A copperhead snake bit her 2-year-old daughter. Then they found 17 more, mom says

After 2-year-old Finley Roth was bitten by a venomous copperhead snake, her family had a mission — find and kill the snake that sent the toddler to the hospital.

“When we get out of here, I’m going ... hunting ... and it’s ON!” Finley’s mom, Jillian Roth, posted to Facebook earlier this month.

Roth said her daughter was bitten on her foot while at family’s house in Kelleyville, Oklahoma on July 1. That’s about 20 miles southwest of Tulsa.

Roth told FOX23 in a video interview that Finley was bit while near the base of a tree as it was getting dark. She said her daughter made a “weird cry” and they thought she had stepped on something outside.

But then Finley’s foot “just kept getting bigger by the second — (and) it was already purple,” Roth told FOX23.

Finley’s family took her to the Children’s Hospital at St. Francis in Tulsa and she received anti-venom medication, according to the Facebook post. Finley’s foot was sore and bruised.

That same night, Finley’s grandparents went out in the dark to try and find the snake that bit her — and they found three copperheads in a stack of firewood, Roth posted on Facebook.

“And he killed them all of course!!!” Roth wrote. “Y’all watch out!! The hospital said snakes are bad right now!!”

Just a few days after Finley’s bite, on July 4, Finley’s family said they killed seven more snakes in about 90 minutes.

“They were putting up a fight too!” she wrote. Roth said most of them were just 15 to 20 feet away from where they had been when her child was bit.

As of July 11, the Roth family has found and killed 17 snakes on their property, FOX23 reported.

“Never have I seen this many snakes,” Roth told the station.

Copperheads are one of three venomous snakes in Oklahoma and are usually no bigger than three-feet long, according to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. A bite is usually painful and requires immediate medical attention.

“The copperhead poses little threat to humans and because they eat so many small mice and rats, the copperhead should be considered one our state’s greatest reptilian assets,” the department said on its website.

In January, a 72-year-old woman killed 11 copperhead snakes in Oklahoma, the Houston Chronicle reported.

And earlier this month in Kansas, park rangers and campers killed 13 copperheads at a lake after a man was bit by a venomous snake, according to a Facebook post.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 7,000 to 8,000 people per year in the U.S. receive venomous snake bites, and about five of those people die.

This story was originally published July 15, 2018 at 4:57 PM with the headline "A copperhead snake bit her 2-year-old daughter. Then they found 17 more, mom says."