Yikes! Good move to block the doggie door. Maybe he'll just move on down the road.

I can imagine it could be scary. I saw a big rat snake in my back yard about a week ago and I was glad because they eat rodents and are considered very beneficial. I just left him alone and he went on his way. They will attempt to bite if they are cornered and handled, but as you know they are not venomous.

Actually I'd rather have a rat snake come in my doggy door than a rat (that can carry diseases), which did happen to us. I was out of town for about four days and Bob didn't notice vases knocked over, the furniture chewed on, and the rat droppings on the shelves and drain board. Yuk! When I got home we used every humane means we knew of to get him out of the house. We opened all the doors and tried to chase him out from under the furniture with the leaf blower, but he would just run from one piece of furntire to the other. We had sofas turned upside down, cabinents pulled out from the wall and I don't know what else. It probably looked pretty funny.

We finally had to resort to a sticky paper trap and then drown him. He came in because the doggy door was old and twisted so part of it was open. We got a new door and had no more unwanted visitors!

Here is a link that might be useful: Let's see if this link about rat snakes works ...

This post was edited by roselee on Tue, May 28, 13 at 22:22

Did you know that Albert was bitten by a rat snake about a week before he died? My vet said the bacteria they can carry can be deadly.
I guess it is time to buy a new dog door or quite used this one.

Yes, I did. Albert told Barbra the day after it happened (I think) that one was on his deck. When he brushed it away with his hand it bit him on the back of the hand. I've wondered if they ever determined the cause of his death. So sad. I think about him all the time when I see the beautiful plants he gave me.

Puncture wounds can be nasty mainly because they don't bleed and wash out the bacteria. I sure wouldn't handle a wild snake of any kind and risk getting bitten. When my dog Max bit my hand (I grabbed him hard from behind trying to scare him to break him from digging holes and he didn't know it was me) my hand swelled way by the next day and I had to take antibiotics. The doctor said there is a special antibiotic for puncture wounds from dog and cat bites.

That's good to know about an antibiotic for puncture wounds. Thanks.
I think of Albert a lot, too.

I think of Albert a lot as well................he did so love gardening, and added so much to the lives of each of us who love it as well. Rest in peace, Albert !!!

This is important to me, as we get lots of non-venomous snakes around here. Did Albert die of the infection, or do they know? I always leave the snakes alone but if I think it's going for my fish pond, I get my neighbor to net it or try to kill it. I will be more careful if the infection can kill.

As far as I know the subject of the snake bite never came up when he was in the hospital and under treatment. No one ever mentioned that his hand showed any symptoms of infection or venom. It either case the hand would be swollen. Anaphylactic shock can occur in the case of non venomous snake bites. To my knowledge the shock occurs immediately and would require that the person be bitten, stung or have eaten an offending food before; for instance multiple wasp stings with each sting causing more reaction. That he had been bitten the week before was an observation. I'll ask around if the cause of death was ever determined.

I googled the subject and from what I could determine death from infected non venomous snake bites is very rare in the US and mostly occurs in rural areas of countries without available medical facilities.

(Edited for spelling)

This post was edited by roselee on Wed, May 29, 13 at 11:26

As far as I've heard, an anaphylactic reaction (or shock) is to something to which your body is having a serious allergic reaction. I've had a few. It's can be quite serious, so many people who have them keep something like an EpiPen around to use immediately, before you can get medical help. So one person could get these anaphylactic reactions on exposure to something, while most other people would not have such a serious reaction to the same thing.

Above I should have said 'a succession' of wasp stings instead of 'multiple' wasp stings. In other words the body builds up the allergic reaction with each successive exposure, so you do have warning and as Linda says can have a shock kit with epipen on hand. The kit also contains benedyrl so if you have a reaction that's a good thing to take. Also getting in a cold shower helps as it contracts peripheral blood vessels that have dilated in response to the allergen .

My daughter used to sell carpet wholesale and noticed she was getting reactive, but didn't do anythig about it. They visited a friend who had a new carpet and in that closed environment she began to break out and almost pass out. She had the presence of mind to get in a bathtub of cold water. Her hubby, not realizing the seriousness of the situation said, "Don't you think it's a little weird for you to be taking a bath while visiting our friend's house." LOL ... but it worked. She carried a shock kit for years after and I did too just to be safe and she never had another episode.

I've had a few serious bites to my right hand from cats, both my doctors and my vets have said that you need to get on antibiotics as their teeth act like hypodermic needles and inject any bacteria they have in their mouths into the wounds and it's not flushed out. Hands are especially difficult as there are a number of joints that can get infected and that makes treatment more difficult. It doesn't surprise me that a snake bite would be just as bad.

So, be careful with any puncture wound and if it gets swollen or stays red, especially if red streaks start running back towards the heart, get to an urgent care clinic or ER ASAP!

Chiming in on the puncture wound comments ... several years back I noticed my thumb was sore. Over the course of a couple of days, it became outrageously swollen and so painful I compared it to drug-free childbirth. Two docs wouldn't touch it over the weekend. By the time I got to a dermatologist on Monday, he diagnosed a felon (infection of the fingertip pulp) caused by staph. Took pictures of it and everything, as he had never seen one so bad. (I told him to hurry the hell up with the Poloroids and lance the thing already!) The only puncture I had experienced was moving some potted roses around in garage a few days before and had gotten knicked. Puncture wounds can be quite serious!

Yes, they can. A woman in the Austin area died recently from a bite from a dog. She was attempting to break up a fight between her dogs and got bitten. She was in the hospital and on antibiotics, but apparently she got help too late.

