My wife and I were married 15 years ago. After our wedding we went to the Badlands to ride. Since then we have gone back there every year on our anniversary. This year will be one to remember for sure. Last week we bought a "new to us" living quarters trailer. We decided to update and leave our redneck LQ back home. Prior to this trip I used to board up the slots in the front compartment of our gooseneck stock trailer, wash out the front end, put a mattress in the gooseneck and enjoy the ride.

The riding was good as was the camp. Plenty of good friends around and plenty of good conversations. Friday turned out to be different. About noon I got bit by a rattlesnake and after a 10 mile ride back to camp, I ended up getting hauled 60 miles to a hospital. They tossed me in and had me hooked up to all kinds of tubes and machines. They even had me wear one of those funky gowns that get drafty in the back. That night a hailstorm rolled through our camp and dropped baseball sized hail stones for about 20 minutes. You all can about imagine what our new trailer looks like. Good thing my wife drove our pickup to the hospital otherwise it would have taken a pounding.

They cut me loose from the hospital on Sat. and the dr told me that I have to be a lazy b*stard for the next 10-14 days to get me healed up from the venom. That my friends will be more painful than the bite itself. It is also good to still be above the grass.

Wow NW you know how to end a week. Glad to hear your OK.

Well, tell us about how you lost the argument with the snake

We riding on the side of a clay butte. I was in the lead and when I got to the top I could hear one buzzing. I got off to find it to add the hide to my collection. Another guy also got off and when we found it he helped to coax it out of the hole. We got it out and he was standing on its head. I told him to cut the head off but he didn't have a knife. I got mine and reached down to do the cutting. He thought I was done and took his foot off as I was reaching down to cut. The snake then struck at my hand and got my finger. I have cut the heads off of hundreds of rattlers in my life but I always have had my foot on the snake's head. This is the first and last time I will be part of a joint effort. If there ever is a joint effort again, I will hand the knife to the guy holding the snake. I just want that hide to hang on my wall, the hide of the snake that bit me.

Sorry to hear about your demise there NW, glad you are feeling better.
Just curious, how fo you cure yur snake skins? I've cured a few using antifreeze, worked great.

So glad you are ok, but you are also very lucky. Sounds like the snake won the battle, but you won the war. Personally, when I run across rattlers, I go the OTHER way, I don't step on their heads! You might also want to think about wearing leather gloves on your next trophy.

Did you have to show the snake before the Dr treated you?

Years ago (many years ago) we were on a fishing backpacking trip in NM and ran across a young man who was bite on the finger by a mountain rattler. He was crossing a stream and the snake was in the water, wrapped around his leg and when he went to flick him off, it nailed him. He had the good sense to snag the snake with his lure. When he finally got to the hospital (after having to walk out about 3 miles) the Dr’s wanted to see the snake to understand what snake serum to give him.

Also, really sorry about your trailer. Hopefully the insurance will cover it. What about your horses? Were they out in the hail storm too?

Also, Congratulations to you and your wife on your 15th yr anniversary. It should be interesting to see how you can top that for your 20th!

I was bitten on my left index finger about 15 years ago. I nearly lost that finger and part of that hand but luckily a specialist was right across the street from the hospital I was in, She saved me big time. It took me several months to recover. I stll have some stiffness and loss of sensationin that finger. Danged sure not like in the movies.

1. M-B I have bought commercial reptile tanning solutions but I think green antifreeze works better.

2. C-R-H I only wear gloves to keep my hands warm. I don't own a pair of summer weight gloves and have no intententions of buying any. Gloves wouldn't have prevented this bite. I didn't have to take it to the dr, I knew what it was. The ER dr came in and said she had never been around a rattlesnake bite before. She then said she was from NYC originally and had never even seen a rattlesnake. Sorry if I am old fashioned but never send me a dr that doesn't have the professionalism to remove her nose ring when she is seeing patients. The ER nurse ranches with her husband in the Badlands and is well versed in the language of rattlesnake. I felt more at ease when they brought in the on call dr. He showed up in Wranglers and boots.

Doctors with nose rings?? OMG ... you'd think she'd have common sense, but maybe that'll come with time. Amazing what a difference appearances make, huh? Maybe some of the staff will eventually clue her in.

I'd sure have a hard time trusting a ringbedecked Dr, the one in jeans and boots is more down to earth and would seem more trustworthy. at least if looks mean anything. I'd probably totally refuse to go anyway, instead grab some plantain leaves, chew em up and plaster them on. (broad leaf or english plantain) if they arn't availible I'd powder some charcoal from the closest campfire, mix with water to make a black paste and plaster that on. either one will pull poisen out. The plantain does it a bit better. plain old clay will work too, the sticker the better.
A self supporting medical missionary we knew told us about treating a man with centapede bite in the tropics, (they're as bad as a rattlesnake)
the mans whole body was swelling up and he'd die without doing something fast. he had nothing to work with so stirred up the mud in a creek bank and buried the man in it up to his neck. It pulled the poisen out and saved him.
every time i get a bee sting I just grab the closest plantain leaf chaw it up a bit and hold it on a few minutes, and the poisen is mostly gone.
My old draft horse has a sore foot from standing in wet manure in hot weather. I just picked a whole bunch of plantain and chewed it up in a blender, used a truck innertube for a boot and hes stading in that for a day, always pulls the infection right out.

Good advise if a person happens to live in the tropics or south of the Mason Dixon. The hospital and the anti venom was closer than plantain leaves. The Badlands where we were riding is semi arid and this year was extremely dry. Don't think we all could have spit enough to make a mud pack. It is also impotant to remenber that this took place in ND, our tree removal project was completed many years ago. No such thing as coals from a campfire where we were at. If we would of had a campfire I would have been in jail for that and I wouldn't have gotten bit.

yes, in such a situation ya just do whatever's the fastest remedy, It's just that most people arn't aware of all the posible remedies and it's a good idea to know them. So ya arn't ignorantly running right past a good cure trying to get to a not quite so good one further away.
I've been out in the desert and looked for posible remedies for accedents, and sometimes they're few and far between.