Pam, it was an educated guess by the vet. He examined the swelling, found the bite, and told Tim it was a copperhead. I suppose he sees he enough bites in a semi-rural practice to know the usual culprit. Perhaps it was also because of the type of reaction. I’ve only seen cornsnakes in our yard, but I’m doing my best to teach my two year old that we never touch snakes outside.

My Herpetology prof became frustrated with me, because I looked before grabbing on our field trips. I finally explained where I’d grown up and that he was fighting twenty-something years of training and was unlikely to undo it. We were in upper Wisconsin, so there were no venemous snakes, but it’s hard to change a lifetime of habit.