Snake Bites on the Rise in Central Texas: If you’re bit by a snake, DO NOT bring the snake with you to the hospital

There are a lot of snakes in Texas. Luckily, most of them are not venomous. Here in the Austin area the only venomous snakes are the Western diamondback rattlesnake and the Texas coral snake. With an occasional water moccasin on some of the rivers. And if you start traveling East of here, you’ll start running into Copperheads, too.

We’ve caught several coral snakes in our yard, but they’re relatively harmless because it’s hard for one to actually bite you anywhere meaningful.

Anyhow, the number of snake bites in the area has grown — so far area hospitals have treated 29 people for snake bites…26 of those be venomous snakes. That’s up from a total of 28 bites from the entire previous year.

I found this part of the story amusing:

Christopher Ziebell, the emergency department medical director at Brackenridge, said victims should leave the snake — dead or alive — behind.

“There’s nothing to be gained by bringing a dead snake in,” Ziebell said. “We use the same antivenin for all of the snakes.”

I’ve worked in hospitals and troop medical clinics (TMCs) and I can tell you, if you want to cause a commotion in the emergency, bring a live rattle snake with you.