A friend of mine was out in the woods here last weekend, camping out and doing some shooting on a rural piece of property with friends. He was running through the woods and got bit by
something. Over that day and the next, it swelled, pain increased, and the venom damage began to spread down into his foot. He went to the doctor who identified it as a snakebite, most likely a copperhead, and put him on a strong antibiotic to fight the risk of infection from the bite. Interestingly, the doctor at the VA hospital told him that since he'd made it through the first day or so, the antivenin wasn't necessary, and they didn't have any on hand anyway! Now, four days later, the bite damage is virtually gone with just the entry point still red and visible. The picture to the right was when he was on his way to the hospital. You can see the two little bite marks about 2 inches above the anklebone.
Man that sucks. I hope he heals up. I was checking a small lake the other day to see if the water level was back up and passed by a copperhead that had been ran over earlier in the day. Got watch out for em.
ReplyDeleteNot that I spend much time worrying about them, but my awareness has gone up of how easy it would be to get bit hiking around, especially off-trail. I guess I found it somewhat reassuring to hear a firsthand account of a bite where he was able to fight off the effects of it pretty much on his own. The human body is pretty tough. A rattlesnake, the other one we have a lot of around here, would have been another matter...
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