Coyote: Bite: Hand & Forearm

You reached for the trap and the coyote in it reached back, and the crunch through your knuckles was like a nut in a door hinge. Two fingers are laid open to the cords, and the doctor talks in a low voice about what happens if the gray sets in, he keeps the bonesaw case where you can't see it, which tells you it is near.

• Hand splinted flat and slung, no gun, rope or rein work with it for 7 days
• Wounds washed with carbolic twice daily, watched for the smell that means gangrene
• Fingers laced with silk sutures, cold and slow to answer
• /me cradles the slung hand and works the fingers a bare quarter inch, teeth gritted

Recovery 7 days of dressing changes to learn what the fingers keep; if the gray goes to gangrene, the choice gets harder·Doctor, urgently

The teeth went in on either side of your wrist where the cords run, and now three fingers curl only halfway and your grip pours out like water from a cracked jug. The doctor splints the hand open like he's setting a fence post and forbids you the pistol.

• Splinted wrist, no shooting, roping or lifting with that hand for 7 days
• Punctures drained daily so they heal from the bottom up
• Buttons, buckles and cinches all done one-handed

Recovery 7 days splinted with a doctor's care; worked early, the grip stays a half measure for a long while·Doctor, urgently

The bite met itself in the middle, a fang in through the palm, another through the back, and near daylight between them when you flexed. Through-wounds are cleaner than they look, the doctor says, so long as they weep out both ends.

• Palm and back of hand bandaged with wicks in both holes for 5 days, no gripping tools or triggers
• Hand carried at chest height, elbow bent, like a permanent oath
• The bandage soaks through and gets changed by lamplight each night

Recovery 5 days wicked and drained, 9 or more if it seals over dirty·Doctor required

The punctures were small and you laughed them off, and then your hand rose overnight like bread dough until the knuckles vanished. The doctor lances it back to size, and the relief is worth the yell it costs you.

• Lanced hand bound and slung, no use of it for 5 days beyond holding your hat
• Fever and a throb that keeps time with your heart the first two nights
• /me flexes the puffed hand slowly, wincing as the skin pulls tight

Recovery 5 days if lanced and drained clean; unlanced, the abscess makes its own plans·Doctor required

The jaws got your fist and clamped like a fence stretcher, no fang went deep, but the small bones in there ground together in a way bones ought not to. Nothing broken, the doctor reckons, but the hand thinks otherwise for a while.

• Crush-bruised knuckles, no punching, roping or hard grip for 4 days
• Hand soaked in warm salt water each evening until it will make a fist
• Writing and card playing done left-handed, badly

Recovery 4 days of soaks and grumbling, a week if you keep testing the fist·Doctor required

It got a mouthful of forearm and whipped its head like a terrier with a rat, and the punctures tore sideways into short ragged channels. Your sleeve went to rags, and the arm wears a bandage from wrist to elbow now.

• Forearm bound wrist to elbow, no heavy lifting or roping for 4 days
• Torn punctures cleaned with carbolic, two of them stitched
• /me rolls the sleeve down over the bandage before walking into town

Recovery 4 days dressed and rested, 8 or more if it festers·Doctor required

One fang split the pad of your thumb to the bone, and the nail has gone black besides. Small wound, big opinion, the thumb is half of everything a hand does, and it lets you know at every button, hammer and cinch.

• Thumb splinted and wrapped fat as a corn cob for 3 days, pistol hammer and rifle loading are misery
• Blackened thumbnail that will lift off in a week or so, ugly but harmless
• Sutured pad that opens if you grip anything hard

Recovery 3 days splinted and clean, 6 if you keep using it like it isn't cut·Doctor required

Four punctures in the meat below your thumb, small doors into deep rooms. The doctor packs each with a lint wick and makes you promise not to let them scab, a coyote has been at carrion, always, and what its teeth leave behind wants out, not in.

• Wicked punctures drained twice a day for 3 days
• Gun hand tender, you shoot passably and saddle slowly
• Bandage smells of carbolic strong enough to clear a room

Recovery 3 days of draining; sealed dirty, an abscess by Sunday·Doctor required

The bite caught your first two fingers and left them punctured and fat as sausages by morning. Nothing torn, nothing broken, but the trigger finger bends like it is owed money, slow and grudging.

