Young boy bitten by brown snake prompts warning for Riverina parents

William Sullivan had been on a routine walk with his son Myles at about 1pm on Friday when every parent's worst nightmare came to life.

The pair were heading into Young's town centre when Myles was struck by a brown snake while he was riding along the bridge over the Burrangong Creek, on the Olympic Highway just metres ahead of his dad.

Mr Sullivan had not been aware at first that his son had been bitten until he asked what the light scratch was on the back of his leg.

"I had my two dogs with me and we were walking and my son stopped and screamed," Mr Sullivan said.

"I saw the snake go past him and thought it was coming for me and the dogs.

"I didn't think he was bitten, so he kept riding his bike and probably another five metres along the track I looked at his leg and there was a mark.

"I stopped him and said; 'what's on your leg there', and he said; "that's where the snake bit me."

Upon inspecting the scratch, Mr Sullivan was confident the snake hadn't pierced the skin and had felt content that Myles would be fine, but he decided to call his wife, Sarah, for a second opinion.

"I rang my wife and said Myles had been bitten by a snake but it hadn't pierced the skin so we're going to head home and she said no and came down and ran him straight to hospital," Mr Sullivan said.

"They had to treat it as a snakebite."

Myles was taken to Young Hospital where several tests were run on him over a couple of hours.

He was then taken to Wagga Base Hospital where more tests were run before he was officially released on Saturday morning.

"It did actually go through the skin but at the time, there wasn't any blood, but they said they reckon it was a dry bite and the snake didn't put any venom in him," Mr Sullivan said.

"I feel like I was under-reacting. The hospital said Sarah had done the right thing by taking him to the hospital straight away."

Mr Sullivan said he wants other parents to know that in all scenarios if someone is bitten by a snake, they need to go to the hospital.

A second message from Mr Sullivan is to be aware of snakes at all times regardless of the location.

"I never even thought you'd see a brown snake coming along the footpath. I still can't believe that it happened right there," he said.

"We walk this track at least a couple of times a week and it's well mowed. I never would have thought there would be any there.

"My message is just, somewhere you wouldn't think a snake would be, you just don't know, do ya."

IN OTHER NEWS:

With flooding throughout the month across the Riverina, snakes have been getting pushed out and washed up according to emergency services.

Wagga based NSW SES incident controller Barry Griffiths said recent flooding is pushing a lot of venomous animals out of their normal homes and into urban areas, including snakes.

Wagga's snake man Tony Davis said he has been getting at least one call a day for snake sightings at the moment.