"It's strong, so I'll go ahead and tell you that," he says as he unlocks the squeaky door. We're greeted by the rattles of dark-complexioned pit vipers lying about in glass cages. The air in the snake room is warm, musky and malevolent.
Snake is up!
Coots is a well-known snake handler here in southeastern Kentucky. He's 41, stout and bald, with a Vandyke beard. He's the third generation of Coots to take up serpents; his 21-year-old son, Little Cody, is the fourth.
There are an estimated 125 snake-handling churches scattered across Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Appalachia, where the tradition is strongest. Snakes in church are against the law everywhere but West Virginia, though in most states it's a misdemeanor offense the authorities don't bother with.
Coots has been bitten nine times by venomous snakes. Each time he refused medical attention. Half of his right middle finger is gone as a result of a fang from a yellow rattler. In 1995, a woman who was bit in his church refused to go to the hospital; she died on Coots' couch while church members prayed over her.
"It's kind of like playing Russian roulette. The more frequently you handle [snakes], the more likely you are to get a bite. Serpents don't get tamed," says Ralph Hood, a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, who has documented hundreds of hours of serpent handling over 25 years. Having said that, Hood says he has brought herpetologists to services to try and understand why it is that handlers can pick up reptiles with impunity, even walk on them barefoot, and receive so few snake bites.
The National Geographic Channel followed two snake-handling preachers off and on for a year for a documentary series called Snake Salvation that will air this fall on Tuesday nights. Pastor Jamie Coots is one of the series' subjects.
"Snake handling fascinated me because it's such an extreme gesture of faith," says Matthew Testa, the series' executive producer. "We set out to tell this story from the snake handlers' point of view, to really humanize them, not to judge them, and to show how important religion is in their daily lives with their daily struggles."
The Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tenn., is a short drive through the Cumberland Gap from Coots' church. The pastor here is Andrew Hamblin, a lanky, charismatic 22-year-old, who is the other preacher featured in the TV series. Hamblin wants to modernize the practice of handling snakes in church. He posts photos of himself with snakes on his Facebook page, and he aspires to pastor the first serpent-handling megachurch.
His services are intense, high-energy spectacles. Dennis Covington, in his popular book, Salvation on Sand Mountain, called snake-handling services, "theater at its most intricate ... improvisational, spiritual jazz."
The snakes are twisted around each other, and their entwined heads sway in space as he slings them carelessly back and forth. At one point, he wipes the sweat from his forehead with the coiled reptiles. The sight is terrifying; it is mesmerizing. Hamblin wears an expression of unbearable ecstasy.
Stories about snakes in toilets have been splattering the Internet lately. One man in North Carolina even reported that the snake he recently found was the sixth snake to come up his toilet in four years. One man in Texas called the police after his son pointed out a six-foot-long indigo snake poking his head out of the bowl.
Ventilation pipes! Yes, the one on the roof. Since bathroom plumbing is usually connected through ventilation pipes on the roof, snakes can slither their way through the ventilation system and, soon, into your john.(new Image()).src = ' =2ba02a33-c319-4410-bba7-f8321a13bed3&cid=877050e7-52c9-4c33-a20b-d8301a08f96d'; cnxps.cmd.push(function () cnxps( playerId: "2ba02a33-c319-4410-bba7-f8321a13bed3" ).render("00499ba9282e4d1b985fa8af14d29c2b"); );
Even other animals seem to put them in a special category; many wild animals recognize snakes as threatening, and some birds and monkeys even have special vocalizations for sounding an alarm when a snake is seen.
Many species are either already gone or are rapidly disappearing from city and suburb, lowering the number of human-snake conflicts, but depriving those who delight in encountering them that pleasure.
Venomous snakes are another matter. If you encounter a venomous snake in your yard, take it seriously. The snake should be removed to ensure that no one, including pets, gets hurt. Note: This does not mean the snake has to be killed.
In many places, you can call animal-control or local police or fire departments to remove the snake. What happens after that may be problematic, since most poisonous snakes have well defined ranges in which resources, such as winter dens (hibernacula), are critical to their survival.
Your local animal control agency is the best place to start looking for someone knowledgeable about snakes who can give advice about the best course of action when a snake must be removed. Many states have herpetological associations and university extension specialists may be good sources of information or able to network with others who are.
