White Lip Tree viper bite leads to loss of hand????

[Nasicornis]

Had just received an interesting phone call from a family member in Mpumalanga.

Apparently a guy keeping a baby White Lip Tree viper got tagged in a necking attempt (not that he didn't deserve it then) but knew the venom should not prove fatal. Apparently he got a bit worried as the swelling progressed and started phoning around for some info. Eventually he got hold of someone (who I will only refer to as Kippie as to not getting myself sued for defamation of character). Kippie seriously informed the bitten person that he has to get to hospital asap as there has been reported cases in the Witbank area of people who lost entire hands due to severe necrosis after being bitten by White Lip tree vipers (?) Has anyone of you ever heard of such incidents????

Anyway, I told this family member that I would recommend the person going to hospital (or at least go see his GP right away) as no venomous snake bite should just be taken lightly but I have never heard or believe that people have ever lost hands or feet after receiving bites from this species.

This is the second time that Kippie has told this to someone. The first person he told this to was my mother (she got tagged about 11 years back while attempting to re-capture an escapee of mine.) My mom phoned around in desperation and could not get hold of me as I was in a meeting. She got hold of Kippie's number somehow and was given the same advice he has given this second person.

The problem I have with this kind of advice is that it comes from someone whom I know has actually given snake bite treatment courses to people in the past (don’t know if Kippie is still doing that though). Also Kippie is (or used to be) involved in the medical profession (by this I mean he has dealt with emergencies on some level, on a daily basis).

[steve]

in December last year whilst trying to get our new born batch of white lips to eat, we had 2 females that grabbed the same food item, a friend of mine picked up the 2 to try and get them to release, and as he did this the 1 let go and then tagged him directly on the index finger with both fangs firmly in place, and proceeded to pump venom, we could see this because you could see muscle contractions in the venom sack area, anyway it eventully let go after about 15sec, it drew blood rite away, he then placed the little devil back into the viv, these babies were only about 3weeks old at the time. it swelled up for 2days, he had quite a bit of pain in the finger, then it subsided and he was fine, no permanent damage in the least...HOWEVER this does not mean that a white-lip bite is to be taken lightly at all, this could have been a dry bite or a minimal amount of venom injected due to the fact that it had just been latched onto a food item, also keeping in mind it was a tiny neonate of only 3weeks old.

[Nasicornis]

Yes, I agree that their bite is not be taken lightly. But as I have stated in the post, this was also still a baby and I have never heard of the loss of a hand due to their bite.

[s'mee]

I have not heard of any amputations of an entire hand as a result of a bite from this species, but I am aware of several unconfirmed reports of amputations of fingers as a result of bites from Cryptelytrops albolabris within it's natural range.
No venomous snakebite should be taken lightly and especially not the small arboreal vipers - Cryptelytrops, Trimeresurus Atheris etc as several severe(read life-threatening) envenomations, and even deaths, have been documented from several species within these genera.

[Bushviper]

If I am not mistaken this bite happened on Sunday afternoon. I was contacted and when I asked what species it was the reply was "Asian pitviper". I asked them to get hold of the owner and find out exactly which species it was.

I suggested that they get to a hospital and start an infusion of Saline or Ringers lactate to keep the kidneys functioning and assist with the fact that he would probably swell quite a bit and would need fluids which he probably would not drink because of possible nausea.

I asked them to phone me back as soon as they had a reply on the species or even just a description. Needless to say I never heard from them again.

I am not positive it is the same incident but two people getting bitten in Mpumalanga 5 days apart sounds strange.

[Nasicornis]

Yes BV. This guy was bitten on Sunday afternoon. Anyway, they did say that someone apparently spoke to someone (a specialist in the field) in Pretoria (could be referring to your phone call).

Havent heard anything new on this. Kippie I am referring to is the guy I spoke to you in person about the other day when I said I wondered what had happened to him and if he has not been jailed for cupable homocide.

How they contacted him or WHY is beyond me.

Will let you know when I hear anything new.