If you get bit, there are four rules when dealing with venomous snakebites, follow these immediately no matter what kind of snake bite it is:
http://www.airsoftica.com/airsoft/snake-safety-airsoft.html1. Call for help. Get someone’s attention and let them know you’ve been bitten. Someone should call 911 immediately and tell them you’ve been bitten, they will direct you to the nearest place to get treatment, which may or may not be a hospital. If you are out in the middle of nowhere, often a vet is the nearest place, because dogs and horses get bit more often than people do, so country vets usually stock antivenom/antivenin for local species, and they are perfectly capable of treating you. The saying with snakes, although it is usually applied to cytotoxic or hemotoxic venom, is “Time is tissue”. The more time passes before treatment, the more tissue is damaged by the venom, so immediate attention is critical.
2. DO NOT cut open the bite and try to suck the venom out, it causes more damage than it fixes, and depending on the snake and venom, you may be envenomating your lips and gums as well. DO NOT put a tourniquet on the limb, again, you’ll cause more problems than you’ll fix. Apply pressure to stop bleeding only if it continues for several minutes after the bite. The initial bleeding will help to flush some of the venom out, so let it bleed for a few minutes before trying to stop it. You won’t bleed out from a couple tiny punctures. Do not do anything else to the wound, wait for qualified medical help. Putting hydrogen peroxide or iodine on the wound is a waste of time, because the bacteria that may or may not have gotten into the wound are the least of your worries if the snake was venomous. It is useful, however, to observe the wound. Venomous snake bites will have two obviously larger tooth marks on the top and towrds the front. If all the tooth marks are the same size, chances are, you were bit by a harmless snake. Venomous snakes try not to hook you with their other teeth when striking defensively, so often a venomous strike will only have two tooth marks on the top. Non-venomous snakes leave a row of evenly sized, evenly spaced tooth marks when they bite.
3. Stay calm and move steadily and deliberately towards a vehicle, where you should stay as still and calm as possible while someone takes you to get treatment. Running and freaking out causes your heart to race, and if the venom is in your bloodstream, you’re only speeding up the rate that the venom moves through your body. I know that’s easier said than done, from direct experience, but the calmer you can stay, the less damage is caused by the venom.
4. Try to remember as much about the appearance and location of the snake as possible while waiting to get medical attention. Where was the snake? Near water, in a tree, under a pile of rocks? All of these are clues to what kind of snake it was. What was the snake’s overall color? Black, brown, red, yellow, etc. Was there a discernible pattern on it? Checkers, diamonds, stripes, etc. And did it have a rattle? The more you can tell them about the snake, the faster they can take care of you. Giving the wrong antivenom can actually be worse than giving you none at all.
If you can kill the snake without getting envenomated again, or without someone else getting envenomated, kill it. Take it with you to the hospital, it will help to take the guesswork out of treatment. As someone who keeps snakes as pets, I don’t condone killing snakes without good reason, but when human life or limb can be saved by killing a snake, crush that suckers head with a rock and take it with you. Be very careful transporting a dead venomous snake, they can still envenomate you. Put it in tupperware if possible, or some kind of bag if not, and be careful with it.
I’d recommend taking a picture with a camera or phone, but the chances that someone has a camera ready at the time are slim. If you can, though, photos or video of the snake are just as good as the snake itself, and are better in the fact that you don’t have to come into contact with the animal again. If someone can pin it down with a long stick so you can takle pictures, that would be best. If no camera is readily available and the snake gets away, try to remember as much detail about it as possible.
