FORT MORGAN TIMES (Colorado) 04 July 06 Rancher recovering from rattlesnake bite (Carol Barrett, Sterling Journal-Advocate)

Rattlesnakes on Leroy Warboys' ranch seemed extra mean this spring, he says. So far, the Warboys family has had five calves, three cows, a bull, a horse and one human -- Leroy -- bitten by the poison-packing vipers.

The animals were all bitten on the family's place south of Stoneham in Morgan County, but Warboys' encounter with a rattler was in Logan County. One calf died, but all the other victims, including Warboys, are recovering. And although the bite was extremely painful and frightening, he considers himself lucky in more ways than one.

On June 5, he hauled a bull out to the family's summer pasture and turned it with the herd at the Chimney Canyon Grazing Association, in northwest Logan County. He had brought his all-terrain vehicle along in the stock trailer and rode it over to check the family's cattle in another pasture. He got off the four-wheeler to open a gate and the rattler struck, biting his left leg just above the top of his boot.

Warboys, born on his parents' place a few miles from his own ranch, has lived in rattlesnake country all his life. He doesn't know why he didn't see the snake that got him. Evidently, it was coiled and ready to strike as he stepped off the four-wheeler.

"The doctors said I was lucky that he only got one fang in me," he noted.

At first, Warboys couldn't shake the snake loose.

"When I did, he coiled right up and tried to get me again," Warboys said. He was able to dodge the second strike and get on his four-wheeler. He picked up a fair-sized rock and threw it at the reptile.

"When I hit him with the rock, he just got madder," Warboys added.

He knew that with the snake venom in his system he needed to get medical help right away. He was then about four miles from his pickup and trailer, so he got to the vehicle as quickly as he could, loaded the ATV into his trailer, and headed for the nearest hospital in Sterling.

"I tried to stay calm and not move too fast and not slam the door on the trailer too hard," he said. "I didn't want to get my heart beating faster and circulate the poison any quicker."

He used his cell phone to call 911. He also called his wife Janyce.

"It was very, very scary," Janyce said. "We were to meet at the hospital but I didn't have a clue which road he was going to take or anything."

"When the snake first bit me it, really hurt," Leroy said. "But then my leg started to go numb."

As he drove toward Sterling, he was aware the numbness was spreading through his other leg and body, and then into his arms.

"I was lucky again," Warboys said. "I really didn't know exactly how to get to Sterling (from the pasture), so I just followed the paved road as it curved this way and that."

The emergency dispatcher gave him directions.

"But pretty soon I couldn't hear anything," he said.

He believes the snake venom was numbing his sense of hearing.

The dispatcher had told him to take Seventh Avenue into Sterling, but he didn't know just where it was. Lucky again, he said, turned on Sixth Avenue -- which took him right to the hospital.

"By the time I got there, I was losing my sight, too," he added.

He had made it to Sterling Regional MedCenter's emergency room in time. Janyce arrived about five minutes after he did.

At Sterling Regional, he was given one dose -- six units -- of antivenom for snake bite.

"After they gave me the bag (of antidote), they put me in an ambulance and sent me to Fort Collins," he said. There, at Poudre Valley Hospital, he was given several more doses of anti-venom, spaced six hours apart. His sight, hearing and feeling all returned, and he went home from the hospital the next evening.

"They kind of wanted me to stay another night," Warboys said. "But I figured I could lie around and rest just as well at home."

The muscles and tendons on the back of his leg were pulled tight and the calf of his leg was rock hard, but his leg did not turn black and blue as the doctors Poudre Valley had warned him was likely.

Now, three weeks later, his left leg still hurts some, but he is feeling better each day -- unless he tries to do too much.

"He did too much yesterday," Janyce said Thursday. "When he does that, it swells and he has to put ice on it. But it's getting lots better."

In spite of what many would consider bad luck, Warboys still considers himself to be really lucky. The doctors had expected his leg to turn black and blue, he said. Also, sometimes the area of the snake bite turns black and the tissue dies.

But only the back of his calf turned yellow, and that went away in a few days. The site of the bite is just one small hole, getting smaller. He just has to take it easy for a while longer -- difficult to do at this busy time of year on the ranch.

So far, Warboys' snake bite is the only one treated at Sterling Regional MedCenter this summer.
Rancher recovering from rattlesnake bite

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• CO Press: Rancher recovering from bite - W von Papineäu, Thu Jul 6 11:34:31 2006