The drought that has been choking Central Texas is affecting people and critters alike. Snakes have been in search of relief, which they are increasingly finding in neighborhoods.
"It was pretty big," Manor Police Sergeant Ryan Phipps says of a snake his comrade shot and killed in a woman’s backyard Monday.
Inside the roughly seven foot long serpent was the carcass of a full grown rabbit. The woman found the lengthy reptile while raking the grass in the suburban subdivision Shadow Glen. That specimen was the biggest, but certainly not the first, slithering visitor to surprise someone in these parts recently. Lately, Manor police have gotten at least one snake call a week.
Snakes pushed out of their habitat, into the baking badlands of Central Texas, are looking for a place to cool down.
"You need to go outside and check your yard before you let your animals out, and also your children, because getting bitten by a rattlesnake is not a good thing," warns Jerome Williams, president of the Greenbury Village Homeowner’s Association in Manor.
He warned residents in a letter Wednesday that several rattlesnakes have recently been found in some yards around the neighborhood, "They're out so we definitely want to let people to know to be on the lookout.
"But not everybody has gotten the memo. A little more than half the way through the year, the number of snake bites treated in Austin nearly equals the total for all of last year. Looking specifically at statistics from UMC Brackenridge, there were 36 snake bites treated in 2008. So far this year, there have been 29 bites treated at that hospital, with another 14 bites reported at Dell Children’s Medical Center.
Considering the trend, doctors say it’s not a bad idea to know what to do if you’re bitten.
"Forget what you have seen in the Old Western movies. Don't suck the poison out, don't put a tourniquet on. Just go to the nearest emergency department. None of that stuff works," says Dr. T.J. Milling.
Dr. Milling says to seek treatment quickly if you even suspect you have been bitten. While snake bites in Central Texas generally are not fatal, they can be under certain circumstances. Besides, the bite will become more painful as time passes.
Dr. Milling, who is the clinical research director for dell children’s and UMC Brackenridge, is currently working on a study with the aim of developing a test that could detect how much venom is in any given snake bite wound. That would allow doctors to better tailor the amount of treatment, which can cause allergic reactions in some cases.
If trends keep up the way they have been going, Dr. Milling and his colleagues could have plenty more bites to study here in Central Texas.
Copyright 2009, Four Points Media Group LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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