The eastern indigo snake is an icon of the southern longleaf pine forest and is the longest native snake on the continent. A non-venomous apex predator, it preys upon many species of animals including some venomous snakes, and it plays a critical role in keeping an ecosystem healthy and balanced.
In 1978, eastern indigos were federally listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Threats to the snake included loss of habitat, which continues today, and over-collection for the pet trade. Vehicle strikes on the roadway are also a danger.
The release marked the beginning of a 10-year indigo release program to support species recovery in the region, part of a monitoring program by Auburn University, which will track the snakes to inform future conservation efforts.
Regurgitation is the more common form and is the only form associated with husbandry problems. Regurgitation is more passive and occurs soon after a snake has attempted to or has swallowed a meal. Therefore, the food item has not had time to be thoroughly digested and can be recognized as a prey animal. In regurgitation, mild waves of contraction move backwards up the body of the snake.
Vomiting usually occurs after the snake has partially digested its meal. Many times since the snake is bringing up intestinal contents from further back in the gastrointestinal tract, the snake seems to be more distressed by vomiting. The material produced by vomiting often looks like a stool with no urates (white chalky material seen with feces).
If vomiting occurs , allow the snake to rest several days before trying to feed it again. If using pre-killed food, make it is warm to the touch and fresh . Finally, give the animal plenty of privacy and time.
If your snake is throwing up, it is not getting the proper amount of nutrients from its food. As a result, if your snake continues to vomit, it will starve to death. The chances for recovery are much higher for vomiting or regurgitating snakes if they are treated prior to losing a significant amount of body weight.
If your snake appears healthy on physical examination, treatment is aimed at improving husbandry and removing any intestinal parasites that may have been diagnosed on a fecal examination. In addition, your veterinarian may recommend the following:
Excellent husbandry will prevent most snakes from throwing up. The best prevention against your snake acquiring a medical problem that results in throwing up is to buy healthy captive bred snakes that have not been exposed to a variety of other snakes.
There are two types of throwing up. Regurgitation is the more common form and is the only form associated with husbandry problems. Regurgitation is more passive and occurs soon after a snake has attempted to or has swallowed a meal. Therefore, the food item has not had time to be thoroughly digested and can be recognized as a prey animal.
In regurgitation, mild waves of contraction can be seen moving backwards up the body of the snake. Vomiting usually occurs after the snake has partially digested its meal. Many times since the snake is bringing up intestinal contents from further back in the gastrointestinal tract, the snake seems to be more distressed by vomiting. The material produced by vomiting often looks like a stool with no urates (white chalky material seen with feces).
Amoebiasis frequently causes diarrhea in addition to vomiting. Classic Cryptosporidia infections are associated with gastric hyperplasia (swelling of the wall of the stomach). Although both organisms can be easily transmitted from snake to snakes through contact with feces, amoebiasis is frequently transmitted between different types of reptiles. Turtles commonly serve as carriers for Entamoeba invadens. Mixing turtles and snakes in the same enclosure if not recommended.Vomiting can be associated with viral infections. Inclusion body disease of boids is associated with regurgitation especially in Burmese pythons. There are many other viruses that infrequently cause vomiting in snakes.
If your snake needs to have a contrast X-ray study, be prepared to be patient. Because snake intestines digest food slowly, it can take up to a week for the dye to get to the end of the intestinal tract. Luckily, in most cases, a diagnosis can be made in 24 to 48 hours. Keeping the snake at the warm end of its preferred optimum temperature range can help decrease transit times (the time it takes the dye to go from the stomach to the vent).Gastrointestinal obstructions can also occur if organs, such as the liver or kidney, become enlarged. Common causes for organ enlargement include: neoplasia (cancer); abscesses; retained ovarian follicles; retained eggs; and fluid-filled cysts. If they become large enough to fill up the entire diameter of the snakes body, they will compress (press on) the intestines. Even though the intestines might be normal, food cannot pass the point of compression so the clinical signs will be the same as for an intestinal foreign body. The walls of the intestines or stomach can also become thickened as a result of Cryptosporidia, neoplasia, abscesses, stricture, edema (fluid accumulation) or inflammation. If the walls become too thick, they will block passage of food as well. X-rays and ultrasound are used to differentiate between foreign bodies (intraluminal obstruction), compression (extraluminal obstruction) and thickening of the intestinal wall (intramural obstruction).Treatment 2ff7e9595c
Comments