Wonder if RTK & Mike the Pyke are off to S A
From ABC News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-11/s ... ld/5880036With media reports trumpeting South Australia’s first catastrophic fire rating of the season last week and a dangerous season ahead, Adelaide residents are becoming increasingly aware that a bush inferno is not the only danger lurking in the heat.
Veterinarians are reporting animal snake bites numbering three times what they were at the start of last year's season, and already the Women's and Children's Hospital Toxinology Department has reported a number of significant patient admissions requiring anti-venom.
Willunga High School, near McLaren Vale, last week evacuated its library due to a brown snake in the building, while two other schools at Lenswood and Bridgewater in the Adelaide Hills also called in snake catchers.
Most accounts of snake sightings report an eastern brown snake, the second most venomous land snake in the world, at the centre of the action.
Vets say a dry end to winter, the driest October in recorded history and a number of hot weather spurts, has brought them out in higher numbers than usual.
Vets report animal snake bites up 'threefold'
Avenue Road Stirling Veterinary Surgery principal doctor Sophie Rumbold is based in the Adelaide Hills where the surgery has received a "threefold increase" of animals bitten by snakes, mostly cats and dogs, compared with the same time last year.
"Typically we treat a lot of cats because quite often it can take up to two days before they show symptoms, whereas dogs, unfortunately, tend to go downhill quite quickly, usually within half an hour of being bitten.
They (brown snakes) can spring off the ground and hit an adult in the face quite easily. They're not something to have a go at.
Ian Renton, Snakes Away Services
"Usually they're found dead by their owners."
Outside of work she had also seen a lot more snakes than usual for the time of year.
"I think in the last week I saw three snakes squashed on the road when I was out walking my dogs, which is unusual," Dr Rumbold said.
"My dogs also caught one last week and left it on my front door step for me."
Magill Animal Emergency Centre relationships manager Jo Softley said she had seen a "substantial increase" on snake bites at the metropolitan surgery in Adelaide, "and we haven't even hit summer yet".
She said most patients were cats and dogs, due to the fact cats were inquisitive and "treated snakes like a toy" and dogs tended to hunt them.
"Horses, however, will either stand still until the snake goes away, or they'll stomp on it," Ms Softley said.
"But a cat goes after them, and that's where the trouble starts."
Snakes Away Services managing director Ian Renton said snakes were being found in houses and garages right across metropolitan Adelaide.
He said people often left water in bowls or in buckets at the back door for their pets.
"Snakes smell the water, come for a drink, and at the same time, when they go past a doorway they feel the air conditioning seeping out the doorway," Mr Renton said.
"Their blood starts to boil when their body temperature reaches 32 degrees Celsius, so they'll generally be found under pathways, large moss rocks, cement floors, in sheds, anywhere they can get cooler."
Toxinology department reports admissions
Doctor Kate Sanders, from the University of Adelaide's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology unit, said snake bites on animals would be one of the best ways to measure the size of snake populations, even if she had not seen any recent data.
Head of the Women's and Children's Hospital Toxinology Department, Professor Julian White, said human bite victim numbers tended to be erratic and hard to measure against other seasons but there had already been a number of significant cases of envenoming this year.
He said brown snakes were by far the most common cause of snake bites.
"It generally produces a very small amount of toxic venom, which is fortunate for us, and it only has very small fangs, less than 3 millimetres long," Professor White said.
"The chance of the snake effectively biting and delivering enough venom, particularly if it's through clothing, is reduced compared to some other snakes.
"However, when it injects enough venom to cause a problem, it causes very significant problems."
Professor White said people who were unlucky enough to receive a major bite could collapse within minutes to an hour of being bitten, particularly if they did not apply first aid and remain still - one of the most important responses to a snake bite.
"We believe that most venom moves by the lymphatic channels, which are separate fluid movements systems in the body compared to the blood stream," Professor White said.
"As you move your muscles, it increases pressure in the muscles, and the lymph glands are one-way valves.
"It moves the fluid to the central part of the body where it enters the blood stream in the chest."
Potential for snake bites to go unnoticed
Mr Renton said one of the most dangerous aspects of a brown snake was the fact a lot of bites went unnoticed.
The snake catcher had been bitten twice in 30 years of snake removal services, once by a brown snake, the other time by a spectacled hooded snake, but said the brown snake felt no more painful than trying to dig a small splinter from your skin.
"The slightest little pinprick and you've got to stop and think 'well, was it a snake? Or was it the thorn of a rosebush?'
"Any potential snakebite you have to straight away treat as an emergency because if you don't, and it was a snake, you're dead within minutes."
Mr Renton said if a snake was found inside a house, it was best to try and isolate it from the rest of the house by closing doors and blocking the gap below doors, possibly "sweeping it gently" into another room if necessary using a long-handled broom.
If it was small enough, people could try and put a bucket over it, but the most important thing was not to keep an eye on the snake until a professional snake remover arrived.
"The bigger they are, the faster they are," Mr Renton said.
"The average-sized brown snake is a metre and above, and when it's fully charged, it can outmanoeuvre the average adult for the first 100 metres.
"I've seen them hit the bottom railing of a six-foot corrugated iron fence and just glide up over the top.
"They can spring off the ground and hit an adult in the face quite easily. They're not something to have a go at."
Professor White said the early symptoms of a snake bite differed between humans, animals, and different species of animals.
Cats and dogs suffered hind limb paralysis that worked forward through the body and cats were far more resilient to venom than dogs.
Humans showed descending limb paralysis, meaning their face tended to show paralysis before their limbs.