Colorado4x4
Active Member
I’ve come across quite a few rattlesnakes in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico and want to hear you guys thoughts on what to do in the event you or someone else gets bitten. It scares the shit out of me to think about getting bitten, especially when me and my family are way out in the middle of nowhere.
We do quite a bit of camping outside of Moab and in the Bear’s Ears/San Juan/Elk Ridge area west of Blanding and Monticello. I carry a Garmin/Delorme Inreach with me.
My kids roam around our camp quite a bit. They’re 12 and 10 years old. Say my son gets bitten above the ankle by a rattler, my plan would be to call SOS on the Inreach and get a chopper in for him. It would be a couple hour drive from camp to Blanding and they might life flight him to Grand Junction for antivenom treatment, and I don’t know how long a 10 year old has after they get bitten before they would die. What the hell does one do?
Thankfully I haven’t seen a bunch of the little bastards but you never know and I feel like I am unprepared. I’ve read a bunch on what to do after a bite: keep victim calm, keep bite level with heart, clean bite and apply an ACE bandage like you were wrapping a sprain. Wearing leather boots is always a good idea too for protection. Our dogs always roam with the kids and honestly they are probably more likely to get bitten instead of the kids but this shit scares me.
Any thoughts?
We do quite a bit of camping outside of Moab and in the Bear’s Ears/San Juan/Elk Ridge area west of Blanding and Monticello. I carry a Garmin/Delorme Inreach with me.
My kids roam around our camp quite a bit. They’re 12 and 10 years old. Say my son gets bitten above the ankle by a rattler, my plan would be to call SOS on the Inreach and get a chopper in for him. It would be a couple hour drive from camp to Blanding and they might life flight him to Grand Junction for antivenom treatment, and I don’t know how long a 10 year old has after they get bitten before they would die. What the hell does one do?
Thankfully I haven’t seen a bunch of the little bastards but you never know and I feel like I am unprepared. I’ve read a bunch on what to do after a bite: keep victim calm, keep bite level with heart, clean bite and apply an ACE bandage like you were wrapping a sprain. Wearing leather boots is always a good idea too for protection. Our dogs always roam with the kids and honestly they are probably more likely to get bitten instead of the kids but this shit scares me.
Any thoughts?