Reptile bite/scratch and scars

[bigtyler1025]

In my group of friends and at school I am known as the animal guy, at
last count, I had just about 40 different animals at one time, but I have been keeping animals since I was 5, almost 13 years. But I had a friend who was trying to get rid of about a 4 year old red iguana, I said I would take her, when I went to pick her up from the house she was laying on a curtain rod, she didnt want to leave, when I grabbed her she dug every claw into my forearm, wrist, and hand. I have several scars from her. And recentley I was at my local snake shop helping out, and they had a burm hybrid, they had just recieved her, and didnt know too much about her temperment, she was about 7 feet long and very pretty, so I decided to take her out, big mistake! As soon as I attempted to reach in, she tagged me right below the elbow, and began coiling, we plied her off with a hook, I have about 20 lacerations some very deep, but I am opposed to stitches, I am now a walking advertisement for butterfly bandages!

 

[spartybassoon]

Not nearly as exciting as any of these stories, but my veiled chameleon will bite me any chance he gets, and he likes to bite and rip. It usually leaves my skin hanging in strips and blood dripping from my hands. So far, only a couple of faint scars on my fingers. Also, whenever he walks on my bare arm, I inevitably have very long scratches and puncture wounds from his sharp claws. I love him, though, he's just not a cuddle bug

One of the worst times, though, was when I was hand feeding him and my fingers got too close. He sniped a roach off my finger, but his tongue stuck to my flesh and he pulled himself over to literally chew the roach of my fingertip. That was pretty painful, with all those sharp little teeth!

 

[ZooRex]

Worst bite in eight years of keeping exotics was from my pac-man frog. I made the mistake of holding a cricket for him and before you know it he's attatched to my thumb for 30min, with me yelping in pain. Man, you'd never know how strong they're jaws are untill you expirience it first hand (literally).

Then there was the Tokay in my 7th grade home room that tore the latex glove I was wearing in half. I was fine, but still a bit freaked out.

After working for a year in a PetStore, the only injuries I recived were from 1: cuorious kittens and sexist parrots. Some days I'd come home all scratched nd chewed up only cause I had litterbox duty and they wanted to see if Buddy the Amazon liked me...the answer was no.

 

[UrbanJungles]

Talk is cheap...post scar pics people!!!!

 

[crpy]

good idea

 

[UrbanJungles]

good idea

Then you first threadstarter!
;P

 

[crpy]

Then you first threadstarter!
;P

lol, I dont have a camera but I will go to my friend who takes pics of my necklaces (for sale btw ) and get him to take some.
Allot of the scars from the colubrid bites are real light. The monitor scratches should come out.

 

[equuskat]

My friend's 4-ft boa bit me in the face once....not fun! I was okay, though. It bled.

I also got bitten by a baby alligator once, but that didn't do much damage. It hurt though, and bled a bit.

My worst stories come from horses. I was a poor kid, but I could ride. I didn't own a horse, so I was often put on horses that nobody else would ride...some were quite dangerous. I also worked with Grand Prix Dressage horses (that can be pretty edgy) and some top level event horses (which are much MORE edgy). Here are some of the best stories:

Denny, my former trainer's 6 month old weanling stud colt spooked and ran past me through a gate, knocking me into the fence, which stunned me into dropping the lead rope. He then kicked me in the right hand, which was pretty freakin painful. An x-ray three days later showed 11 breaks in my hand.

Nacho, my crazy Swedish Warmblood mare was very VERY oversensitive and was prone to spazzing out when unexpected things happened. She wasn't mean at all, she was just unpredictable in her fear. Someone opened the doors on the indoor arena while I was riding her and she reared and flipped over on me, I SORT OF got out of the way, or I probably woulda broken my hip (she did break the tree of the saddle). She did land on the upper part of my femur, though, and thankfully didn't break anything. She dislocated my hip, though, which was INCREDIBLE pain. I was up walking again in 10 or 15 minutes and worked the rest of the day. The next day, however, my hip down to my knee was AMAZING colors of red and blue.

I had a 1500lb Westphalian gelding take a step backwards while I was walking behind him and he crushed my foot. I tore off my boot and KNEW my foot was broken, but my boss just kinda shrugged it off and told me to keep working, which I did. The next day, the VET x-rayed it for me and I had at least 4 broken bones. It healed fine on its own, though, and I didn't miss any work.

