SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. (CBS46) – With the temperature getting nicer and far more men and women outdoors, probabilities of encountering snakes are heading up.
“If it is pleasant for you to be exterior then it is probably excellent weather for snakes to be out in the daytime,” said Daniel Sollenberger with the Ga Division of Natural Means.
Georgia has 46 species of snakes and 6 of them are venomous.
“Most of the snakes you come upon are going to be harmless,” said Sollenberger, the state herpetologist.
He explained the copperhead is the only venomous snake you are probably to come across in the vicinity of households in suburban areas.
“Generally talking if you experienced to get bitten by a venomous snake, the copperhead is the the very least harmful one particular,” he spelled out.
Snakes can be useful, he mentioned, by having mice, rats, slugs and ticks.
“You actually have to choose up most snakes to get bitten,” claimed Sollenberger. “It’s incredibly difficult to get unintentionally bitten by a snake, so for the most part if you just depart them be and let them go about their enterprise, you will be wonderful.”
Logan Mayo experienced a scare lately when she was strolling her dog Smokey in Sandy Springs and he walked into some ivy.
“We recognized a thing was incorrect when he yelped r,genuinely loud, he obtained definitely anxious and started earning some seems we hardly ever read before,” she reported.
She and her boyfriend rushed him to veterinarian Dr. Riva Wolkow at Belle Isle Animal Hospital who gave Smokey suffering medication and IV fluids.
“We generally see copperheads. They’ll swell, they’re very unpleasant,” explained Wolkow.
“They typically both get bitten in the encounter or their front legs for the reason that they’re either looking via the ivy or they stage on it accidentally,” she spelled out.
Some cases will call for antivenom but Wolkow stated most of the time she can address it with pain treatment and fluids.
Smokey recovered and is back to his old self. Mayo encourages other doggy homeowners to be on warn.
“Just keep your infants near. I know that it’s tempting with a leash and sort of permitting them wander off but holding them close is almost certainly the very best detail you can do,” she explained. “We really do not at any time want anything to materialize to them so when this occurred it really struck a chord.”
In addition to keeping the dog close to you on a leash, slice back again ivy on your assets and if you do spot a copperhead, really don’t check out to capture or destroy it. Sollenberger reported you can use a backyard garden hose to try out to get it to go along, but mishaps have a tendency to materialize when people today get near a snake when they’ve seen it.
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