Use common sense to treat snake bites and avoid making them worse

Scenario: You’re running out at Hill Country State Natural Area training for the Cactus Rose 100. You’re on the sotol torture trail near the Three Sisters when your left foot lands on this guy.

Or it could have been this guy.

Or this one.

It was hard to tell what brand he was because as soon he bit through your minimalist trail shoe, he disappeared under the sotol.

You should:

A. Pull out your snake bite kit and suck the venom out
B. Fashion a constricting band out of your shoelace and tie it above the bite
C. Run back to the car and get ice out of your cooler and put it on the bite
D. Pull out your cell phone and call 911
E. Finish your training run, it was probably a dry bite and you need the miles

Here’s the answer:

A. Pull out your snake bite kit and suck the venom out

Nope. The Saywer Extractor will not suck any venom out of a snake bite. Spend your $17 on something else at REI.

“At least three studies, done independently of each other and using different methodologies, arrived at the same conclusion – that the Extractor does not work for venomous snakebites and could make things worse.” This is from Paul S. Auerbach’s wilderness medicine bible, Wilderness Medicine. The Wilderness Medicine Institute also recommends against the use of extractors for snake bites. (They can be used to make fun hickey marks though.)

B. Fashion a constricting band out of your shoelace and tie it above the bite

Nope. Not for North American pit vipers. Our vipers here in North America — the rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouths/water moccasins — have a tissue destroying venom that can do more damage when it’s confined to one area with a constricting band or a tourniquet.

The limb should be immobilized. So stop running and sit or lie down.

C. Run back to the car and get ice out of your cooler and put it on the bite

Nope. First, running is just going to circulate the venom around your body more quickly. Try to keep your heart rate low by sitting still and staying calm.

Second, ice isn’t helpful. The venom can cause all sorts of vascular damage and you don’t want to do anything that would reduce blood flow to the affected tissue further. Cold can make the injury worse. So save the ice to keep the beer cold. And put your taser away. Electrotherapy will only add insult to injury.

D. Pull out your cell phone and call 911

Yup. Actually, pull out your phone and try and call the park headquarters. You’ll receive aid more quickly if your call goes directly to the rangers who have the means and know-how to get to you. Don’t know the local park headquarters’ number? Put it in your phone. Can’t get through to anybody when you call? Then call 911.

No cell reception? Have your running buddy run for help.

No running buddy? Get one.

You’re on your own because you like the solitude, you have no cell reception, and you got bitten by a snake? Dang. Walk slowly and calmly to the closest place with people. Blowing a rescue whistle is a nice way to attract attention to yourself.

E. Finish your training run, it was probably a dry bite and you need the miles

While at least a quarter of snake bites are dry and no venom is injected, and the Cactus Rose belt buckle is particularly nice, go ahead and call it a day and sit down and phone for help. And don’t let any of your running buddies try to hunt down the snake while you wait. They’ll probably just get themselves bitten and it’s not necessary to know exactly what the kind of snake it was.

Scenario continued:

You walk slowly to a clear spot, sit down, pull your phone out of your hydration pack and call the park. You look at the fang marks and notice that your foot has begun to swell.

It’s beginning to hurt more too. You wonder if you’re going to die and whether you should take your calf sleeves off.

Unlikely and yes.

7000-8000 people get bitten by venomous snakes each year in the United States. About five of those people die according to the CDC. So you’re probably not going to die from this bite.

You may experience some really unpleasant signs and symptoms though including:

• Swelling and pain
• Bruising and blister formation and later tissue death (There are all sorts of unsettling images online of these particular signs.)
• Weakness, sweating, chills
• Nausea and maybe vomiting
• Numbness and swollen lymph nodes

Since you don’t know how severe the envenomation is, you must go to the hospital immediately. You will be treated with antivenin there if necessary.

The calf sleeve and any jewelry around the bite needs to be removed. It will act like a tourniquet as the affected area continues to swell.

End of the story:

The swelling has progressed halfway up your calf when the rangers arrive and carry you down to their ATV. You express your hatred for snakes on the ride to the ranger station where an ambulance is waiting for you. Ranger Niki reminds you that you stepped on the snake and that it was just protecting itself. She starts to tell you how North American snakes are not aggressive (Feel free to send me your “I Was Chased by a Water Moccasin” stories), but sees the look on your face and thinks better of it. You are given antivenin in the hospital and discharged after two days. You PR at Cactus Rose in October.

But wait, what about this guy? The coral snake.

We’re all familiar with its red-yellow band pattern. Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black, venom lack. Interestingly the rhyme doesn’t work with South American coral snakes. Venomous coral snakes in South America can have red-black band patterns.

So, close to the Mexican border, use this rhyme: It’s a snake, don’t touch it.

You really have to work hard to get yourself bitten by a coral snake.

Read this story about the first death by a coral snake bite in the US since 1967 to see how hard you have to work at it. The first two paragraphs are beautiful.

If you do manage to get yourself bitten, (I’m talking to you, you white males in your 20s who are drunk and want to play with snakes.) the symptoms will be different, but the treatment will be the same. Stay calm. Keep the affected body part still. Call for help. A pressure bandage can also be used over a coral snake bite because the venom is a neurotoxin. But again, you’re wildly unlikely to get bitten by this snake, so I’d focus on remembering the “It’s a snake, don’t touch it” bit.

Please let me know what questions you have. And, if any of you have been bitten by a snake while running, please share your story.

– Liza Howard