• Swollen fingers, shooting is slow and roping clumsy for 2 days
• Punctures washed and bandaged, checked for heat each night
• /me works the stiff finger against the thumb, testing the bend

Recovery 2 days rested, 4 if you keep forcing the trigger·Doctor advised

You snatched your hand back and the fangs raked furrows across the back of it, shallow as a fork through pie crust but bloody all out of proportion. It looks a fright and shakes hands tender for a few days.

• Shallow furrows across the hand, stinging under work gloves for 2 days
• Thin parallel scars, the kind folks notice at cards
• A blood-spotted cuff that never quite washes out

Recovery 2 days bandaged, 4 if the scabs keep cracking·Doctor advised

Good elkskin took most of the bite; two points got through into the meat of your palm. The glove looks like it lost a knife fight, and your hand got off with a pair of shallow punctures and a deep pinch bruise besides.

• Two shallow palm punctures, gripping stings for 2 days
• One good glove ruined, its partner now a spare
• Whiskey wash, clean wrap, back to work by degrees

Recovery 2 days kept clean·Doctor advised

You tore your arm from its mouth with everything you had, and the teeth cost you less than the yank, a graze along the forearm and a wrist wrenched hot from your own pulling. The coyote spat out your sleeve button and left.

• Wrenched wrist wrapped snug, aches on the reins for 2 days
• Tooth graze up the forearm, washed and scabbing by morning
• A missing sleeve button and a story about how it went

Recovery 2 days wrapped, 4 if you keep testing the wrist·Doctor advised

Two small punctures in the heel of your hand, cleaned and closed in a quarter hour, but you keep turning one thing over: was that white at its mouth foam, or just slobber? It was bold for a coyote. Too bold. The old-timers all have a story that starts this way.

• Punctured hand bandaged, barely slows you after a day
• You find reasons to look at the wound a dozen times a day, and reasons to drink water just to prove you can
• /me turns the bandaged hand over by firelight, looking for red streaks that are not there yet

Recovery 2 days for the flesh; the wondering keeps its own hours·Doctor advised

One tooth found the heel of your palm, in and out clean as an awl. It bled honest, took its whiskey without going sour, and left a round little scar you will point at someday.

• Single puncture bandaged, a tender palm for a day
• A neat round scar for the campfire inventory

Recovery A day or two kept clean·No doctor needed

The jaws closed on your gloved hand and squeezed hard enough to water your eyes, but no point got through. The bruise beneath runs corner to corner across the palm, and gripping the saddle horn wrings a hiss out of you for a day or two.

• Deep palm bruise, strong grips sting for 2 days
• A tooth-dented glove that still has some work left in it

Recovery 2 days and it fades to yellow·No doctor needed

Your fist got there before its teeth did, mostly, the fangs skinned your knuckles as you knocked its head sideways. Four raw spots and a coyote with a new respect for arithmetic.

• Skinned knuckles that crack and sting in cold water for 2 days
• The undisputed right to say you punched a coyote

Recovery A day or two of scabbing·No doctor needed

The teeth clipped your shirt cuff and grazed the wrist beneath, one red line and a bead of blood. What stays with you is the speed of it, your hand was only there half a second, and that was near enough.

• A thin graze at the wrist, gone in a couple of days
• You keep your hands a little closer to your vest around animals for a while

Recovery A day, if that·No doctor needed

The jaws snapped shut and got glove, whole glove, nothing but glove, it slid off your hand like it was greased, and the coyote backpedaled with its prize. You stood there bare-handed and unbitten while it shook your glove like a kill.

• Not a mark on you, one glove gone to the brush
• /me holds up the bare hand and wiggles all five fingers. 'He got the leather. I kept the rest.'

Recovery Nothing to heal, the glove is living a new life now·No doctor needed

You snatched your hand back so quick the jaws clacked shut on empty air, close enough that you felt the wind of it on your knuckles. The coyote looked almost embarrassed. You did not stay to console it.

• Untouched, though your heart takes an hour to believe it
• A clean story with a sound effect: the clack of empty jaws

Recovery Nothing to heal·No doctor needed

It lunged for your hand and your hand won, you caught the coyote by the scruff mid-snap, held it out squalling at arm's length like a stolen chicken, and flung it into the creek. There are two witnesses. Neither will ever let the story shrink.

• Not a scratch on you, and a grip men will now exaggerate
• A soaked, furious coyote seen leaving the county at speed
• /me holds an invisible coyote at arm's length to show exactly how it went

Recovery Nothing to heal, just a reputation to maintain·No doctor needed