Got bitten by a snake.

IKE

IKE

Well-known Member
Location
Oklahoma....U.S.A.
About an hour ago in shorts and flip flops I was out back watering mama's flower and herb beds, with a watering wand attached to a hose, before the sun came up good to beat the heat. I was watering her thick mint bed and noticed a couple of weeds so I bent down to pull it and immediately felt a bite on my forefinger and when I pulled my hand out of the bed I saw that I had a snake attached to my finger......it was about 12 to 14 inches long and about the diameter of my little finger.

I shook my hand violently a couple of times and it landed dazed in the yard a few feet from me and I had a few very small / pin size holes oozing a hardly noticeable amount of blood.

By now my mind was racing 100 mph and I knew that I had to ID the snake to see if it was venomous or not so I'm looking around for a long stick to help catch it with but didn't see one so I started unscrewing the aprox. 3' watering wand from the hose which still had water running through it and naturally I got drenched.

I took the wand and pinned the snakes head down and grasp him behind the head and picked him up to look at him......judging by the shape of the head and his round eye pupils I was pretty much certain that it wasn't venomous so I carried him about 150 yds. or so from the house and let it go in a large overgrown field.

After releasing it I finished watering the flowers and herb beds then rolled up the hose and came inside for a cup of coffee and change out of my wet shorts......knowing that she would have a fit I never said nothing to mama, I just gave her a goodbye peck and let her go to work.

Now from looking on the computer it appears that the snake was a fairly common and non-venomous 'brown snake'.

Even as a kid I never have been afraid of snakes and through the years I caught many of them here and overseas that were both posionous and non-posionus and released them.......as a kid I remember taking them to school to scare the little girls.

Hopefully that will be the most exciting thing that will happen to me today. :)
 

That's one of the reasons that I was glad to move off our acreage. I'm very phobic about snakes and it seemed like the last couple years, they were looking for me (in groups sometimes:playful:) just so they could watch me scream and run for the other side of the yard! Doesn't matter if they are the teeniest baby snake in the world, I'm gone. Now, no snakes in an apartment:)!
 
Thank goodness it wasn't venomous, IKE!

Where I live, we have rattlesnakes and copperheads, especially since it's so dry lately. They seem to be heading for the stream behind our property. I'm always on the lookout for them when walking or doing stuff in our yard.
 
It's a good idea to note what species of snakes may be present in your area, and be aware of what they look like, etc. Most snakes are beneficial, and harmless, but a chance encounter with a poisonous variety can be dangerous.

We have a few black snakes and garter snakes on our property, and I keep an eye out for them when mowing, etc., and move them out of the way. They keep us "mouse free", so I don't mind them. However, we also get an occasional Copperhead...and I give those a wide berth.
 
QuickSilver said:
You still need a tetanus shot if you are not up to date.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/snakebite?print=true
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I just got off the phone with the Minor Emer. Clinic and after pulling up my records they determined that my last shot was almost six years ago when a buddy of mine shot a nail into my hand with a nail gun while we were building him a outside shed......he became a 'EX' buddy shortly thereafter. :)

Anyway, they said that the shots are good for ten years but it's best to get a booster after five years if you get any sort of puncture wound and that it needs to be done before 36 hours have passed.

I've got a couple of errands to run shortly and I'll stop and get a booster afterwards.

Thanks for the tip QS, I honestly would never have thought about a Tetanus shot.
 
I don't like snakes at all. Good or bad. I've seen a couple of Garter snakes in our yard from time to time and just give them their space. I feel the same way about spiders, I think they can be more dangerous then the snakes sometimes.
 
Disclaimer here: If you are afraid of snakes, don't watch this. Manitoba, Canada apparently has more snakes than anywhere in the world 'in one spot'. This video shows what happens when they start warming up after the winter.



Actually, it makes my numerous experiences with 'groups' of snakes look pathetic by comparison!
 
So glad it wasn't poisonous Ike! We get snakes in our yard too, garden, bull and some rattlers. We only kill the rattlers. I'm not too afraid of snakes, I've held a couple of pet snakes when I was younger that my friend had. But I like them on the ground. My husband said that one day when he was home alone, he was sitting outside on a lawn chair under one of our pine trees, and next to him came down a snake from the tree. He moved his chair, but didn't kill it because it wasn't poisonous. :D

My dog was bit in the yard years ago by a snake, seemed to have caught his leg by surprise, because he knew to avoid them. He started holding up his leg and limping. We got him in the house and shaved some fur off to get a closer look, and sure enough it was a snake bite. We never did see the snake to verify, but we figured and the vets agreed it was a rattlesnake.

He quickly started panting, drooling and breathing heavy, we rushed him to the emergency hospital and they gave him anti-venom and put him on IVs overnight. When we picked him up in the morning he was back to his old self. Here's a picture of a baby snake I saw when I was out on a walk one day behind my house on a paved trail.

attachment.php
 
I went and got the Tetanus booster and other than being just a little red in one spot my finger seems to be fine.......the four yellow jacket stings I got a few weeks ago while trimming shrubs felt and looked considerably worse afterwards.

Jeez, with all I've had going on physically the past several months you'd think someone put a curse on me or something........c'mon fess up Shali was it you ? :)

Some here may remember the cartoon strip Li'l Abner with the fella that constantly had bad luck and that always had the cloud over his head named Joe Btfsplk.......I'm starting to relate.
 
IKE said:
I went and got the Tetanus booster and other than being just a little red in one spot my finger seems to be fine.......the four yellow jacket stings I got a few weeks ago while trimming shrubs felt and looked considerably worse afterwards.
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I got bit by 2 yellow jackets last year, they hurt for a short time but itched like crazy for a couple of weeks. I always end up scratching my skin off with bug bites/stings. Pumped myself full of Benedryl, but didn't seem to help.
 
SeaBreeze said:
I got bit by 2 yellow jackets last year, they hurt for a short time but itched like crazy for a couple of weeks. I always end up scratching my skin off with bug bites/stings. Pumped myself full of Benedryl, but didn't seem to help.
Click to expand...

I shouldn't even be telling this but do you wanna hear a critter itching story SB ?

Several years back (my mid 30's) I had access to a private farm with a few ponds that had some pretty good fishing in them. Well real early one Saturday morning mama and I went fishing there, she packed a lunch and drinks and away we went.

We fished from around daybreak till noon and stopped for lunch......I spread a blanket on the tall grass under a big tree, we ate and then one thing led to another and we ended up fooling around.

All was well till about 1:00 a.m. the next morning and I woke up itching badly all over and had little red spots on me everywhere.......CHIGGER BITES ! !.......for some reason mama never got bit once but I had a very miserable few days.

The moral of the story ?........save the hanky panky for the bedroom and definitely keep your britches on when in the outdoors. :)
 
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Glad you're okay Ike, that must have been disturbing to say the least. When we lived in Florida the wildlife was everywhere...lizards in the mail box daily and the odd snake that would appear in our living room. I'm not afraid of them, I just love rodents instead. Where we are now there are garden snakes that become cat toys...not venomous though thank goodness:eek:
 

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