October 25, 2008: Aussie Spider

[Aliantha]

lol...well fortunately I didn't get any bites. It could have been a lot worse though. I imagine 12 bites would put even a healthy adult in hospital.

eta: here's another funny story about the redbacks at that house. My other half at the time was telling me he felt sick and woozy and was going to lie down for a while. When I asked him what he thought he was sick with, he said he didn't know. Later on that evening he was feeling better and told me he'd been bitten by a redback that morning...

Ahuh...dickhead.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

... it sort of jars our reality.

Luckily, I also keep an octopus handy for just such occasions...

[ZenGum]

If this thread ever comes up on the SDRTP, people are going to wonder what the hell footfootfoot is talking about. :p Suckers.

[ZenGum]

This seems to be a bad time to be a bird in Northern Queensland.



Carpet Python 1. Cockatoo 0.

[ZenGum]

Meanwhile, about 2500km south:



[from here].

AN elderly woman has been forced to have her leg amputated after it became infected and then gangrenous when she was pecked by a pet magpie.
The woman, 84, went to a hospital emergency department in Newcastle, NSW, with pain, swelling and redness to her lower left leg, near where her daughter's magpie had attacked her 11 days before.

She was admitted to hospital and prescribed antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs, but continued to worsen. Gangrene set in and her leg was amputated above the knee.

Infectious diseases physician Paul Wilson reported the case in the latest Medical Journal of Australia.

He said infections following pecking injuries were rare.

"Serious infections relating to trauma involving a bird have included septic arthritis of the knee after a chicken bite and a fatal brain abscess in a child caused by a rooster peck," Dr Wilson wrote.

In the Newcastle case, he said pre-existing circulation problems in the woman, a former smoker, may have contributed to the aggressive course of the infection.

I've had these buggers swoop me when I was riding my bike. With helmet and sunnies I was pretty safe and it could be a fun game trying to headbutt the guy at speed.

[spudcon]

I imagine a big can of Raid would work on magpies just as well as those icky spiders.

[Aliantha]

I've had pieces of my scalp removed by magpies as a child. It farking hurts.

My son complained the other day because a maggie managed to get it's beak inside the gaps of his bike helmet and give him a bit of a nudge.

Those creatures can be nasty. I still think they're beautiful birds though. I love the sound they make in the morning when the sun's coming up.