• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Please send good wishes and prayers

Lucille

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My son is in the hospital, was bit by a copperhead. Bit on the pinky, and I think he will live but I'm of course upset.
 
He is in the ICU. He said they have antivenin but have not given it, son said Dr. said that because the swelling has not moved past the hand they are waiting.
He lives in a rural setting and stuck his hand under the house (it is up on blocks) to get his daughter's dog. I am waiting and praying, I'm not allowed in the ICU right now.
 
He is in the ICU. He said they have antivenin but have not given it, son said Dr. said that because the swelling has not moved past the hand they are waiting.
This is SOP. If he doesn't need the antivenin the docs won't want to administer it as it can also mess you up. Antibiotics and monitor is typical.

Hopefully he'll be fine and can go home soon.
 
Sending hopeful thoughts your way and his. :)

You're able to talk to him, it sounds like. Is he in good spirits?
 
I have very very good news. My son was bitten yesterday and has been in the ICU and observed closely. His hand swelled horribly but as the late evening wore on in the hospital the swelling did not continue up his arm. Perhaps because it was a small bite at the end of his pinky he did not receive as much venom as he could have.

The doctor saw him again a little while ago and because there was not further swelling up the arm or continuing symptoms decided to discharge him. I thank you all for your prayers and good wishes.


Is he in good spirits?
Well, yes and no. I talked to him and listened to him and told him how much I loved him, and I know that helped him through his worries.

But I couldn't help myself, I got on him for putting his hand under the house. I told him that his daughter, my grand daughter, was old enough so she could work on training the dogs to come every time they are called. I think the plan for when he is healed and better is to block off the under house areas where the dogs can get under there.
 
This is SOP. If he doesn't need the antivenin the docs won't want to administer it as it can also mess you up. Antibiotics and monitor is typical.

Hopefully he'll be fine and can go home soon.

Thank you for your post. I have cared for many, many patients in my lifetime but never had even one patient with a snake bite.
The closest I even got was when a kid brought a snake to school in his backpack and they call me (the school nurse at the time) to handle the issue. I took the (small brown garden snake) across the street to a forested area and let it go.
 
That's wonderful that he's on his way home. :)

I'm assuming that the dog didn't come to any harm from hiding in the snake's area, and that's a lucky thing, too.
 
Ouch! Back when I lived in Maryland an acquaintance of mine got bitten by a baby copperhead. Or was it a baby pygmy rattlesnake? :shrug01: He said it was like getting stung by 1,000 yellow jackets. Painful as all get out. Might not kill you but he said he entertained the idea of cutting off his hand to stop the pain.

Sounds like your son is on the mend, though, so that is good news. Perhaps your doc was reluctant to go the antivenin route because of possible allergic reactions?

There are just too many bad things lurking that can be where putting your hands without looking might not be a good idea. Black widow spiders come to mind, and they aren't any joke, neither. I imagine rattlesnakes aren't rare in your area, and they would me much more potent than a copperhead. At the very least, wear thick GLOVES. Yeah, hindsight, I know...

We have too many scorpions around here, so both Connie and myself tend to put on thick gloves whenever we are messing around with chores that require moving things that haven't been moved in a while. Heck, Connie found a scorpion in a plastic Walmart bag in the old reptile building just yesterday, in with some odds and ends in that bag. That was certainly unexpected, but like I said, they seem to be pretty common around here. She never thought about putting on gloves then, so lucky she didn't get stung.

Anyway, hope your son doesn't experience lingering pain from the bite.
 
How is he feeling now? Can he flex or extend the bitten finger even a little? How about any sensation aside from the discomfort in response to stimulating the fingertip? Conservative measures generally work well for these bites, so I am expecting positive news over time.
 
He can flex a little but cannot pick anything up.
 
A little is enough. As long as the neural drive and muscular response are there, everything will work out in time as the swelling subsides and tissues heal.
 
Much better, thank you for asking. Of course, there is still one negative side effect: At the time he was bitten, he was not insured. Still, what is important is that he is alive, everything else we can get through.
 
Glad to hear he is doing OK. And yeah, that lack of insurance could hurt as much as the bite. Connie's stay in the hospital for a couple of days came to over $200,000. I don't know what exactly that includes, though. Maybe that includes her surgery, but I just don't know. And we don't have nearly all the bills in yet. And this is all ongoing.

None for my heart attack have shown up neither, matter of fact. Well, except for the ambulance ride, which was over $1,000. Insurance made a HUGE difference in what our out of pocket costs were in both instances. I am sure that after the dust settles, had we not been on Medicare w/supplementals, it would have destroyed us financially.

Things are such that you just cannot afford to NOT have health insurance these days. Everyone is just a morning's wake up with chest pains or a really awful diagnosis at the doctor's office from bankruptcy.
 
I told the kid he needs to have insurance. Didn't listen. I told you that you needed to see your doc for that chest pain. Didn't listen.
Like Rodney Dangerfield would say, "Can't get no respect."
 
It took 24 days for that "I told you so" to finally surface. And here I was thinking I was going to get away with it. :hehe:
 
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