Snake Bit: Woman Meets Copperhead
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
Snakes are shy, and not likely to slither about in the open. Even so, human and snake encounters do occur – even in backyards. To minimize unpleasant consequences from chance meetings, experts advise us to: wear boots, watch our step, keep our lawns mowed, and if we see a snake –don’t play with it.
The one thing that I did manage to do was not play with the snake.
Robyn Gammill is a stay at home mom and freelance writer living in rural Caldwell County. She shared her snake bite story in the March issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.
For some reason, I was checking on the chickens – I think we might have had new chicks. And I remember about a third of the way across the yard looking at the sky and thinking, ‘I sure hope I don’t get bitten this time.’ And right about that time, I got bitten by a snake, which felt exactly like being bitten by a cat. So, I had no idea what had happened at first. And I turned around to look, and sure enough, it was not my cat. It was a copperhead…who was ready to bite again by the looks of him.
Robyn got help quickly, which included an anti-venom injection and an overnight hospital stay…which proved costly.
It was just over forty-thousand dollars. And when I cracked open the envelope, I started laughing. I thought surely this must be some huge mistake. I was expecting, you know, three-thousand…five-thousand. But, the anti-venom is really expensive; and the anti-venom treatment alone was thirty-six thousand dollars.
Which was another painful bite…
That’s our show for today…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti