With Summer Comes Snake Bites

There is ample supply of rattlesnake anti-venom, but it's expensive, about $1,200 a vial, Bernstein said. And a nasty bite could take 18 or so vials to clear.

But anti-venom is not always needed. "When someone is bitten, we use the 'snake bite severity scoring index.' We have a protocol that allows us to put a number to the bite," Gore explained. "We don't give the anti-venom until the score reaches a certain number."

Those with less severe bites get supportive care in the form of pain relievers, Benadryl and other measures, to get the patients comfortable.

Most snakes are shy. "Every snake really would like to avoid you," Gore said.

Unfortunately, inebriated young men stumbling out of a bar aren't so shy. "The majority of patients are male. The majority are intoxicated," Bernstein said. "And two-thirds of bites we see in this country are upper extremity, so someone picked the snake up. The majority of bites in other countries are lower extremity."

"Don't touch the snakes," he added. "You have to remember that you are larger than anything these snakes would go after as a meal. When people get bitten by snakes, it's almost always in self-defense."

More information

Visit the Rattlesnake Museum for more on rattlers, their venom and their bites.

SOURCES: Jeffrey Bernstein, M.D., medical director, Florida Poison Information Center, University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital; Garry Gore, M.D., assistant professor, Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, co-director, Leadership in Medicine Program Emergency Medicine, St. Joseph Regional Health Center, and emergency medicine physician, College Station Medical Center, Texas