Odd News: Venomous Cottonmouth Shocks Clinic After Throwing Up Snakes, Frog

Snakes are known to be dangerous and a cottonmouth is no exception. Although it is not as deadly as other known snake species, their venom leaves humans with pain, swelling and bruising.

Also known as water moccasins, there was a venomous cottonmouth found stuck in a thorn of bushes somewhere in Hatteras Island. The one who brought it in was not named but considering it was the duty of Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation to treat the injured snake.

The multiple lacerations were cleaned and closed. But clinic officials got more than what they bargained for when they applied anesthesia.

“During anesthesia though, she vomited her stomach contents. It may seem gross to some, but I found it very interesting to see what she had eaten.”

It turns out that the cottonmouth had quite an appetite. It vomited its stomach contents, something that included two snakes and an intact frog, per the Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation Facebook page.

Measuring only three-feet, most were left wondering how a snake of that size could digest the three reptiles. None of the eaten reptiles came back to life, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation is a non-profit group devoted to helping all wildlife on the island. Once the animals are treated, they are released back into the wild.

Cottonmouths live in the eastern half of the state. Multiple species of venomous snakes roam the Outer Banks and have been blamed in the past year for killing at least one wild horse after a bite became infected.

The cottonmouth that got treatment was unusually small. They normally averaged four-feet and can grow by as much as six feet. Their venom is rarely fatal for humans, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Looking over the comments of the post on the Facebook page of Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation, some were left astonished at the cottonmouth’s appetite. Others were concerned about how the person who got her from the bush was able to do so.

“I’m so curious how she was eradicated from the thorny bush and sedated without somebody getting bitten,” Ashley Burruss Akopov commented who mentioned she was a former trauma nurse.