Snake Season: what would you do?

[Jody]

So you're hiking alone and get bitten by a cotton mouth. What would you do?

[JTarver]

I would hang out in the woods, slap the snake around a bit, and drink whisky to thin my blood. Cause thas how I roll!!!

Actually, I would make my way to the nearest trustworthy hospital. The problem with cotton mouths isn't so much the venom, but the bacterial infection that is often almost impossible to treat. Fun fact: You have approximately a 50/50 chance of losing the limb that gets bitten by a cottonmouth, simply due to bacterial infection problems.

I don't handle them nearly as much as I used to. Especially since I found that out.

Wait til breeding season really kicks off in summer, then they get really nasty.
Joe

[RomanLA]

The first thing I would do is clean the bite location and take some benadryl. My next move would depend on my proximity to medical help. If it's an easy hike out, then I would head for town. If I'm out on a multi-day trip, I'd just try to stay calm and more than likely use my SPOT to signal for a rescue. By the way, adult snakes often won't inject venom...they'd rather save it for their food. Baby snakes are scared, so they tend to dump everything they've got!

[Roger]

Ask Billy Williams. He's got first leg experience!

[DeBo]

The problem with cotton mouths isn't so much the venom, but the bacterial infection that is often almost impossible to treat. Joe

Infection is a problem with cottonmouths because they are carrion eaters. Venom of other snakes and even the saliva of nonvenomous snakes( to a much lesser extent) has anticoagulant properties that cause bites to bleed and wash out contaminents. I have been bitten many times(nonvenomous) while catching snakes and never needed to treat the bite at all.

As for a cottonmouth bite, I would wash it out and go to a good hospital for observation. The latest intell on these bites is to never cut or try to suck out venom or use a tournequet or ice. Cutting increases the chance of infection, sucking can get harmful things in your mouth if you have a cut. Compression and ice cause worse problems with necrosis of extremities later on and all of these things waste time which is better spent getting to proper medical care.

I love Cottonmouths. They are awesome creatures which deserve our respect!

[walter]

if your deep in the woods you probably wount see too many cotton mouths, rattlers and copperheads maybe.cotton mouths like to hang out around swamps, rivers. carry a snake bite kit with you

[jboyd]

I would scream like a 9 year old little girl and then faint.

but that's just me

[Butch Crain]

I have it on good authority that I levitate in the presence of cottonmouths and therefore never get bit.

Tell the truth Debo, you'd knit the poor little feller a sweater with some nice shoulder pads, and offer it an after dinner mint.

[davidbob]

So you're hiking alone and get bitten by a cotton mouth. What would you do?

I put the question to a medical professional - the following ensued:

Dr Cindybob: "Kill it?"
Me: "You can't do that."
Dr. Cindybob: "Why not?
Me: "Debo, Cowper and Chester would get pissed off."
Dr. Cindybob: "Who are Debo, Cowper and Chester?"
Me: "Nevermind. What would you do if a Cottonmouth bit you?
Dr. Cindybob: "Is a Cottonmouth poisonous?"
Me: "You don't get out much do you."
Dr. Cindybob: "I'd call poison contol."
Me: "From the river bank?"
Dr. Cindybob: "Well. I'm not a snake doctor."

(note to Jody: If a Cottonmouth bites you, it better bite you in the hoo ha if Dr. Cindybob is your doctor)

[Eztouche]

Just an aside about the critters. Some years ago I was at one of the float camps on the river above Lake Ouachita. Someone had dumped a bucket of dead minnows right on the river bank with some in the river. You would have thought the cottonmouths were having a family reunion. They were all around in and out of the water. There is a lesson to be learned there somewhere.

[jermdog]

Pretend like I'd taken the brown acid and ride it out man. Just ride it out.

[Cowper]

You could buy a pair of these:

https://www.uplanders.com/home.php?dr=p ... 9-1&cid=37#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[davidbob]

Question, Cowper (and other snakeophiles). ARG got invited on a Selway trip this summer. You know how much Cap'n D and I hate to sleep in a tent. He says he will because of the rattler "issue" on the Selway.

Now, assume that it was you or Debo instead of me who hated to sleep in a tent on the one hand, but wasn't exactly wild about the possibility of waking up in a sleeping bag full of shoulderless friends on the other. WWDD? WWCD?

[jermdog]

http://www.gamespite.net/talkingtime/ar ... -2996.html Sorry, but I found this and it's funny.

[Cowper]

WWDD? WWCD?

A cot changes the odds significantly in favor of sleeping critter-free, at least as far as shoulderless friends and scorpions goes. So on warm nights, this:



And on nights with rain showers, but not the "all night" rain, this: