"Take THAT you rotten snake...no you take THAT mister"!!

[transplant99]

Just bizarre.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20212558?GT1=10252

[Ford Prefect]

I can see it happening ... it's like the wildlife guy suggested. It could have been a reflex. When I was a kid dad killed a rattlesnake by crushing its head with a piece of pipe. He threw the snake in a cardboard box and put it in the back of his truck along with a bunch of other junk. When we got home and were unloading the truck, we discovered the rattler wasn't in its box anymore ... it had somehow slithered out despite being dead as door nail. We found it and hung it over a tree branch, only to come back later and find it on the ground about 10 feet away. It kept twitching periodically and moving until sunset. Apparently, being cold blooded, snakes will do this. It's just muscle refexes, but they'll keep doing it until nightfall comes and the lower night time temperature finally stiffens up their body.

[CaptainCrunch]

Good for the snake, if your going to go, try and take someone with you, I always say.

[Buff]

We had a family reunion in Aiden near my dad's homestead. Prime rattlesnake country. Anyways, a kid spotted a rattlesnake outside the community hall and my uncle ran outside, grabbing a shovel on his way out. He figured he would pick it up and move it far away. Well when he got outside he was surprised. It was a 6' rattler, it was coiled and just beginning to strike. My uncle got it with the shovel, a lucky hit that beheaded the snake. The snake's body slithered for the next hour or so while my uncle skinned it.

[Azure]

They give you shots nowadays?

I was bit about 10 years ago by a rattler...and they had to suck all the poison out. Thats one of the things we learned as kids....if someone gets bit by a rattler...cut and X into the bite marks...and suck the blood out.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by Buff

We had a family reunion in Aiden near my dad's homestead. Prime rattlesnake country. Anyways, a kid spotted a rattlesnake outside the community hall and my uncle ran outside, grabbing a shovel on his way out. He figured he would pick it up and move it far away. Well when he got outside he was surprised. It was a 6' rattler, it was coiled and just beginning to strike. My uncle got it with the shovel, a lucky hit that beheaded the snake. The snake's body slithered for the next hour or so while my uncle skinned it.

A six-footer eh? That's a big one ... he'd have a striking range of around 4 feet. Your family really knows how to hold a rockin' family reunion!

It's a shame, but rattlers are getting scarcer it seems. At least along the northern part of their range ... that being the Red Deer River. I saw one this summer at Dinosaur Park north of Brooks, but that's the first one I've seen in the Red Deer valley for quite a few years. Apparently all the paved roads are the cause. They like to lay on the pavement and sun themselves, and get ran over as a result. There seems to be fewer Bull snakes too, probably for the same reason.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by Azure

They give you shots nowadays?

I was bit about 10 years ago by a rattler...and they had to suck all the poison out. Thats one of the things we learned as kids....if someone gets bit by a rattler...cut and X into the bite marks...and suck the blood out.

A mud poultice made with urine will work too ... in case your buddy is bit somewhere you don't want to stick your mouth.

A urnine mud poultice is also a good treatment for bee stings.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

A mud poultice made with urine will work too ... in case your buddy is bit somewhere you don't want to stick your mouth.

A urnine mud poultice is also a good treatment for bee stings.

Well I think if someones life is on the line...I'd....actually, nevermind.