You'd be surprised how common vitamin D deficiency is. Vitamin D is crucial for proper immune system function. Basically your natural universal antibiotics 24/7... Best way to keep your vitamin D level in the optimal range is 5,000 IU a day at least. No thanks to sun scare, we aren't getting enough vitamin D from the sun but air pollution in cities can block UVB sunlight so if you spend a lot of time, you will still not get enough vitamin D unless you spend all day long buck naked. Keep it in mind that a cup of milk contains 100 IU of vitamin D if at all. It is a pretty serious health problem that many don't know about.

According to U.S. News, a fair-skinned person, at noon, bathing suit with no sunscreen would need only a few minutes a day. A tanned person or Hispanic, 15-20 minutes a day. For black people, it's estimated they need about 6 times as long as fair-skinned people, but more research needs to be done. Some people are naturally deficient no matter how much sun. I take my supplements. 3 skin cancers was enough.

I am in the sun most of the day, EVERY day, and I still have a D deficiency. Don't know why, but take my supplement daily.

I've wondered if the lack of absorbtion of vitamin D in modern society has to do with the practice of frequent baths. The vitamin forms in the natural oil on your skin and showering right after sun exposure may be washing it away.. My ancestors apparently made do without taking a Vit. D supplement as I do.

Last Tuesday we found the 3rd large rat snake in approx.. 2 months. The 7th of assorted sizes this spring. This one was 63 inches long. I grabbed it from behind the pickets with a pole pruner. The blade cut into her and her eggs started oozing out. We have small dogs and I am not longer going to tolerate any snakes. Sorry about that to those of you that like snakes.

Oh Kathy I'm so sorry about your plague of snakes. They are scary looking and I know this is no comfort to you, but maybe just try to realize that if there were no rats and mice for them to eat they wouldn't be there. If the rat snakes were all killed off the rattlesnakes and other venemous snakes would take over their job. Interestingly it's against the law to kill cobras in India because they prey on disease carrying and grain eating rodents of which there is an abundance in that country. At least our rat and mice killer is not poisonous. Unfortunately, a lot of rats and mice come around to eat spilled bird seed. I had a plague of rats when I had Indian fan tail pigeons until Bob completely made over their pen with hardward cloth.. Then after a year or two they still found a way in. That's when after raising and enjoying pigeons for 30 years I decided no more. Another good killer of rats is what are called in Texas 'ring tail cats', a smaller cousin of racoons with a very long striped tail. Since we live on the edge of some woods they have been seen around the neighborhood. Miners used to keep them as pets to kill rodents in their cabins.

Here is a link that might be useful: About Texas rat snakes ...

Let's see if the link works now ... But I guess not ...

Here is a link that might be useful: About Texas rat snakes ...

This post was edited by roselee on Sat, Jul 6, 13 at 15:32

I can really relate to having a huge fear of some types of critters. I probably have a phobia about rats. My reaction is out of proportion to any threat of danger and its a very visceral reaction (like I have the same reaction if I see a rat in a cage in a pet store or on the property).

But let me tell you, when the rat snakes aren't there other things will be.. My dog kills any snake he can find. He's killed at least 5 this year- probably rat snakes from the pieces we find. For the first time I have gophers and moles. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to watch a plant disappear before your eyes. The dozen or so mounds in the lawn aren't a big deal to me, because I'm not a big lawn person, but I'm sure it would bother some. The gophers have damaged roots of well established bushes too- haven't lost those yet, but I can tell it might become an issue.

The rat snakes are there because there's a food source- they don't eat vegetation. The small rodents they eat are what will damage your plants. If you understand that and still want to kill the snakes I can kind of understand. But gophers are next to impossible to deal with.

Or if you can trap them some way I'd be happy to take them from you :-). The snakes not the gophers.

Lisa

No problem with snakes in my neck of the woods, yet, but years ago one of daughters was bitten by our cat, and it turned out it was Cat Scratch Fever~it's not just a song! She was scratched in the upper area on the inside if her thigh, and the bacteria spread to the closest gland, which was in her groin. It grew to the size of a walnut. She didn't get sick, but the doc gave her antibiotics 'just in case'. There really isn't" any treatment for CSF, it just heals on it's own time.

I asked Betty if they thought the rat snake bite had anything to do with Albert's death. She knew nothing about it. I told her that it bit him Saturday, he told me on the phone. I was driving to Corpus to go look at Plumera Trees that were for sale, and wanted him to come with me. He said the snake was just laying on the deck, he was trying to get it to get off. He told me how mean rat snakes are, I will never forget his words. He said they are really MEAN, MEAN snakes. He told me Betty went to Belton with their daughter and took his truck. He would just stay he wanted to put some plants from pots into his garden. When Betty came back Tues, he was very sick, she took him to the emergency room in Aransas, they transferred him to Corpus. She called me crying from Corpus, telling me to pray for Albert, and post on the fourm, the doctors told her his organs were shutting down, his pancreas and kidney had already shut down. I think I went into shock, they would come by at least 3 times a week to visit. Betty asked the doctor, he told her it was probably the snake bite that killed him. I think of this almost every day, wishing I would have said something to her when she called. I really miss Albert and Betty, Barbra

Sounds like septic shock. Very serious, no matter how you get it. DH went through the year from h*ll, 2003, because of septic shock. In his case, it started with a Gall Bladder operation that ended badly, then just went slowly downhill over months. He just barely survived it when the infection went septic. We've had rat snakes around since we've lived out here. We've never been bit, never had any problems because of them that I know about.

Linda, I had a rat snake fall on the back on my neck, when I opened the front door. It came into the house. If I had known that they would bite, I think I would have died on the spot. I screamed and woke up the neighborhood. My husband tried to calm me down, until he found the snake under the chair in the living room. I have never seen him so scared, he was jumping everywhere. He forgot to see what shape its head was. Serves him right, for not believing me. Barbra