KILL THE DANG SNAKE FIRST - Then go seek medical attention. The below article sums up how I feel about snakes.
Trooper bitten by snake shoots his way out of rattlesnake jam
By Ed Kemmick, of Montana Lee Newspapers - 06/09/2007
Montana Highway Patrolman Steve Wisniewski poses for a photo, Wednesday near his home in Boyd. The Columbus-based trooper was working last Saturday when he was asked by the Bozeman office of the Highway Patrol to check on reports of an oversize load coming his way. About 8 p.m., a mile east of the Columbus exit on Interstate 90, Wisniewski pulled over a Suburban pulling half a mobile home. He was supposed to get a photograph of the load, so he walked with his camera up a slope to the fence. He heard a hissing sound, looked down and saw a rattlesnake making a lunge for his leg and deliver a bite. Paul Ruhter / The Billings Gazette.
BILLINGS ? As much as Montana Highway Patrolman Steve Wisniewski would like to have shot the rattlesnake that sank its fangs into him Saturday night, he had no time for revenge.
??I didn't get the snake that got me,?? he said. ??I shot the one that was in the way of me getting out. In the Army they call it plowing the road.??
The Columbus-based trooper was working last Saturday when he was asked by the Bozeman office of the Highway Patrol to check on reports of an oversize load coming his way. About 8 p.m., a mile east of the Columbus exit on Interstate 90, Wisniewski pulled over a Suburban pulling half a mobile home.
He was supposed to get a photograph of the load, so he walked with his camera up a slope to the fence. He heard a hissing sound, looked down and saw a rattlesnake making a lunge for his leg.
Wisniewski, 40, jumped back, dodging that strike, but landed on another snake. That rattler, and another one right next to it, both struck at Wisniewski?s left leg. One hit his boot and the other struck flesh just above the boot.
Wisniewski was making tracks toward the highway when he saw yet another rattlesnake directly in front of him. His first thought was to jump over that snake.
??Then I thought, that would really leave me exposed, if you know what I mean.??
That's when he pulled his .357 automatic pistol and squeezed off two shots. The first shot killed the snake and the second one missed.
When the snake struck his leg, he said, ??It felt like somebody rapping me with a stick.??
A couple of seconds later, it felt like somebody was pouring hot grease on the spot. He said he saw four or five snakes, all of a few feet long.
Wisniewski ran back to the road and told the people with the Suburban to get into the vehicle. Once inside his patrol car, Wisniewski contacted dispatch and reported what happened. The dispatcher sent out a reserve sheriff?s deputy to take Wisniewski to Stillwater Community Hospital in Columbus, and the deputy arrived within minutes.
Wisniewski, a 13-year veteran of the patrol, said he made the deputy wait while he finished dealing with the driver of the Suburban. He said he wrote him a citation and ordered him to stay in Columbus until he'd obtained a truck big enough to legally transport the mobile home. Then the deputy thought it was time to go.
??It was burning right where it bit me, and I guess I was sweating really bad,?? Wisniewski said. ??And the deputy told me, ?Boy, you're really pale.??? Wisniewski was at the hospital within 15 minutes of being struck by the snake, and they soon had him hooked up to a couple of intravenous lines. They did blood work and had him connected to monitors.
??The treatment was almost as bad as the bite,?? he said.
There wasn?t much pain, he said, but he was nauseous and sweating and he never did get to sleep. About midnight, when his vital signs started fluctuating, showing that he had been hit with venom and had not suffered a ??dry bite,?? he was treated with antivenin. He was released Sunday morning and returned to work on Monday.
Wisniewski said he heard lots of ??snake lore?? while he was in the hospital. He was told that snakes tend to bunch up in the spring but their venom is weaker than it would be in the summer. His own theory is that he startled the snake as badly as it startled him and it didn't get a good shot at him.
??I don't think the snake gave me a good solid bite,?? he said.
Back at work Monday, Wisniewski took part in a quarterly qualifying target shoot with other troopers. He didn't do as well as he normally did, he said, but he figures that was less the result of the snake bite than the lack of sleep. He also had to endure some ribbing. His fellow troopers wanted to know why he managed to kill only one snake.
Wisniewski?s supervisor, Sgt. Pete O?Loughlin, has been with the Highway Patrol for 26 years and said he'd never heard of a trooper being bitten by a snake. He took the long view of the incident.
??Well,?? he said, ??a guy?s gotta have memories, you know.??