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Rattlesnake Bite

C

Cowpuncher

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
652
Location
Southeastern Colorado
I was born and raised in Eastern Colorado. We were always on the lookout for rattlesnakes. Killed lots of them, but never came close to being bitten. Also never knew anyone who had been bitten.

This weekend, the daughter of our farming tenant was bitten by a rattler in their front yard. Fortunately, they were not far from help. Called ahead to the hospital and told them a snakebite victim was on the way.

The hospitals in the area do not keep a lot of anti-venom serum on hand. Law enforcement agencies cooperated and rushed additional venon to the hospital from other locations.

That little girl is doing fine, but the doctors say it might take a couple of months for all the swelling to go away.

Looks like it will end well.
 
I relate. Never had too close a call, but been scared lots of times. Rushed a nephew to town once. One time when I was about 12 -14, my uncle and I were moving cattle home in the fall. A cold blustry day, we spotted a rattler that was frozen solid. My Uncle wondered if he would be alive if he thawed out, so we scraped up some tumble weeds, built a little fire & held that snake over it. He was frozen strait like a stick. He got warm & started to wiggle. He throwed him down & says "well, guess I wont do that any more!"
 
I was told recently that cattle rarely get bitten because they move slowly and the snake gets out of their way but horses can get bitten because of their speed moving in, and, if they're bitten on the nose they can die because the nose swells shut. They aren't mouth breathers?? Is that all true?
 
nr said:
I was told recently that cattle rarely get bitten because they move slowly and the snake gets out of their way but horses can get bitten because of their speed moving in, and, if they're bitten on the nose they can die because the nose swells shut. They aren't mouth breathers?? Is that all true?
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If a horse gets bitten on the nose, I've heard they can die, but we had a colt bitten and by the time we found him it was too late to do much but hope. h
He made it. We called him Jimmy Duarantue (sp) for a while.

If you catch them quick, you can put tubes in their nose, so they say.

We don't have many rattlers around. 'Course, I don't shoot everything I see, so maybe nature is keeping them balanced out. :wink:
 
this is interesting topic
i have never been bitten but i had one hit my chaps once and that was very scary
i was down on the triangle ranch a couple of weeks ago visiting and looking at some dogs just walking along and just happened to look down in time to see a big diamond back drawing back to strike me
well needless say i screamed like a little girl and jumped very high in the other direction
today i killed 3 rattlers here on the ranch that were in the way as i was opening gates
i don't chase them to kill them but if they stop and look at me there dead

i had a horse bit on the nose and it swelled very bad
i saw when it happened and got to work on it right away
we put tubes in the nose
lot's of pennicilian and banamine some dex and time

now i have doctored sevarel steers that have been bitten mosly on the head from looking at them to long i geuss
i just give them a mega dose of pen and a big slug of vitamin c in the vein and some under the skin
they say if the bite is not fatal then the infection and swelling could be thus the vitamin c to help the body fight the infection
i treat one or two dogs a year also and i doctor them the same as a steer but in smaller doses of course
sorry so long
jerry
 
We had a horse get bit just a few yards away from us.

I ran to the house to get a piece of hose and by the time I got back in less than 2-3 minutes, his nose was swollen so bad it wouldn't fit in a five-gallon bucket top.

He stuck his nose right in the water tank as soon as he was bit, and we were able to get the hose in his nose and save him.

It took several months for all the swelling to leave, and he always had a few knots in his muzzle.

He was never quite as "right" in the head after that either, just not as "solid".

Does anyone have any like experiences with the "mind quality" of these snakebit horses?

Snakebite, or the drugs?

Badlands
 
Story goes my mom got bit on the foot by a rattlesnake when she was 3 years old. Seems that she kicked at it with her bare foot. They got her in the car to head for the long trip to the hospital and, yup, the car wouldn't start. I think that they pushed the car to get it started, if I remember the story right. Anyway, obviously she survived the ordeal, but supposedly she got very sick on the third day after the bite.
 
I got bit by a garter snake a time or two.... wouldn't have happened if I wasn't messing around chasing my fellow grade 5 classmates with them. Fortunatley for me, they dont have teeth (or if they do they're not an issue).
One of the nice things about my part of the country; no poisonous critturs. :)
 
I have two stories regarding Rattlesnakes.
I was walking through a stubble field one day in Eastern Colorado, alone, and heard an intensive sound over the sound of all the grasshoppers. I jumped away, but the Rattler hit me in the heel of my Engineers boot, and broke off one fang in the leather heel! I was twenty miles away from any help, and knew instantly that I was a dead fish. I pulled off my boot to see where he got me, and in so doing realized that it hit the heel instead of my foot. Scared me half to death.

Another time, I was camping with my family in Northern California, and was setting up a tent for the kids when a five foot rattler, coiled around a little brush, surprised one of my boys. 11 years old! He very calmly said, "Daddy, here is a snake". When I saw that sucker, I grabbed the nearest thing that was handy - a one foot long hand ax! It was after dark, and we had a hand-held spotlight, which I had my oldest son hold and point it directly at the snake. After he moved it away from the snake two or three times, and I sternly!! informed him to "keep the ^*&%$#%*&%#% light ON the snakes eyes, I s-l-o-w-l-y crept up to the bush, and with incredible and unbelievable speed (!) :shock: :clap: 8) - I cut that sucker right in half with that hand ax! That is the truth! I still have the ax, and that was in 1958! Still gives me the shakes.

I ran over one with a Jeep one time, and that is still too close!

