Deadly Visitor

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Click on photos to enlarge.

Darn!!! Paciano found this dead coral snake on the low outside wall that runs alongside the   steps up to the second story of my house. They are venomous and can cause respiratory failure and death, although a search of the internet yielded the following information: A single death has been reported due to a coral snake bite in the United States in the last 40 years (roughly, since coral snake antivenom became available). Before that time, the estimated case-fatality rate was 10%, and the cause of death was respiratory or cardiovascular failure.
Another source says: Unlike pit viper venom, coral snake venom is primarily a neurotoxin. There is little or no pain and swelling, and symptoms may not appear for hours. But once symptoms do appear, they progress rapidly: euphoria and drowsiness, nausea and vomiting, headache, difficulty in breathing and paralysis.”
I’m so glad the dogs didn’t find it first. It is very confusing, because they seem to be two different snakes joined at the tail. I took this photo yesterday, but need to take another look tomorrow to see if it is one snake or two.

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About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

28 thoughts on “Deadly Visitor”

  5. Unknown's avatarSam

    It Looks like two snakes, one trying to eat the other. Interesting the brightness is less on the one snake. I have them here too. That rattlesnakes and copperheads scare me. But they seem to give my house spot a little less populated.

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    1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

      It is, Sadje. It can kill even a person, let alone a small animal. A Coral snake. Shudder. But, I’ve added info to the post. I overestimated the chances of dying from a coral snake bite before. Since the advent of antivenom, only one person has died of a coral snake bite in the U.S. in the past 40 years.

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    1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

      But today the whole thing is the same color.. I think it was after death that the color changed and by the second day the entire snake was the same coloration. When I say the whole thing is the same color, I mean the bright red has all turned to the rust color on the other half and the scales now show up on both sides. It definitely is one snake.. perhaps dropped there by a bird. I was wrong. When Paciano found it, it was already dead. I thought he had killed it.

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  12. Eilene Lyon's avatarEilene Lyon

    It looks like the snake may have been in the middle of molting when it died. The new exposed scales are bright and the part it was sloughing is the dull colored. It would not have been good for a pet to come across it, but I don’t know if coral snakes are aggressive or not.

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