Surviving a snapping turtle bite requires quick and calm action. To survive a snapping turtle bite, immediately clean the wound with soap and water, apply an antibiotic ointment, and seek medical attention to prevent infection.
Snapping turtles, known for their powerful jaws and aggressive nature, can cause serious injuries. Understanding how to react effectively is crucial for safety.
This blog post will guide you through the essential steps to manage and treat a snapping turtle bite, ensuring a swift and safe recovery.
What to Do If a Snapping Turtle Bites You
If a snapping turtle latches onto you, it’s important to remain calm. Panicking will only make the situation worse. Here are the steps you should take:
1. Don’t Pull Away
A snapping turtle has a powerful bite. If you try to yank your hand or foot away, you risk tearing flesh or breaking bones. No matter how painful it is, hold still. Pulling away allows the turtle to thrash its head around and do more damage.
2. Pour Water on Its Head
Snapping turtles cannot breathe when their heads are submerged. Pour water over the turtle’s head from behind to trigger a reflex for it to let go and breathe.
You can use a water bottle, jug, or anything that will pour a steady stream. Just avoid getting your hands too close to its dangerous jaws!
3. Use a Sturdy Object to Pry Its Jaw Open
If water doesn’t get it to release, the next step is to firmly pry open its mouth. Use a sturdy stick, screwdriver handle, tire iron, or anything solid you can wedge between its jaws. Be careful not to get your hands too close. Push slowly but firmly until you feel its grip loosen.
4. Seek Medical Attention Immediately
Once you manage to get free from the turtle’s bite, it is essential to thoroughly clean the wound to avoid infection and get medical attention right away.
Snapping turtle mouths harbor all sorts of bacteria, so antibiotics and a tetanus shot may be necessary. Be sure to tell your doctor it was a snapping turtle so they can best treat the type of injury. You may also need pain medication, stitches, or even surgery.
How Painful Is a Snapping Turtle Bite?
The amount of pain felt from a snapping turtle bite depends on where you’re bitten and the severity. Their jaws can exert over 600 pounds of force per square inch. So, a severe bite can be excruciating.
However, if nipped on a finger or extremity, you may get lucky with slightly less pain. Their beaks are so sharp that smaller bites sometimes feel less painful at the moment because they slice through the skin and tissue so efficiently.
Either way, snapping turtle bites are regarded as one of the most painful injuries in the animal kingdom, sometimes matching the agony of a lion or shark attack.
The crushing injury also leaves wounds highly vulnerable to infection. So, while the initial pain may seem manageable, it often crescendos if wounds become infected.
Can You Lose a Finger From a Snapping Turtle?
Yes, it is definitely possible to have your finger bitten off by the immense bite force of an aggressive snapping turtle. Their sheer biting strength combined with their beak-like jaws can make short order of severing fingers and toes.
Children are especially susceptible to losing digits from snapping turtle bites because their smaller hands are at higher risk of fitting wholly inside the turtle’s mouth.
Tragically, stories exist of children losing one or more fingers when trying to feed or touch a wild snapping turtle.
Adults can also suffer finger amputations from messy bites, although the larger size of our hands compared to their mouths makes it less common.
Either way, it’s critical not to pry at the turtle’s mouth with fingers or hands if bitten because they can easily shear the digits off entirely.
Can a Snapping Turtle Break Bones?
With a bite force that can chew through bone, snapping turtles can definitely break bones with their powerful jaws. Records exist of them fracturing substantial leg and arm bones of adults.
So, a child has very little chance of not suffering fractured growth plates or small bones if seriously bitten.
The fingers and toes also have small, delicate bones that are highly vulnerable to fracture and dislocation. Joints and small wrist/ankle bones can crack under the crushing pressure, too. The beak-like jaws may outright shear off growth plates on a child’s hand or foot bones.
While less common in adults, bone fractures still occur, usually on thinner forearm bones or in hands/feet. Bone infection (osteomyelitis) is also a severe risk that can develop rapidly after a bite. So quick medical care is vital, even if you don’t think the bone is broken through the skin.
How Bad Is a Snapping Turtle Bite?
Overall, a severe bite from a giant snapping turtle is one of the worst bites in North America. The crushing injury combined with sharp tearing from their jagged jaws can cause both severe pain and traumatic damage.
Being bitten by their vice-like jaws has been compared to simultaneously slamming your hand in a car door while a knife stabs into it.
The crushing bone fractures paired with tearing soft tissue trauma are extremely dangerous. Their mouths are also teeming with aggressive bacteria that can rapidly infect these substantial open injuries.
Smaller snapping turtles can still give painful defensive bites, but they are less hazardous than the gaping jaws of older adult turtles. Their beak-like jaws and tiny serrated teeth still make even little lacerations prone to infection, however.
In general, a little healthy respect around these ancient armored giants can help avoid such a brutal encounter.
It’s wisest not to touch or handle unknown turtles, give ample space to wild ones, and supervise closely around pets. Staying out of snapping turtle territory keeps us safe, saving fingers, toes, and trouble!
Bottom Line
Getting bitten by a snapping turtle is extremely painful and causes severe injury, whether a nip or an actual amputation from their strong jaws.
Their bite force, combined with sharp beaks, make their attacks potentially life-altering. But by staying calm and using water or tools to carefully pry free, you can minimize damage.
Seeking prompt medical care limits infection risk, too. Your best bet, though, is appreciating wild snapping turtles from a safe distance rather than learning these lessons firsthand!
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