Arachnids (spiders, tarantulas, centipedes, scorpions etc)

[jo_dile]

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Shes a beauty. How can you tell if they're in a bad mood?

[TheSNakE]

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when you go near them they rear up to bite or kick hairs at you. The hairs have little barbs on them and they stick in your skin. It itches like crazy.

[DSF Guest 10]

wow. i had to eek up the courage to come in here and look.

spiders really are unique. when they are in a place that they can't bite me.

Ive been to the hospital four times for a spider bite.

Very interesting thread Snake! That brown recluse bite is insane, i had no idea that a spider bite could do damage like that! holy shit.

I worked for 2 seasons on a TV show that was filmed at the zoo and i have been fortunate to see all kinds of animals and i always find arachnids and insects pretty fascinating when it comes to the complexities of their bodies and their role in the animal kingdom.

[Mr Handlebars]

I found this on the internet back in Feb. after we had a local Exotic Snake Dealer bitten. He spent over 2 weeks in the hospital. This isn't his story, but I thought it was still post worthy. I'm leaving the pics as thumbnails, because most of the pics would sicken a squeamish person's stomach. Pics are at the end of his story.

Rattle Snake Bite...

Alex wrote:
Subject: RattleSnakeBite (GraphicPics) pretty gruesome
Story (please read before looking at pictures) On July 21 , just after my 13th birthday, I was bitten by a Northern Pacific rattlesnake (the snake was originally identified as a Western Diamondback rattlesnake, but that species is not found near Yosemite). I was located on a trail in a hiking area near Yosemite National Park, California. The bite occurred when I was sitting on a small boulder at a distance of 4.5 miles from the trailhead with my cabin group at camp. I had my arms dangling at my side, and a 5 foot long rattlesnake bit me in the middle of my left palm. From this point, an amazing rescue took place, taking 4 hours to transport me the 4.5 miles to the trailhead. The camp director had previously called the hospital, and a helicopter was waiting at the trailhead. During the 30 minute helicopter ride I was going in and out of consciousness, having trouble keeping my eyes open. We arrived at the Modesto, CA hospital, where the doctor in the emergency room decided that my case was too severe to treat at that medical center. He told me this, which was the last thing I heard before going unconscious.

Although I was unconscious for approximately the next 24 hours, I have heard about the following events from my parents. I was taken from the Modesto hospital to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, the trauma center for Northern California. My snake bite was determined to be too severe for Modesto to deal with. At the UC Davis hospital I underwent a fasciotomy, which involved the doctors cutting open my arm from the palm up to about the middle of my biceps. This was to relieve the extreme pressure that had built up in my arm from the rattlesnake venom, making my arm as hard as a rock until the fasciotomy.

I spent the next 35 days in the UC Davis hospital, had 8 surgeries performed for cleaning out the dead tissue from my arm, and finally had a skin graft from my leg to close up my arm, which had remained open for 30 days after the fasciotomy until the skin graft surgery. That is 10 surgeries in total at UC Davis.

I was released from the hospital on August 24, had 4 months of intense physical therapy, and flew to Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina for a follow-up surgery. This was a vascular flap surgery, during which they took a chunk of skin and muscle from my back, attached its blood vessels to the ones in my arm using microsurgery, and then stitched it to my arm. Although 2 emergency surgeries were required within 24 hours on account of blood loss, the vascular flap was a success, and after 6 more months of physical therapy, my hand had had a significant improvement in mobility from when I left UC Davis and could move each finger only 2-3 millimeters.

My hand now has fully mobility and is about 80% as strong as it was before, thanks to my Dad and I resuming our rock climbing after a 1 year break due to the lack of strength in my left hand. I use it for about 90% of the things I used to do with my left hand (I am right handed). 13 surgeries, $700,000 worth of helicopter flights, surgeries, and hospital stays (paid by my insurance of course), and 20 months later, I am very happy with the outcome of this experience and my good fortune of getting through all this without any significant loss.

[TheSNakE]

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Four times for the same spider?! What kind of spider was it? A recluse?

[TheSNakE]

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Spiders arre amazing. Most people would never guess how complex they can be. Since people are intersted I will continue to add interesting spider info here as I get it.
I was a zoo keeper for 15 years. What zoo did you film at?

[TheSNakE]

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Those are some of the most gruesome pics of snake bite I have ever seen and I have hundreds of pictures of snake bites. I am very interested in snake bites since snakes pretty much consume my life, and venomous snakes are my favorite. The reason this guy had so much scarring is because of he fasciotomy. I would rather die than get one of those. If he would have gotten antivenin right away he would not have needed the fasciotomy.

[BleacherCreature420]

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Were you at the Bronx Zoo??? God I love that placeee........cool stuff snake

[Mr Handlebars]

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As I'm quite sure you know already, but they keep closing snake anti-venom centers. Anti-venom serum is getting so scarce, that a lot of time ER's have to go out of the country to get the right anti-venoms or the amounts needed.