What We Learned About Snakes the Hard Way

Recently on TV news I saw where two children in northwest Arkansas had been bitten by snakes. One was a cottonmouth water moccasin, and the other a copperhead. So the time is here once more to be vigilant when outside in areas where snakes may be found. We live in Oklahoma, but what applies in Arkansas applies here in most cases.

This subject is especially close to my heart because my son was bitten by a copperhead on the fourth of July in 2008. It took him just about a year to completely recover from all the effects of the snake bite.

He has been around snakes all his life, especially since he was 15, when he gained a great deal of independence by reaching the age when he could legally ride a small motorcycle. From then on he went hunting or fishing almost every day, either with his dad, his uncle, a buddy, or alone on his cycle.

He saw many snakes and learned how to watch for them and avoid them, and grew up to become a fisheries biologist. He has been with the state wildlife department for over 20 years.

On the day he was bitten, Jim and his family were camping with his in-laws on the Arkansas river somewhere south of Tulsa, OK. His father-in-law had a motor home, and some or all of the rest of the group were staying in it. But Jim, always the outdoorsman, preferred staying in a tent. He likes a certain degree of modern convenience, however, so had set a small air conditioner on a concrete block, situated to blow cool air in the door of the tent.

That morning when he got up, he moved the AC on the concrete block away from the tent, out of the way of foot traffic. That night when he was ready for bed, having exchanged his regular shoes for flip-flops, he was moving the AC and the block as one unit, back to the tent, "walking" it across the ground, when he felt a sharp pain in his foot, between the big toe and the second toe.

He yelled, looked down, and saw a very small copperhead trying to crawl into the tent. His father-in-law came running and helped kill the snake. By the time the snake was dead, Jim's wife was standing with car keys in hand, prepared to drive him to the nearest emergency room.

When he reached the ER about 20 minutes later, the staff asked if he had brought along the snake that had bitten him. He said no, but he knew it was a copperhead. When they questioned whether he knew for sure, he said, "I work for the Wildlife Dept., so I know what a copperhead looks like."

So taking him at his word, they obtained the anti-venin for a copperhead bite. The doctor explained that many snake bites they see in the ER are "dry bites" meaning the snake bit but didn't inject any venom. But considering the degree of swelling he was seeing already, he knew this was not a "dry bite."

The doctor explained that a small snake often injects a more deadly dose of venom than a bigger snake would, because a more mature snake has more control over the amount it injects. A more mature one might inject just enough to, say, kill a mouse. But a young one will inject all the venom it has any time it bites. It was Jim's misfortune to be bitten by a young one.

He had six injections of anti-venin and spent a couple of days in ICU for observation, for fear of a reaction to the anti-venin, which is quite likely and also very serious. But he was fortunate and the anti-venin worked without complications. He did, however, have a lot of pain and a long recovery. He almost never takes any sick leave, but that time he was off work for a couple of weeks. He had to sit with the foot elevated and when he walked on crutches, he held the foot as high off the ground as possible, as when it hung down it throbbed painfully. It took a year for him to regain all the feeling in and use of the bitten foot.

The surprising thing was that, after all his years spent on the rivers, lakes, and in the woods, he would be bitten when he let his guard down for one moment while camping with family.

In reading about snakes, I often see it stated that snakes will crawl away from you if possible. That may be true with some, but it's a sure thing that's not the case with copperheads or cottonmouth water moccasins. I'm not sure if a copperhead will go out of its way to bite a person, but it will not make an effort to get out of the way.

A friend of mine was bitten years ago, twice, by the same copperhead which was under a polk plant she was trying to pick. The first time it bit her she thought she had been stuck by a briar, so reached down again, and it bit her a second time. She almost lost her hand as a result.

Another friend was bitten while pulling weeds from a flower bed. From that I learned that one should wear leather gloves while pulling weeds where there is not a clear view of the ground.

A cottonmouth water moccasin is another story altogether. On the news they said that one would swim right up to you, and that's not an exaggeration. My brother used to fish a lot and he said he had had them swim up to his boat and try to crawl into the boat with him. Another time when he was standing in the water fishing, one came swimming towards him prepared to bite. He pulled his pistol and was able to shoot it right in its open mouth.

One frightening thing about moccasins is that they like to climb trees and just lie there on a limb. They have been known to drop down into boats that ventured under the limb. We used to "trot line," and once were running our lines with my husband at the back of the boat and me in the front. As he pulled the boat along the trot line, the front swung under an overhanging limb, and I found myself eyeball to eyeball with a snake. I'm not sure if it was a cottonmouth or not, but didn't wait to investigate. I screamed for him to get me out of there, which he did in a hurry. I understand there are water snakes that are not poisonous, but I need to study that more. As for me, if it's a snake around the water, I consider it bad news and try to avoid it.

