Posted: 4/25/2016 12:21:15 PM EDT
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We killed about a 2 ft copperhead last weekend in the back yard of my fixer upper house. The dogs had it cornered and we didn't realize it till my Dad slapped it in the head with a weedeater. That took a lot of fight out of him.
My cousin's cat drug a copperhead into the house last night and she's noticeably freaked out and now I'm reading about a kid in Tyler who's been bitten on the hand by a cotton mouth. I didn't think these snakes were as deadly as a rattlesnake, but I'm sure if you get bit, you're not gonna just walk it off. What's first aid for snake bites other than hauling ass to the hospital? Am I finally gonna get to use these expensive ass tourniquets I've been stock piling? |
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I don't know about tourniquets...
In ambulance driver school they taught us to keep the affected limb at or below the level of the heart, support vital signs, keep them calm to keep circulation slower, and go to the hospital for anti venin. I normally give a shit ton of pain meds to snake bite people cause they start to hurt exponentially worse as the time drags on. <<<Not a doc, but I drove an ambulance once. I wouldn't TQ it or suck the venom out or any of that stuff. |
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Quoted: No tourniquet. Save these for life-threatening bleeds. Keep them calm and go to the ER. A real ER, not one of those free-standing, on the corner ERs. No need to take the snake, dead or alive. Oral pain meds won't help much. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile This. A snakebite from a snake native to North America is not expected to be a fatal event for a healthy adult, and would be bad for a child or the elderly in 8-12 hours. There is no need to freak out, but you do want to get to an ER fairly quickly. There are only four types of venomous snakes in North America... and all of them are unmistakable if you have a clue, so there is no need to kill it and bring it in. First Aid would involve keeping the limb lower than the heart, and keep the person calm (Might be a bigger job that you currently imagine... especially if they think that they are going to die in 5-10 minutes, they are freaking out wanting for you to suck the poison out, or wanting you to kill the snake for identification, or whatever else they might be uninformed or misinformed about). |
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There are studies about using TQs, but nothing definitive as treatment.
The only other thing you might use is PIT, or Pressure Immobilization Technique. It is used often in countries like Australia, India, and the African continent. I have a BFE Labs PIT Kit in my truck. |
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Quoted: Don't underestimate any venomous snake bite. A girl in my office took a double strike from a copperhead in a bathroom at Frontier Camp, she got away from it and said she woke up two days later in the hospital. Drama queen for sure. A friend of the family's 8yo kid got bit by a copperhead on the foot a few years ago. Swelled to 1.75x normal size. They were pushing liquids and medium level pain meds. About 6 hours later they started a series of 5 doses of CroFab. Out of the hospital in 72h, monitored for coagulation problems for 2w after and has been fine. Copperheads just do not have the venom yield to cause that much trouble... Even a "double bite". If she did lose consciousness, which I doubt, it is because she lost her shit and passed out. |
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Quoted:
No tourniquet. Save these for life-threatening bleeds. Keep them calm and go to the ER. A real ER, not one of those free-standing, on the corner ERs. No need to take the snake, dead or alive. Oral pain meds won't help much. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Agreed. Think about i this way, when a medical professional gives you an injection intramuscularly it does not take a ton of time for that to travel into your blood and once in your blood it does not take it that long to travel through the rest of your body. Your blood travels through you pretty dang quick. Granted venom is probably a little on the thicker side but I would expect it to have perfused to the rest of your body in very little time. So, tourniquet would be pointless. Also the way I was taught is that once you apply a TQ properly you've basically amputated that limb from that point on. (Not a medical professional, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express.) |
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Quoted:
Agreed. Also the way I was taught is that once you apply a TQ properly you've basically amputated that limb from that point on. (Not a medical professional, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express.) Quoted:
Quoted:
No tourniquet. Save these for life-threatening bleeds. Keep them calm and go to the ER. A real ER, not one of those free-standing, on the corner ERs. No need to take the snake, dead or alive. Oral pain meds won't help much. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Agreed. Also the way I was taught is that once you apply a TQ properly you've basically amputated that limb from that point on. (Not a medical professional, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express.) Whatever you have to do, burn that phrase from your memory banks. Ok, so TQ's aren't recommended for snake bites anymore, but if you loose a limb now, you were probably gonna loose it anyway. |
| I have a 30 year old wally world snake bite kit that I have never had to use. I read the directions several times through. They still sell what looks like the same kit. I have had several close encounters with water moccasins fishing Lewisville around the boat houses getting lures unstuck. Nasty critters, and aggressive. Mother Fuckers hiss at you. Or that could have been me expelling gas, or sharts. |
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If you are going outdoors, especially this year, snake boots or snake chaps would be a very good idea. I think what most people think of as a tourniquet is more of a restriction bandage. Snake boots are the best $150 anyone who spends time outdoors in Texas can ever invest in. I was a convert after I almost stepped on a 7ft rattler that was as wide as a jar of peanut butter. |
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If you are going outdoors, especially this year, snake boots or snake chaps would be a very good idea. Yeah, we've come across 3 rattlers already this year at our place in Burnet, 2 of them right near the house. Past few years we've maybe seen one, normally we just run into rat snakes, etc. Friend of mine almost walked right up on top of a 4 footer at his place outside San Antonio just a few weeks ago, this after just telling me the day before how he hadn't seen a rattle snake at his place in years. He had his 1911 on his hip and unloaded on it as it startled him. |
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Quoted:
Snake boots are the best $150 anyone who spends time outdoors in Texas can ever invest in. I was a convert after I almost stepped on a 7ft rattler that was as wide as a jar of peanut butter. Quoted:
Quoted:
If you are going outdoors, especially this year, snake boots or snake chaps would be a very good idea. I think what most people think of as a tourniquet is more of a restriction bandage. Snake boots are the best $150 anyone who spends time outdoors in Texas can ever invest in. I was a convert after I almost stepped on a 7ft rattler that was as wide as a jar of peanut butter. Yes they are. I have them on when I dove hunt. I have had several people try and tell me that "if your not smart enough to see one you deserve to get bit". One of the guys that said that before now has a pair because her got bit by one. |
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I have a set of snake gaiters, I think they were like $40. The first time you're walking in tall grass and you hear that rattle, snake gaiters seem like a really cheap investment.