DOC HARRIS
 
When we raised quite a few horses south of LaJunta,CO we had lots of rattlers. I've had a couple of instantses were one would get bit, then another would come and look and get bit, sometimes even a third. You could tell the order by how big their head swelled.
Not usually fatal with our little prarie rattlers.
Couldn't believe I killed one at the mailbox yesterday, it's about 40 degrees and sleeting here.
 
while painful and possibly lethal to sickly and young persons the rattlesnake bite is not really that deadly
nationwide there are an average of 8000 reported bites a year with 9 to 15 deaths resulting from these bites. the majority of bites are successfully treated in 2-3 days hospital care with the most damage being tissue deterioration.
25% of all rattlesnake bites are "dry" meaning no venom has been released, however there is still chance of infection.
a baby rattlesnake and the Mojave are considered to be more dangerous in their bites because they contain more neurotixic properties than other rattlesnakes which are hemotoxic. the baby and Mohave are in the same class of toxiticy(sp) as the sea snake, coral, and the cobra.

while they can only strike 1/2 their length i prefer to be in the next county when they are any where near :D

all of my dogs have been bitten and i treat them with benadryl, first year i lived on this place i killed over 30 it has been steadily decreasing every yr till i only killed 2 last yr, yet i am constantly on the look out, packing a .357 loaded with every other round being snake shot and the next one a hot load just in case i want to shoot from 50' away :D which is a preferred distance
 
First year I worked in NM I ran accross one early in the morning as we were saddling up. I smacked it with a shovel and went to pick it up to get rid of it. Boss yelled at me to cut the head off first (with the shovel) cuz he said it still could bite!? Don't know if he was foolin or not, but I still cut & bury the heads now.
 
Even when the heads are cut off....they can still bite for a lil bit. I've seen it lots of times after cuttin off the head.....the mouth just a bitin and bitin.....((((((((((givin myself the heebie jeebies)))))))))
 
Hooks said:
First year I worked in NM I ran accross one early in the morning as we were saddling up. I smacked it with a shovel and went to pick it up to get rid of it. Boss yelled at me to cut the head off first (with the shovel) cuz he said it still could bite!? Don't know if he was foolin or not, but I still cut & bury the heads now.
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Hooks-

No - your boss was NOT foolin'! The reason that the snakes seem to be continuing to bite is the result of the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System reactions, continuing to cause the Voluntary and Involuntary Muscles to function, thereby causing the mouth to open and close spasmodically, and the body to thrash around uncontrollably. The same response occurs when a chicken's head is cut off. If they are not restrained, they will run around and attempt to fly, sometimes accomplishing the seemingly impossible!

There is a town about 70 miles East of Rapid City, SD named Wall, and there is a very historic store there called Wall Drug! If you ever go through that town, be sure to tour Wall Drug! They have EVERYTHING - including - stuffed and mounted Rattlesnakes, hat bands, belt buckles, and belts, ash tray, lamps - - all incorporating Rattlesnakes of various sizes!. . . . .and other stuff, too. . . . .and creaky, wooden floors!

DOC HARRIS
 
Going down I-90 it would be hard to miss wall Drug.. I think the signs started as soon as we hit Albert Lea when we used to drive from Chicago area to Bozeman... never once did we stop there however.. That and the reptile gardens and the stuff about the guy who built Mt. Rushmore ever 10 miles, lol...
 
IL Rancher said:
Going down I-90 it would be hard to miss wall Drug.. I think the signs started as soon as we hit Albert Lea when we used to drive from Chicago area to Bozeman... never once did we stop there however.. That and the reptile gardens and the stuff about the guy who built Mt. Rushmore ever 10 miles, lol...
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IL Rancher-

The history of the development of the United States and the Western Movement is fascinating study. It is more than "Cowboys and Indians" as being expressed in Class "B" and "C" movies. You have missed an intriguing segment of our culture by passing it off as strictly Commerical entrepreneurialism! Of course, a lot of it is, but you must cut through the crap in order to get to the meat!

DOC HARRIS
 
I didn't avoid these places because of commercialism (Although the giant dinasaur with glowing red eyes at Wall Drug didn't intice me in either) but more so because we had places to go, people to see and were in a hurry. enerally we needed gass either at Spearfish or the last place in Wyoming when going east and going west we generally tanked up in Mitchell or another place in that area depending of course on time of day (Sometimes we went straight through and other times we stopped in Mitchell as it was about halfway)...

Now, the mother in law is telling us she bid on a vacation in the Black hills (Where, she can't exactly tell me except near Rapid City) and that we are invited to go with her sometime this summer so maybe I will make it.. We tend to stop more now with the kids in tow...
 
IL Rancher said:
I didn't avoid these places because of commercialism (Although the giant dinasaur with glowing red eyes at Wall Drug didn't intice me in either) but more so because we had places to go, people to see and were in a hurry. enerally we needed gass either at Spearfish or the last place in Wyoming when going east and going west we generally tanked up in Mitchell or another place in that area depending of course on time of day (Sometimes we went straight through and other times we stopped in Mitchell as it was about halfway)...

Now, the mother in law is telling us she bid on a vacation in the Black hills (Where, she can't exactly tell me except near Rapid City) and that we are invited to go with her sometime this summer so maybe I will make it.. We tend to stop more now with the kids in tow...
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You will enjoy it! Take time to smell the flowers - and see the sights that are available. It will be a great education for the kids. Also - stop at "Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument" sometime!

DOC HARRIS
 
IL Rancher said:
Now, the mother in law is telling us she bid on a vacation in the Black hills (Where, she can't exactly tell me except near Rapid City) and that we are invited to go with her sometime this summer so maybe I will make it.. We tend to stop more now with the kids in tow...
Click to expand...

When you get to Rapid City give me a call. I'm about 75 miles from there.
 

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