Strange news about a snake bite.

I grew up in rural Virginia during the 50's and snakes were pretty common, yet I don't remember ever hearing of anyone being bitten. We only had one type of snake, the dreaded Copperbackrattlemoccasin, usually referred to as a (blank) snake. I suppose some of them might have actually been dangerous, but my mother taught me to leave the snakes (and skink lizards, she was scared of the lizards) alone, and I was more scared of her than I was the snakes and lizards.
 
I got bit by a rattlesnake once. Didn;t know it was a rattler until he struck. He had just one little kernel of rattle left on him.

He bit my hand, but I was wearing gloves, and the fangs left two little red dots on the webbing of my hand. He barely poked through my glove (bicycle gloves).

He didn't inject me as I would have got very sick and possibly would have died. This happened at a public park that was in a forested area. Gotta watch out for snakes on mountain bike trails, ust like cougars and bears.
 
A friend was in Louisiana and was struck in the ankle by a copperhead. What was odd was that he only had one puncture wound from one fang. I puzzled this out in my brain till I came up with a logical cause. I finally figured it out. This happened in the deep south where half to adult men and a third of the adult females don't have a full set of front teeth. So, it would figure that their snakes don't either. My friend in essence got bit by a redneck snake.
That's how you know the toothbrush was invented in Tennessee. Anywhere else they would have called it a teethbrush.
 
Never been bitten, but I've had a few close calls.

Once at our gun club I was setting up steel silhouette targets to knock them down again, when my son yelled, "Look out!" I hadn't seen it, but just as I moved my foot a diamondback struck at it. Fortunately he missed. It was a hot day, and I guess the snake was enjoying the shade under the target rail that we set the silhouettes on. Somebody was watching over me that day. I not only didn't see the snake, but I was wearing tennis shoes that day instead of my usual leather boots.
 
Never saw your links, but I bet this was one of them.

Snake Bite Kit

Here you go, links below

No offense intended toward you, but as a 40+ year Paramedic, I need to make clear that "Snake Bite Kits" are NOT effective, nor are they recommended

Please do NOT waste your money, and time, on these harmful/useless "kits", which can delay access to PROPER care for the victim

To provide some reference, I will include some links....



 
In my post on the first page of this thread, I mentioned that because the snake only had one fang and was from the south it must have been a redneck snake. I know what I am talking about. I was born in the deep south. I got my first permanent tooth knocked out at age 6 and have had a false front tooth since first grade. Though I arrived in the mountains as a very young age, my city relatives refer to me as either the hillbilly or redneck from the mountains. Living a reclusive life at the Continental Divide, my home is often a destination for city dwellers. Our spare bedroom is known as the Hillbilly Hilton and any family or friends gather is known as a Redneck Rendezvous.
 
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I'm not particularly afraid of snakes but this one gives me shivers!
Diamondback. Texas mid 70's.
WOW! My dad worked with Surveying crews on Florida's Kissimmee Prarie in the 1920s. He had pictures of guys holding what he called "Rattlesnakes". They were skinnier than the one the guy is holding, but about as long. There was another guy called "Trapper Nelson" near where I grew up. He had about a half-dozen of the largest Rattlesnake skins I have ever seen on his walls. I often wondered if they could have been stretched, because they appeared to be as large as some of the Pythons now found in Florida.
 
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Never saw your links, but I bet this was one of them.

Snake Bite Kit
Growing up in Florida, I remember those being very prevalent when I was in the Boy Scouts in the '50s. It took a while for them to die out; probably because of better information. I also remember the advice in the then current Boy Scout Manual to place a tourniquet above the wound site, cut X-shaped incisions over the fang holes, THEN suck the venom out! :sick: . (EVERYBODY carried sanitizing materials for the knife blade in their pack) Yeah, right! Thankfully, I never had to use mine, or have one used on me!
 
I also remember the advice in the then current Boy Scout Manual to place a tourniquet above the wound site, cut X-shaped incisions over the fang holes, THEN suck the venom out! :sick: . (EVERYBODY carried sanitizing materials for the knife blade in their pack) Yeah, right! Thankfully, I never had to use mine, or have one used on me!

I remember hearing the same thing. :)

As per Google:
  • Don't apply a tourniquet. This will cause more damage. It actually worsens your outcome and makes it more likely that you could lose your arm and or leg. That is because it keeps all of the toxin in one place and gives it more time to cause damage. It also cuts off blood supply to any healthy tissue, causing more damage.
  • Don't try to suck the venom out. Doing this will only introduce infection and cause more damage.
 
WOW! My dad worked with Surveying crews on Florida's Kissimmee Prarie in the 1920s. He had pictures of guys holding what he called "Rattlesnakes". They were skinnier than the one the guy is holding, but about as long. There was another guy called "Trapper Nelson" near where I grew up. He had about a half-dozen of the largest Rattlesnake skins I have ever seen on his walls. I often wondered if they could have been stretched, because they appeared to be as large as some of the Pythons now found in Florida.
Eastern diamondbacks are the largest rattlesnake species in the US, but even they rarely exceed 7 feet in length. I think there are a few documented examples just under 8 feet. Nothing larger than that.
 

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