Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Snake bite kit saves life?

I wasn't aware that eastern diamondback bites were lethal, but it;s an interesting story.

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/nature/post/hunter-saves-own-life-after-rattlesnake-bite/

Dang!

Just read the article before I saw it posted it here. In 1973 a friend was bitten just like that, close to the same place, turned smut black, swelled three times it's normal size and was eventually amputated.

Was not a pleasant sight.

Another friend was bitten on the thumb by a small one in 71, was allergic to the anti venom and stayed in the hospital for two weeks.

Rattlers aren't a thing to mess with if you don't have to.

I have one of those in my rafting first aid kit. Haven't and hope to never to use it.

easterns are nasty ones to get bit by, alot of neurotoxin in the venom......however that snake bite kit likely did lil and he actually received a minor bite that didnt inject much venom....think about it, put one of those on your arm after getting a shot at the docs office and its not gonna pull much of anything out....all a rattlesnake fang is, is a hypodermic needle....at most you will get a couple drops out and thats not gonna affect the outcome one bit.....

Anybody remember when they used to say to shock a snakebite with a car battery or a stun gun? I've never been bit but always wondered if that really works. They claimed the electricity breaks up the proteins in the venom.

there is anecdotal evidence that it does work.....i have a hard time understanding why it would work unless the proteins that make up snake venom are unstable as hell and far more easily degraded than the proteins that make up human tissue....

That's a great point.

my whole thinking could be off but im very interested in snakes, especially venomous ones and have read a fair number of scientific studies.....havent seen a good explanation of why it would work, but if i were to get bit someplace where getting to antivenin in time is in question and a stun gun is handy, light my arse up....

Me too. I hunt quite a bit in south Georgia where Eastern diamondbacks are as thick as mosquitoes and I keep a stun gun in my pack just in case but have never had to test the theory out.

a few years ago I got bit by a Hobo Spider and I tried it, using the coil off my old car and it seemed to work, but I too don't understand how it worked for the very reason you stated

It should be easy enough to determine if the proteins in snake venom are denatured that easily. I think that if this was the case, we would hear it a lot more often. I just hope I never get bit by one of the suckers.

We don't have hobo spiders here but I understand they are nasty. We do have brown recluse spiders, my dad had a coworker who lost half his hand to a brown recluse that was in his glove when he put it on. We also have tons of black widows but the brown recluse concern me much more than the widows.

Far as I'm concerned any rattler I run in to is treated like he can kill my ass and is treated like he plans to. There is a saying out west - if it don't get you then one of its kids will.

The fear of rattlers caused many a cowboy to pray each night they rolled out their bedroll while out on the range. They scoured the area around camp at dusk to reduce the chance of a bedroll encounter at dawn and spent,any hours of life trying to determine a method of securing a safe place to sleep. This led to lots of money having been spent on horse hair ropes to lay around the bedding.

Evidently, there were many more rattlers in many areas of the west a hundred years ago than now.

Except if a black widow bites, you may pray to die due to the agony.

the Hobo's are very similar to brown, and I have been bitten 4 or 5 times in the last few years. They form nasty sores that take weeks to heal, I have killed 4 in my house so far this spring. The bad part about them is they are aggressive due to poor eye sight. Black widows will prey on hobo's but then you have black widows

article of interest..... confirmed by our country vet down the road.

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Arti...isher-recommended.htm?EdNo=001&From=

black widow venom is interesting stuff, causes every skeletal muscle in your body to form a "Charley horse", highly unlikely to kill most people but for 24-48 hours your gonna wish you were gonna die soon....

recluse venom is just plain nasty chit.....ild rather take a hit from a good size rattler than a recluse....

I know their bites are painful but at least they are shy and stay in their webs. I kill a bunch of them every year, one of my kids favorite activities is when we go "Black Widow Hunting" and turn up stones, the fire wood in the woodpile, etc in the yard and kill them. The brown recluse wander and get in the house and you never know where you'll run into them. I hate and fear the brown recluse spiders, we have to shake our shoes, gloves, and jackets because of them. Nasty little buggers.

Groups like the AMA, etc. now recommend you don't use those snake bite kits. Instead, get thee to a doctor pronto. Their reasoning is that people have done more damage to themselves using the kits than the venom will do. Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal about it. SNAKE BITE KIT

Of course there are exceptions to every rule. 1000 people can be saved by seat belts but the one you hear about is the guy who is saved because he didn't wear one. The same likely applies to snake bit kits.