Rattlesnakes will usually give a warning if they have time. Years ago my husband and I were in the mountains picking muscadines when I started down the road bank and stepped on a flat rock on the slope. As the rock slid down the slope, with me on it, a rattlesnake crawled from under the rock, slithered away, and coiled up about two feet away from where my husband was picking. There was a small bush between him and the snake. I yelled at him to be very still, then to slowly back up. He did that, and the snake never bothered him. So, while rattlesnakes are dangerous creatures, they do at least give a person a sporting chance.

There are a number of ways to protect oneself from snake bites. We live on a wooded hillside and see snakes every year right in our own yard, and on our porch or deck. We try to keep our eyes open at all times so we don't get caught by surprise. We have seen more snakes just after sundown than at any other time. I suppose "snakes crawl at night," as Charlie Pride's song says, because it's cooler then. I won't even consider going out on the porch or deck after dark without a light, as we've found several snakes there.

When I was young, I had the habit of going outside with my shoes off. When our daughter had a horse in our pasture at the place we lived back then, one night I heard dogs in the pasture and thought they were chasing the horse. I just grabbed a robe and dashed outside without my shoes. My dad later scolded me for that when I told him what I had done, saying I was fortunate I didn't get bitten by a copperhead. Now I know what he meant.

It's a good idea to keep leaves, sticks, and all the plant debris possible raked up and away from the house, as copperheads and some other snakes can become almost invisible when lying on or under leaves.

When walking in the woods, beware of turning over rocks or stepping over logs, and try to watch before you step. When we go hiking, we carry long walking sticks, and now that the snakes are out, I'll use mine to clear the path ahead of me, even on trails.

It's advisable to wear boots when walking in snake-infested areas during warm weather. One of the men on a survival show had "gators" which he put on when walking in the woods. They covered the lower part of his legs and came down over his shoe tops.

I have even been told that tying the legs of your jeans down around the ankles can give some protection from snakes. I just wouldn't want to wear shorts out in the woods during snake season.

If the worst should happen and one is bitten by a snake, medical people now advise against cutting across the wound and trying to suck out the venom. If the victim or another person should try to suck out the venom and they have even a tiny cut in their mouth or a small cavity in a tooth, it could be deadly. It's better to leave the bite alone and get to medical help as soon as possible.

I'd like to add that everyone should always be ultra careful about allowing children to play unattended outside in warm weather. A year or two ago in our small town, a block from the downtown area, a two-year-old boy walked up onto his porch and fell backwards off the porch onto the walk. He was unconscious. His parents rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late. Their child was dead.

Medical personnel thought he had died of a head injury when he fell off the porch, or worse yet, abuse. Child welfare authorities were called in and they took the other children in the family into custody. Only later did the medical people discover the child had died of a snake bite.

On investigation, a snake was found in tall grass in the edge of the yard. Had the lawn been mowed short and/or an adult had been with the child, this tragedy might have been prevented.

In most cases where a person is bitten by a snake, he or she should have time to get to a hospital. If one plans to be in a situation where he could not reach a hospital within an hour or so, he should study up beforehand on what to do in such cases. It's also a good idea to always know where the nearest emergency room is located, especially when traveling in unfamiliar territory. Accidents of some kind can and do happen anywhere. In some cases, such as in snakebites, time saved in reaching medical help may mean the difference in life or death.

Staying calm and still while letting another person drive a snake bite victim to the hospital is the safest course to take, unless he should find himself alone with no choice but to drive himself.

Another thing to remember is that, if bitten by a snake, the snake should be killed, put in a plastic bag, if possible, and taken to the emergency room with the victim. Anti-venins are specific to each kind of snake, and it is essential to be able to identify the kind of snake. Because my son was familiar with different kinds of snakes and worked with the wildlife department, the medical people took his word for it. I'm not sure what they would have done had he not known what kind of snake had bitten him.

If planning to be outdoors where snakes might be present, which can be almost anywhere, it would be wise to go online and research "poisonous snakes." Many of these sites have good pictures of these snakes to aid in identification. Some also have further information on treatment, etc. Bear in mind that the kind of snakes present will vary from place to place, even in different areas of the U.S. One good site to check on for pictures is:

http://www.pitt.edu/~mcs2/herp/SoNA.html

There are many other good sites available by typing "venomous snakes" into a search engine.