Rattlesnake Bite

[treillw]

You're 7 miles from the truck and an hour drive to the nearest hospital and you just got bit by a rattlesnake. Fang marks on your leg. Venom running down your skin. Spotty/no cell phone reception. What do you do?

Run to the truck as fast as possible, or take your time and try to not pump the venom through your veins faster?

 

[Grumman]

You wish you’d bought an InReach


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[AustinL911]

Keep hunting. I'm no quitter.

 

[naturesurviver]

It's only a rattlesnake bite so bite him back besides makes a great meal..

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[DudeOfColorado]

Press the SOS button on my InReach - eat rattle snake over a fire as I wait for the chopper

 

[IdahoElk]

Back my bow with his skin,take an Advil and go kill the biggest Elk ever.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Tie a touranaqet and hack my leg off.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I'd probably end up dying of shock, all the while scratching my head wondering, how in the hell did a rattlesnake end up in Alaska.

 

[M-Wig]

After almost stepping on the biggest water moccasin I've ever seen way back in the woods I asked myself this same question. Never came up with a good answer; run and die from the poison pumping faster, walk and die anyway.

I just bought snake boots and hope for the best.

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[JNDEER]

It has never happened to me- but living in CA and hunting in the heat far from the truck I have researched your question a bit.

Best answer is to make it back to the truck at a constant pace that doesn't cause you to increase normal breathing too much and keep trying to use the cell phone. As soon as you get service call 911 and meet the medics somewhere so they can get you on fluids and you can get your leg up.

 

[Violent Hippie]

Rub some Vagisil on there and top off with a princess bandaid. Good to go .

 

[7Bartman]

Sadly this situation happened to my buddy and I while on an desert mulie hunt. He was taking a leak next to a rock outcropping and a rattler perched in the rocks bit him right in the groin. I told him to stay put while I ran 2 miles back to the truck for help. I drove in town and found the nearest doctor's office. The doc told me that I'd have to suck the poison out in order to save him.
I still wonder whatever happened to my buddy. RIP.

 

[530Chukar]

Slowly work back to the truck. 33% of all bites are dry bites. If there’s no pain or swelling in the first hour, consider yourself lucky and keep hunting.


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[MuleyFever]

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 7,000 to 8,000 people bitten by venomous snakes in the U.S. every year, only 5 die.

Walk back to the truck.

Also, if you are 7 miles from the truck you are either working way to hard or in an area that does not have rattle snakes. For the most part.

 

[HookUp]

I stepped on a rattler on a September archery elk hunt, he was to lethargic to do anything and slithered away. I had to go back to the truck for new under wear.

 

[DavePwns]

I'd pull my phone out and ask my rokslide community what to do.

 

[super]

When I was a kid I was fascinated with snakes and went out of my way to collect and study them. When I was In the 10th grade one of my teachers had a "pet" timber rattler that hatched a bunch of youngsters.

He was handling one of the newborns with a glove on one hand so he could force feed it a baby mouse . . . 'cause that's how it's done . . . anyway one of the baby fangs just touched the tip of his bare finger and broke the skin. His whole arm swelled up like a football and they had to take him to the ER. It took over a month for him to be able to play softball again.

Yea, they are born deadly.

 

[Mike7]

Yes, baby rattler's are very potent, and your story reminds me of the following.

Since a good proportion of rattlesnake bites are on the dominant hand of drunk males, one effective prevention strategy, although possibly extreme, could be avoiding alcohol, finger amputation from the dominant hand, and gender reassignment.

 

[wesfromky]

My dog was bitten by a rattler while I was climbing. Carried him out, took probably two hours to get to the vet. Stopped at a reptile zoo on the way to see if they had any advice. His paw got crazy swollen and he was pretty freaked out for a bit, but was back out in the woods by the next weekend. The vet just treated him for the swelling and infection. Zoo people said the venom doesn't affect dogs as badly as people, usually.

One of my friends was bitten on the foot by a rattlesnake while bouldering, and he ended up in the hospital for a few days and was pretty jacked up. Also, nearly 6 figures of medical bills, anti-venom is expensive.

Another friend was bitten by a copperhead while hiking, had a bad reaction, and had to be carried out by a rescue team. Think he was 4-5 miles back.

This is the guy that runs the reptile zoo: Jim Harrison's hands - mangled by 30 years worth of snake bites - tell one-of-a-kind story - KyForward.com | KyForward.com

 

[Tod osier]

I haven’t been bitten by a snake, but... my dog was. One thing to think about, and I don’t know how to plan for, is that venom is a brew if multiple active ingredients that includes neurotoxins (varies snake to snake regionally and by species). When my dog was bitten by a prairie rattler he was loopy as all get out. This happened almost immediately and he was fully mobile, but loopy as heck like he was drunk (stumbling around and acting on impulse). After a few minutes once I got him kenneled in the truck he settled down, but a person in a similar situation could make some pretty bad decisions if there was a similar effect. This info is probably more useful if you are with someone who gets bitten.

He was fine and hunting in a coup,e days after a looooong fast 4x4 drive to the vet from deep in the Missouri breaks.