Sunday, Nov 26, 2017 at 17:18
Dead right Alby (no pun intended), dry bites are VERY common, especially from the Eastern Brown snake.
They actually don't want to waste it in defense as it is vital to getting their food by killing small prey.
But yeah, you don't know if envenomation has occurred so you must go through the whole shebang, or take the risk.
People expect to see the proverbial 2 fang marks, blood oozing out of them, but very often nothing can be seen, maybe a red scratch so faint it is hardly visible, even at autopsy stage.
When doing snake catching training, it was drummed into us that no one had even died in Australia that had the proper pressure immobilisation treatment done on a snake bite, just those that didn't do the treatment, didn't think they'd been bitten / envenomated, or didn't know they'd been bitten (that 'twig' must have scratched me), and I think it was a couple of rare cases of allergy to antivenom.
A bit of info about the Eastern Brown, responsible for most snake bite deaths in Australia.
Their fangs are only a few mm long, and just wearing long trousers (esp lose denim) is great protection.
While this is so, and their venom yield is very low, it is probably the most dangerous neurotoxins of all land snakes and a minuscule amount is enough to kill a mouse in seconds, or a human in a slightly longer time.
Venom also carries enzymes that break down tissue, which helps snakes swallow their prey, it's already digesting before they swallow it !
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