I was getting a 17 hand warmblood gelding ready for work once and someone climbed up into the hay loft and he spooked, while I was brushing his tail. I wasn't standing directly behind him, but somehow he still managed to kick the hell out of my thigh. I slammed into the wall on the back side of the wash rack and cut my elbow on the water faucet. I still have a dent in my muscle from that kick. Again, I didn't miss any work, and finished getting the horse ready...

Oh, here's another Nacho one: I was riding her on a cold day in an outdoor covered arena. It was kinda windy, and a gust blew some paper which spooked Nacho and got her started panicking. In my efforts to calm her down, I freaked her out more and she started bucking. I got slammed into a pole while I was hanging off of her and cracked my helmet. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet or I'd probably be a vegetable. I think I had a concussion anyway.

When I was working for Phyllis Dawson (teamwindchase.com), Phyllis put me on a big mare that I liked a WHOLE LOT (I forget her name) but she was pretty edgy and HATED horse flies in an extreme sense. I was assigned to exercise this horse out in the big field and do trot sets. While I was out there, we were marauded by horse flies and that mare bucked like crazy the whole time. Turns out, Phyllis had been watching the whole time...I guess she was trying to see what I was capable of. lol She told me later that she was surprised I didn't get bucked off. I tell you what, though, there's NO WAY I am gonna fall off of a $50,000+ event horse out in the freaking open.

I got caught in a stirrup once and my shoulder got stepped on. Ouch.



Now you know why I don't ride horses anymore.

 

[pitbulllady]

I still have facial scars from getting nailed in the face by a 12-foot Retic, but by far the most painful, most bloody and "the-one-I-would-least-want-to-repeat" reptile bite I've ever had...non-venomous at least-came from a hungry 6 1/2-foot female Emerald Tree Boa, who overshot the tongs with the dead rat and got my hand, right in between the thumb and forefinger, with those God-awful switchblade teeth those things have, then began wrapping around my arm and constricting(which probably acted like a tourniquet and kept me from bleeding to death). I could feel and hear the teeth scraping on bone. I had to pour white vinegar in her mouth to get her let go(it works, and it's harmless to the snake-keep it handy if you've got large constrictors). I was fortunately able to keep my cool and not try to pull the snake off, or jerk my hand back when my brain registered that I was gonna take a "hit", otherwise it would have been much worse, but it still took me nearly an hour to finally get the bleeding under control. It took about two weeks before I could fully extend my fingers on that hand. The scars are still there, but they're more or less hidden now in the wrinkles of skin where my thumb bends. I still cannot fully extend the ring finger on my left hand, though, from a Copperhead bite I got when I was nine, so that's my longest-standing reptile-bite "side effect".

pitbulllady

 

[hardlucktattoo]

I still have facial scars from getting nailed in the face by a 12-foot Retic, but by far the most painful, most bloody and "the-one-I-would-least-want-to-repeat" reptile bite I've ever had...non-venomous at least-came from a hungry 6 1/2-foot female Emerald Tree Boa, who overshot the tongs with the dead rat and got my hand, right in between the thumb and forefinger, with those God-awful switchblade teeth those things have, then began wrapping around my arm and constricting(which probably acted like a tourniquet and kept me from bleeding to death). I could feel and hear the teeth scraping on bone. I had to pour white vinegar in her mouth to get her let go(it works, and it's harmless to the snake-keep it handy if you've got large constrictors). I was fortunately able to keep my cool and not try to pull the snake off, or jerk my hand back when my brain registered that I was gonna take a "hit", otherwise it would have been much worse, but it still took me nearly an hour to finally get the bleeding under control. It took about two weeks before I could fully extend my fingers on that hand. The scars are still there, but they're more or less hidden now in the wrinkles of skin where my thumb bends. I still cannot fully extend the ring finger on my left hand, though, from a Copperhead bite I got when I was nine, so that's my longest-standing reptile-bite "side effect".

pitbulllady

Thats one reason i wont keep retics or rock pythons I hate those teeth

 

[pitbulllady]

Thats one reason i wont keep retics or rock pythons I hate those teeth

Retic and Rock Python teeth are no worse than Burm teeth, and they all pale in comparison to GTP or ETB teeth. Those things have teeth comparable to a Sand Tiger Shark's teeth, extremely long, sharp and curved. They're designed to snag flying birds right out of mid-air, penetrating through feathers. The 12-foot Retic that bit me in the face didn't hurt as bad, or result in near as much bleeding, as that ETB that grabbed my hand!

