snakebite

[rottenray6402]

Re: snakebite

I am petrified of any type of snake, grew up on a farm in Montana where there were a lot of rattlesnakes. Every day when I would go out to play my Mom would say "watch out for snakes". I got so ingrained with that even now if I see a little tiny snake I jump. We didn't have in door plumbing when I was little so early one morning in late summer I ran out to the "privy". One step I felt something weird under my shoe so I looked down and had stepped on a snake. I told my Mom there was a dead snake out in the yard so she got all excited because she knew neither her nor my Dad had killed one. She went out with her garden hoe and whacked the head off a big rattler. What saved me was it was chilly enough that it couldn't move. If I would have stepped on it later in the day it would have been a different story!:^

 

[Ripfence]

Re: snakebite

I grew up in central Florida near the Green Swamp,I have seen all types of snakes. I have been struck at (but not bitten snake leggings) by cotton mouths and diamond backs (saved by a pitching wedge) and have racked a coral snake up on my bare foot (scared me half to death). By the grace of God, so far, I have managed to live bite free. Last year my 7 year old son very nearly got struck in Virginia. The snake kept striking at him (my son was pointing at him but looking at me) but kept coming up short. My only thought was that the snake was not really trying to strike him but just trying to scare him. I don't know, I not a herptologist but I do know that the snake scared the H E L L out of me.

 

[NBE]

Re: snakebite

... I couldn't see it because it was buried under the leaves with about 1 inch of its tail sticking out and 1 inch of its head sticking out.

I think about 1 inch of head sticking out would have been enough for my .22 pistol.......or my 9MM.

We have a camp 12 miles by boat in the swamps down here. While cutting grass my oldest boy flipped over a piece of concrete block 4" wide X 8" deep and gave a big yell. There in the hole on the inside of the block was a water moccasin. Luckily my son reached across the non-opening side when he flipped the block over. Had he reached and grabbed it across the opening he'd surely got tagged. We forced the snake out of the hole with a long stick and then shot him. The snake was 2 feet long and it still amazes me that he squeezed into that small opening in the block.

I hope all turns out well for you with the finger and all.

 

[jtexas]

Re: snakebite

The dog took a rattlesnake bite to the snout couple years ago while camping, his nose swelled up the size of a football - took me about 15 minutes to get him to the vet's office, it was about 5:15pm - the doc was already gone, just a couple orderlies there, couldn't do anything. Luckily it's less than a mile to the next vet's, doc there says it's probably a dry strike, I ask how long til we know for sure, he says, "we'd know by now, organ failure would have set in already".