Poisonous or venomous? There are both and they are very different. Poisonous is when you bite it and you get sick. Venomous is when it bites you and you get sick.
dogs and cats for the most part are more resistant to venom in general than we are. But unless you have a weakened immune system or are frail or in bad health, for the most part, it’s rare for a north American venomous snake to be lethal. Dogs and cats will get sick but will usually survive most bites. In the US, you have quite a few species of rattle snake, you have water mocassins, copperheads and coral snakes for the potentially dangerous species of venomous snake. There are many others out there though. Garter snakes and ring neck snakes are both venomous AND poisonous. But their venom is designed specifically for invertebrates and is extremely weak. Hognose snakes are venomous but they rarely bite and at most, unless you are allergic, you’ll get mild swelling at the bite for a couple of hours and that’s it.
If you have venomous snakes around your house, let nature do the work. King snakes are a prolific hunter of other snakes. They LOVE venomous snakes for lunch. King snakes are immune to venom and are harmless to people and pets. Remember, when you’re out in the wild with your animals, you’re in the home of these snakes. You’re the invader. Would you want some monster coming to where you live and killing you because it had a misplaced fear of you?
I’ve free handled a lot of wild snakes including a hypo coral snake. They’re not out to get you, they just want to be left alone. If you don’t screw with them, they’re not going to mess with you.
Thank you! That is so interesting and makes a lot of sense.
FR is a good source of information.
I adore you.
:)
“It likely won’t kill me” is not a great argument:
http://healthwise-everythinghealth.blogspot.com/2009/10/copperhead-snake-bite.html