Still, the worst animal bite I've received, from a non-venomous animal, anyway, came from a MOUSE-yes, a mouse! It nailed my left index finger and actually bit deep enough to sever the artery and the lymph node in my finger. My forearm swelled to over three times size and I had to go to the ER to get the bleeding stopped. They were giving me Lasix IV to control swelling. In spite of being put on antibiotics, it still got infected, and it took over two weeks to get that under control. I've got a pretty high pain tolerance; I find tattoos relaxing and I had my badly broken foot set without pain killers because narcotics make me puke and I can deal with pain a lot better than I can deal with dry heaves, but that mouse bite cost me a lot of hours of sleep! Looking back, I believe it actually hurt worse than the Copperhead bite. I don't know if it was due to the mechanics of rodent teeth-they are like ax blades in miniature after all-or something in the mouse's saliva-but that was something I absolutely do not want to repeat! Frozen/thawed is the way to go!

pitbulllady

 

[crpy]

PBL= Ok, I know now I am not worthy to stand in your shadow. lol:worship: :worship:
Good to know about the vinegar


KATY= Holy cwap, you girls are just plain nuts. My sister had horses and got more injuries from them, broken bones, concussions and lacerations. Rolled on stepped on bitten and more cripes. Yet she loved them sooo much, wth. not to mention THE MONEY ,whew lol.

I worked horses and got kicked and bitten so much Im over it (except I may be working as a stable hand cause I need the money but thats just labor)

 

[pitbulllady]

PBL= Ok, I know now I am not worthy to stand in your shadow. lol:worship: :worship:
Good to know about the vinegar


KATY= Holy cwap, you girls are just plain nuts. My sister had horses and got more injuries from them, broken bones, concussions and lacerations. Rolled on stepped on bitten and more cripes. Yet she loved them sooo much, wth. not to mention THE MONEY ,whew lol.

I worked horses and got kicked and bitten so much Im over it (except I may be working as a stable hand cause I need the money but thats just labor)

That's pretty much the norm for people who work with horses! My sister has horses, and she's been to the ER more times than I can count because of them, yet she's terrified of a snake and cannot comprehend how I can stand to keep them! Horses actually kill more people per year in the US than dogs and snakes combined, yet you never read in the paper about a horse killing anyone. I'm not talking about people getting killed when falling off a horse, either, but people being killed due to the direct actions of the horse-kicks, stomps, bites. I grew up on a farm, and went through that inevitable adolescent girl phase of being obsessed with horses, and my father and grandfather, who grew up in a time when horses and mules were an absolute necessity, could not fathom why anyone would want a horse when they didn't HAVE to have a horse, as in they had other means of transportation/farm work. They constantly drilled into my head how unpredictable and potentially dangerous these animals were, though of course they relented and got me a horse when I was 12. It only took one bad fall, though, to make me realize that they were right, and that a puny human really didn't didn't stand a chance against a 1,200-lb. animal if that animal decided to be uncooperative. It's not like a venomous snake that you can control with Midwest tongs, or a dog you can put a choke collar or catch pole on, or a hot scorpion you can pick up with forceps, after all.

pitbulllady

 

[crpy]

lol, well stated.

 

[PsychoSpider]

My friend got kicked in the face once and he got his cheekbone crushed and got blinded still likes horses to this day.

 

[equuskat]

I still like horses, I just quit riding the serious nut bags. I haven't had a single injury in over 2 years!

 

[JohnEDove]

Aw come on, you cannot compare Mammalian bites to Reptilian bites. I have been nailed by horses to wild hogs and they were much worse than any non-venomous reptile bites.
To get back on topic, for me the worst reptile bite I have ever had would be a toss up between a 6 ft Nile monitor that ruined a pair of insulated coveralls and the first reptile bite I ever got which was from a Northern Copperhead. Though the Nile scored no points for actual physical damage it would have taken quite a chunk had I not been wearing the heavy coveralls. The Copperhead caused a good bit of swelling and made me feel like …. for a week or so.

 

[crpy]

6 ft Nile monitor that ruined a pair of insulated coveralls and the first reptile bite I ever got which was from a Northern Copperhead.

LOL, Reptiles have ruined.....err.. made me soil my clothes as well

I got tagged by a copperhead in 77 or 78 in Alief Texas, I had to spend three days in the hospital for "observation" on a dry bite.

 

[UrbanJungles]

40+ treeboas sitting in the same room with me as I type and narely a scar from any of them...lucky I guess.

But then again, this is worth my blood anyhow.

 

[UrbanJungles]

...ok, I lied. I do get the occasional love taps. But nothing serious.