Most folks don't think about putting them on for doing a little work in their backyard. |
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No tourniquet. Save these for life-threatening bleeds. Keep them calm and go to the ER. A real ER, not one of those free-standing, on the corner ERs. No need to take the snake, dead or alive. Oral pain meds won't help much. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile This except , ER doctor requested that I bring the snake in when my wife was bit. They wanted to make sure it was a copperhead. |
| My mother was bit by a copperhead when I was young on the big toe. Her toe drained for 6 months. She was on crutches for a year. She was strucked behind the local hospital, she was in treatment within 10 minutes. Copperheads are not to be messed with. All smakes die when I see them. I ID their dead body. |
| I took a copperhead strike to the ankle when I was around 14 and it hit a vein and my dad made the mistake of tying off my leg at the knee. Dr. said it kept the toxins more localized and my foot and toes were so swollen that my toes were immobilized for 3 days. They just pumped me full of saline and flushed my system. I was hobbling around for 2 weeks but was good to go after that. |
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Quoted: This except , ER doctor requested that I bring the snake in when my wife was bit. They wanted to make sure it was a copperhead. Quoted: Quoted: No tourniquet. Save these for life-threatening bleeds. Keep them calm and go to the ER. A real ER, not one of those free-standing, on the corner ERs. No need to take the snake, dead or alive. Oral pain meds won't help much. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile This except , ER doctor requested that I bring the snake in when my wife was bit. They wanted to make sure it was a copperhead. ER Doc thinks that you don't know one snake from another. Either way, everything but a coral snake is able to be treated by CroFab... so in the end, it does not matter. |
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I took a copperhead strike to the ankle when I was around 14 and it hit a vein and my dad made the mistake of tying off my leg at the knee. Dr. said it kept the toxins more localized and my foot and toes were so swollen that my toes were immobilized for 3 days. They just pumped me full of saline and flushed my system. I was hobbling around for 2 weeks but was good to go after that. I took a copperhead strike to the toe on my birthday. Pissed me off more than anything. I beat it to death with a cow femur that my dogs had drug up from the neighbor's kill pile. It felt aboout like a wasp sting. I went to the ER...about 20 miles out...much better trip than an unpassable kidney stone trip. They kept me over night, didn't do shit, and charged me about five Glocks for my trouble. The 2 weeks of swelling afterward was the worst part. |
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ER Doc thinks that you don't know one snake from another. Either way, everything but a coral snake is able to be treated by CroFab... so in the end, it does not matter. Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
No tourniquet. Save these for life-threatening bleeds. Keep them calm and go to the ER. A real ER, not one of those free-standing, on the corner ERs. No need to take the snake, dead or alive. Oral pain meds won't help much. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile This except , ER doctor requested that I bring the snake in when my wife was bit. They wanted to make sure it was a copperhead. ER Doc thinks that you don't know one snake from another. Either way, everything but a coral snake is able to be treated by CroFab... so in the end, it does not matter. This, coral snakes have a different venom from other North American pit vipers. It's a neuro toxic vs. hemo toxic venom and treatment is different. All other venomous North American snakes are all treated same. Like already posted. Do not apply TQ to limb, take to emergency room (real ER) most N.A. snake bites are not fatal in adults WITH treatment. |
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Quoted:
This except , ER doctor requested that I bring the snake in when my wife was bit. They wanted to make sure it was a copperhead. Quoted:
Quoted:
No tourniquet. Save these for life-threatening bleeds. Keep them calm and go to the ER. A real ER, not one of those free-standing, on the corner ERs. No need to take the snake, dead or alive. Oral pain meds won't help much. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile This except , ER doctor requested that I bring the snake in when my wife was bit. They wanted to make sure it was a copperhead. Some Dr's are morons when it comes to snakes...... A co-worker was bitten by a Texas Rat snake, and supervisor freaked out and insisted she be taken by ambulance to Memorial Herman Hospital. The Dr said the picture of the Texas Rat snake looked like a black mamba  ....
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