My encounter with a snake...........

[Steph]

Yes, I screamed like the girl I am! I was going to unclip because I was coming up on a scary mound of dirt and I looked down and saw a snake striking at me! I don't know how I got unclipped, all I know is I dropped my bike on the snake and ran. My husband said he thought a bear was after me. We had to kill the snake because it kept going under my bike. It was very aggressive. I guess I would be too after getting ran over a couple of times. We were riding a neglected trail covered with leaves and rocks. Needless to say we hightailed it off of that trail! My husband was even freaked out and said every twig looked like a snake to him after that. I decided to do some research on snake bite first aid today. Believe it or not, I haven't really even thought about them in the two months we've been riding. The whole time I was praying for our safety and for me not to fall for a change. Well, I didn't fall off my bike and obtain a single bruise today and God protected me from getting bitten by an ankle eating reptile! BTW, we don't know what kind it is because it crawled away and died. Neither of us wanted to go pick it up or get close enough to see. It was gray with black diamond designs trimmed in a lighter color with no rattler. Very well camouflaged.

[chickwhorips]

wow! i'm glad your ok and nothing happened to you.

that is one thing i was afraid of when i lived in phoenix was snakes. took me forever to break the habit of looking on the ground here for them. now i make sure to look up and around for larger creatures.

wonder if nanci has any idea what kind of snake it was.... oh nanci....?

[Artisan]

Yikes, I would have screamed like a girl too! We go to an area that warns about alligators... I hope I never run across one, I wouldn't know what to do. We are going to start doing adventure racing next year, I think I'll join you on the research on snake bites first aid care, it could come in handy. I'm glad you did not get bitten.

[CyclChyk]

Steph, what state are you in? Could it have been a Diamondback? There are a few different "varieties" of this snake but it matches your description. They are not poisonous. Scary as all heck, and pack a mean bite tho.....

[fatbottomedgurl]

You RAN HIM OVER? Poor snake, I would snap too! We came up on a huge rattlesnake last week. Big around as my forearm and over 4' long. The business end of him was in the brush so we couldn't tell how big of a beast he was. Thankfully my friend in the lead stopped in time as we were on singletrack and no way to go around. We waited patiently for him to cross before we went on our way...

[rocknrollgirl]

YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

scream, run, throw the bike....

YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nanci]

She said it didn't have a rattle, so it couldn't be a Diamondback Rattlesnake. (A lot of snakes _can_ rattle their tail even though they don't have a rattle, and do a very convincing rattler imitation!)

Could be a Grey Ratsnake, although they are not aggressive, or a Bullsnake. It is very unlikely that this was a venomous snake. It's probably better to wait for the snake to leave, or to remove it gently from the area with a long stick, than to kill it, which is likely illegal.

*****************

Snake venom poisoning first aid these days is wrap the bite lightly and get to a hospital for antivenin. Wrap with elastic bandage, (not tightly!) splint to immobilize, and rewrap the entire area.

Do not use a commercial snakebite kit- this only causes further damage. Do not cut open the wound and attempt to extract or suck out or squeeze out the venom. Do not ice the wound, although an icepack on the forehead may relieve the severe nausea that is often associated with venom poisoning. (This is relatively important if possible- the victim may otherwise vomit violently enough to start bleeding.)

Do not apply a tourniquet or attempt to cut off circulation.

Remove rings or shoes before swelling makes that difficult.

The great majority of the several thousand snakebites that occur in the US involve non-venomous snakes. All you need then is a tetanus shot. Because venomous snakes have control over whether or not they inject their toxins during a bite, envenomation doesn't always occur. 15% of the time in a bite from a pit viper (all poisonous snakes in the US except the Coral Snake) no venom is injected, and superficial envenomation is much more common than severe poisoning. Less than half of Coral Snake bites result in severe poisoning. Less than 1% of people who are bitten by a (native) venomous snake actually die.

From the moment venom enters the body it is almost instantly incorporated into the tissues surrounding its entry puncture. After more than a few seconds, it is no more removeable than ink dripped on a wet sponge. Because of this initial rapid bonding, most of the components of the toxin are no longer free to circulate, and beyond the general vicinity of the bite, they tend to disperse rather slowly throughout the rest of the body. The majority of the peptides and enzymes in the venom are there to predigest tissue, not to kill. This is very painful and can only be stopped by antivenin administered in a hospital.

Of the Florida poisonous snakes, no one has died from a Copperhead in the past ten years. 308 bites. Less than one person per year dies from a Cottonmouth bite. Pigmy Rattlers, like the Copperhead, do not have enough venom for a fatal dose to an adult. Timber Rattlers and Eastern Diamondback Rattlers both can deliver a lethal dose, though they almost never do. Diamondbacks are typically not aggressive. In a field study in Florida a biologist visited transmittered snakes 743 times, and was rattled at only nine times, and never struck at. The Coral Snake is shy and so nonaggressive that it poses no danger to humans if not handled. It can deliver a fatal dose of poison.

[Nanci]

Oh, and you don't need to kill the snake and bring it to the hospital with you- the antivenins they have now work on all pitviper venom, and the other kind of antivenin is for Coral Snakes.

The Antivenin Index, compiled by the Arizona Poison Center, has a list of all antivenins stored in the US, including foreign species. 24 hour number (602) 626-6016.