things from pet stores or even online (you can't be sure everyone understands or heeds the warnings). It's only going to take one highly publicized death to rid us of our highly enjoyable spiders. And from the sound of it, Pokie venom is almost strong enough to kill even healthy adults.

b

I got bit by my adult female in my little finger about a year or two ago. She had escaped and I chased her around the room and when she started to run up the wall I didnt think and grabed her and then she bit me. Very stupid of me! :wall: The pain started almost a once. I dont think she in injected any venom since it was only painful in the finger she bit me. Maybe she injected very little venom. Anyway it was the worst pain I have ever felt and I hope I dont have to feel it again. I puted my finger in a glas of very cold water and the pain whent down. But as soon as I removed my finger from the water it would start again.

I stayed up for about 5h after the bite and the pain didnt get any better. Anyway when I woke up the next moring the pain was gone and It felt like nothing had happend.

Well..I got tagged packing one of these guys up tonight! It was a Poecilotheria ornata 2".

I had the deli lid off and trying to get the sling into the vial and it shot up out of the cup and onto my right wrist and stopped. I grabbed the vial and quickly placed it over it onto my arm and I then felt "something".

I thought it was the tarsal claws grabbing my skin but then looked at it and I saw an immediate redness. I felt a itchy stinging feeling within seconds.

The small bite marks were evident after about 5 minutes. The area turned kinda pale in color, and then red. There were small amounts of clear liquid coming out of the small holes.

After about 20 minutes, I was feeling pain in my right wrist joint and shoulder feels weird.

Now 2 hours after the bite, I have tightness in the chest and still have a very unusual feeling that I can't describe.

At around 12:00am on 12/6/2008 i was feeding my Mature male P ornata i grabbed a roach with my 12" tweezers and all was going well when he decided to run up the tweezers and bit me on the wrist my first thought was get him back in the cage and then i was feeling cramping within 10 minutes i immediately took Benadryl and some Aspirin at around 20 minutes i had a slight fever at around 1 hr after the bite i was vomiting and the bite wound felt as if someone was burning me my whole arm cramped and became stiff at around 2:00am i took a muscle relaxer and tried to get some rest today i still have some symptoms such as cramping in my stomach and back a headache with a slight fever and chest pains I would strongly recommend taking extreme caution when caring for this species
Been meaning to add this in The cramping lasted around 6-7 post bite so again take extreme caution and the bite area had a slight burning sensation for at least a week if not longer chest pain lasted 72hrs after bite but the worst part of the experience was the cramping i had in my arm and back

(Written by Robc's wife, as dictated to her)

Bite at 1:22am 11/30/09

Subject: Male - 33 yrs old

Overall health: Good

Bite from: Female P.ornata 10"+

Bite location: Heal of left hand (see pics)

How the bite happened:

I was taking the MM out of the female's tank, I had his tank next to hers so he could just crawl out of hers into his. He was half way into his and all of the sudden all I saw was fluttering of legs and my hand was jerked down. I then realized the female had nailed me!!! The female was in her burrow while I was getting the MM out and must have sensed the vibration and defended her territory. This video is made to educate NOT scare anyone, this is not a reason not to keep this Sp, you just have to use caution!!

Bite Symptoms:

Powerful bite, extreme pain set in within seconds. After bite, I grabbed my hand, squeezed and clear liquid was seen coming from one of the puncture wounds - could have been coming from both but difficult to tell. (I learned after this that squeezing the area around the bite site to get venom out is actually a very bad idea)

Pictures of the bite:







Time Line:

Within 5 minutes, burning pain from the bite site all the way up my arm to my shoulder and into upper back.

Within 10 minutes, nausea began along with shaking. Pain continues - a 9 out of 10 on a pain scale. Adrenaline kicked in and joints started hurting.

15 minutes after bite: Left side of neck starting cramping. Severe pain continues to radiate up left arm from the bite site and hand started to swell.

36 minutes in and my vision started to blur, pain continued - didn't change or lessen at all. Still feeling nauseousness. Some labored breathing, dizziness and chills. Hand is noticeably larger than other hand. Eyes burn now. Also began to feel very out of it - almost as if intoxicated or drugged. You can see in the second part of the video below that I appear very out of it, I didn't really know what was going on at the time - I was very surprised by that, strange feeling.

[YOUTUBE]hceNe_eswQg[/YOUTUBE]

4 hours and one trip to the ER later, pain is still intense - still at least a 9 out of 10 on a pain scale. Joints and bones hurt all over entire body, feeling very "out of it" still. Got Vicodin at the ER for the pain - not helping yet. Not able to sleep much, woke up often feeling like various bones were breaking. Unbelievable pain.

11:00am - 4:00pm 11/30/09

Cramps and pain continued. Gums bled slightly on and off, fever spiked to 105 for only 45-50 minutes before returning to normal. This happened several times throughout this time period.

4:30pm - 12:00am 11/30/09 - 12/1/09

Pain increased and overall all symptoms got worse. Pain was almost unbearable and Vicodin did nothing to ease the pain. Cramping from my jaw to my legs, irregular heart beat off and on, fever off and on, extreme dizziness, painful and difficult to do normal daily activities like walk, pick up a cup, etc (appear to be 98 yrs old when moving around). Starting have hand and arm tremors.

12/1/09

Pain is about the same to a little worse - all symptoms previously mentioned continue. The area around the bite is extremely sore now and occasionally leaks fluid.

I will update as this progresses. At this point, I am in pretty bad shape. Nothing life-threatening, but I've felt better. LOL

Robc

I bought a 5" female yesterday, today while rehousing her she tagged me on my little finger - OMG! I have NEVER felt this much pain in my life. I immediately took 2 benadryl & a lortab 10( called the emergency room that my sister works in , Dr advised ok to do so)

It is now 3hrs post bite, tingling & cramps in finger still present, I really can't tell where the fangs entered . UGH!
I would photograph it but there isnt anything to see, slight redness to my pinkya bit of mild swelling at the base of my pinky although the bite occured at the first joint.
Needless to say she will NEVER get a new home( I hope She is happy where she is)


Update - next morning - Last nite I suffered with widespread muscle cramping/twitching, medication not helping. after finally falling asleep @ 3am waking at 0845 feeling MUCH improvement minimal cramping, twitching nonexistant.

I will post more only if anything new occurs - if no new posts after this then assume symptoms subsided and everything return to normal.

About a month ago I got tagged by my p. Ornata she's about 5 inches or more. I was cleaning out her cage I was using my hand (stupid choice by me) she has never really showdn any aggression didn't seem to mind me in her cag e I guess my hand touched her and she didn't like it she tagged me on my pointer finger instant pain shocking my whole hand. I shut he cage and went and cleaned around the Bite. 15 minutes in my hand was 2x its normal size and completly locked so I went the E.R. I spent the next couple of weeks dealing with cramps. I woke up a couple of times to my legs locking up in cramps I felt sick for a while. I'm glad she wasn't full grown all in all this isn't a T you want to get bit by