Jasmine is nine years old as of August, while staying with her Aunt in Pueblo, she was bitten on her ankle by a Rattlesnake.
Jasmine and a dog named Shirley had been walking through a field to go pet some horses, with her Aunt keeping close watch from the house. Jasmine had thought she'd stepped on a sharp rock and cried out in pain, her Aunt quickly rushed to her side to see what was wrong, she was just on time to witness a large Rattlesnake slithering away into a hole in the ground.
Jasmine was rushed to the hospital in Pueblo and put into the Intensive Care Unit for pediatrics where doctors began treatment of the bite wounds. From the description of the snake the doctors were able to best guess the age of the snake and determined a fully matured adult Rattlesnake was the culprit.
This is actually considered good news, while baby Rattlesnakes are as equally venomous as their adult counterparts, younger rattlers typically have not yet learned how to control the amount of venom they inject when they bite. The venomous bites from baby rattlers are typically more severe since they often will inject all of or most of their poison when biting an perceived enemy or prey.
Adult rattlers are more adept at controlling the amount of venom they inject when they bite, this particular adult rattler merely wanted to stand it's ground and give Jasmine a quick little warning bite, therefore it struck quickly with intention to ward her away from it's territory and the amount of venom injected was minimal.
While in I.C.U. Jasmine was treated with a new type of poisonous snake bite therapy, using an synthetic anti-venom created from genetically engineered DNA sequencing to produce antibodies in the blood stream. This is all Greek to me however, an article containing all the details is located at the following website for anyone interested. http://www.news-medical.net/?id=18609 Jasmine responded very well to treatment, when I arrived at the hospital, Jasmine was already out of I.C.U. and in a recovery room. Her leg and ankle was noticeably swollen, the area of the bite near her ankle was bruised black and blue with two small puncture wounds.
Jasmine was doing well and is predicted to be released from hospital care soon. Jasmine was in good spirits when I arrived and handled the whole affair like a champ, she is currently not very fond of snakes of course. Jasmine was very lucky in this particular case.
Recent studies have shown that Rattlesnakes are becoming more and more venomous as time goes on, their poison is becoming more potent and more toxic, scientists are unsure why this is occurring.
New world vipers, like rattlesnakes, survived for millions of years by warning predators with their rattles and until recently that has been enough to assure their survival as a species. But over the past 200 or so years human encroachment and 'rattlesnake roundups' have seriously diminished their numbers. Especially those that 'buzzed' were killed off (perhaps due to a religious bias against 'serpents') and more and more it became a survival trait to remain silent. Nowadays it is more likely to find rattlers which do not buzz until after they've bitten an interloper. It is great that a synthetic anti-venom treatment is available. Until recently capturing and milking poisonous snakes was the only way to create a cure. However, that involved returning donors to the wild because they were not welcome in the communities where they had been found. But that doomed them to death because they would not have been welcome in other burrows or among strange den families. Perhaps they are becoming more venomous because that is the only thing predators understand. Like most species in the world, they are fighting for the future. Nice article. Thanks.
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