SSSSSSnakebite Kit???

[chevdog]

Unfortunately our property has it's share of poisonous snakes - I have shot 2 water moccasins and it's also a habitat for rattlers and coral snakes. Since we are intruding on what was their undisturbed territory, I'm not surprised - we step carefully when there's brush or close by any ditches.

Here's a link to a website I was looking at. I was thinking that I need to be prepared as far as immediate treatment should somebody get bitten and this website seemed to have some good info.

I saw a discussion for a Sawyer Kit and wanted to know if anyone has every used one or if it's of any value to have one around. I would not cut the wound or any of that sort of thing, but I do believe that we should have some idea of what to do in case the snake is faster than we are. Advice?

[Stoneheartfarm]

I believe I read somewhere that an Ace bandage wrapped around the wound will stop the travel of the poison long enough to get to the Hospital. Don't know if it works, because I've never had the misfortune of being bitten, and have actually only seen 1 wild poisonous snake (that was still alive) in my lifetime. Seems here in the frozen North, those critters are either behind glass, or protected as endangered. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

I think the preferred treatment for a bite is to stabilize until you get to the Doc.

SHF

[JoeR]

About 5 weeks ago, my neighbor was walking around outside barefoot... He was bitten by a Pygme Rattlesnake. At first, he didn't want medical attention. Then he started feeling warm and dizzy, followed by pain in his leg near the groin area. The poison was moving into his femoral artery. We started heading to the hospital and decided to stop at the local serpentarium. The guy extracts venom from snakes for a living! Anyway, he pulled out a snake bite kit that he purchased from Wal-Mart. He extracted as much poison as possible, the he personally took my neighbor to the hospital. He was worried that the hospital would give him improper treatment and make his side effects worse.

Moral of the story: If the Wal-Mart snake bite kit is good enough for a guy who handles poisonous snakes for a living, then it is good enough for me.

Joe R.

[chevdog]

Thanks for the replies. I did want to mention that my intent is to get to the emergency room asap, not to try to home-treat any snakebites, but to use one of these kits to hopefully slow down the spread of poison.
Good advice on the Wal-Mart kit - good to know that the snake guy uses it!
I'm curious as to what improper treatment the hospital would have given him. I have known someone who was bitten and it's a good point about side effects - his arm got infected and wound up with some very nasty scarring. Took a long time to heal.

[JoeR]

The "snake guy" didn't want the hospital to administer morphine type pain killers or steroid type medicines. Somehow it would have made his condition worse. Basically, if the side effects were not too bad, then the hospital just monitored his vital signs. The hospital worried about infection, and blood flow issues caused by the venom. From what I can remember, the poison from a rattlesnake causes the blood to lose its ability to coagulate and increases heart rate. They say NOT to elevate the wound, since you do not want the poison to spread into the rest of the body. The biggest problem with a poisonous snake bite is the location of the bite. If a snake bites the tip of your pinky, there is little circulation into this area and the poison can cause tissue damage resulting in amputation. How do I know this? Well, when I met the "snake guy" he was missing his pinky finger, and I asked if a snake bit his finger off. He said no, but the poison from a Cobra did a number on the tissue.

Joe R.

[chevdog]

Excellent advice - thanks. I had not realized until I did some research the amount of tissue damage that a snakebite can inflict.

[njrqs]

Interesting reading on that website.

Over here we are told NOT to wash the area and to leave the venom there.

This allows positive ID by the hospital.

Possibly because we have many more species than you guys, because visual identification of many of our snakes is just not possible.

Many look so similar.

Interesting indeed.

[JoeR]

Everytime the Discovery channel has: The most poisonous, the most aggressive, the most potent ounce per ounce... Australia comes in 1st place. Australia should be renamed the most dangerous reptile country, something like herpapoisonous continent. Just kidding!

Joe R.

[Pat]

Hey, don't make fun of the land "Down Under" or as the Monty Python troupe put it, "the land of sunshine and sharks."

About the Wallmart snakebite kit, what was in it? No one of any repute recommends cutting x marks and sucking out the poison (See Woody Allen in "Bananas"). There are small vacuum pumps sold for the purpose of extracting poison but I think the jury is still out. Many competent medicos recommend immediate transport to a medical facility where often the procedure is to observe the patient and intervene only as required.

Pygmy rattlers are a nuisance here as well. They rattle so innefectualy that they are often not heard. Worse, is to be bit by a young snake of a large species like a timber ratler or diamond back. The young typically give you all they got whereas adults modulate their output and might even deliver a "dry" bite, sans venom.

All snake bites are potential sources of infection, poisonous or not, as they don't brush their teeth.

Patrick

[egon]

Somewhere in the dim past I have read that a snakebite victim should limit physical exertion and get himself to medical attention as soon as possible.

And here I'd always wanted to use that 12 inch Bowie Knife to make that big X.

Egon