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

ALL snakes in the eastern U.S. are potentially lethal - ALL of them, pit-vipers or not! 'Cause they'll cause you to run into schit or leap into parts unknown......

for the life of me, I don't know how you gents live in such dangerous territory

I'll take bears and skeeters thank you

I have spent the last few years working up a resistance to iocane powder...


I guess it's possible with snake venom.

I studied up on this a bit when a friend got bitten by a rattler under his beach house in Gulf Shores...he had a toxic reaction to the antivenin, went into heart failure and spent a week in hospital and another month wearing a heart monitor.

they told him next time....it's gonna be like the old cowboy joke.."you're gonna die". He may have some immunity to the venom now, but another shot of anitvenin will kill him deader than Caesar.

The snake doctor said those kits are at best ineffective and may make things worse. Ice and antivenin is the trick to minimize tissue damage.

OK I'm spraying the house down with Raid.

Randy, we live here because snakes and spiders won't eat you after they've bitten you.

Ed

I think that pit viper venom is more cytotoxic and hemotoxic....they require a different antivenom than
coral snakes which have a neruotoxic venom.....

Most venomous snakes in the US are vipers with predominately hemotoxic venom and hinged fangs.
We do have several types of coral snakes in North America that are elapids (same Family as the cobras, kraits, mambas). They have predominately neurotoxic venom and fixed fangs. They are not seen as often as the vipers, but getting bitten by one is a very serious medical problem.

i hate it when i have to step away during these kinds of threads, wife had surgery today, minor surgery, same as cataract surgery but she doesnt have cataracts, she is fine this was the option when your eyes are to bad for Lasik....

anyways....clearing up some confusion since i left

on what snakes have what kind of venom its rare to find a snake with just one type of venom, most have a highly complex cocktail of the different types, the primary ones with mainly neurotoxin, or a significant portion of neuro in the US are coral snakes, mohave greens, the southern pacific complex and eastern diamondback.....a sure sign the snake that bit yah is a eastern diamondback bit yah is the facial hairs start doing a rhythmic circular pulsing because of the neurotoxin component and temporary limb paralysis is common....


back to the shocking, i would say if your within 3 hours of help in the US DO NOT do it, cause one thing for sure its likely to send your pulse racing and that alone is reason enough not to do it....its gonna spread the venom faster....

on the dog "vaccine" UtahLefty and i have discussed this heavily case for one he is a vet and for 2 he is interested in reptiles.....the vaccine as it is given out now works best with small breeds.....if yah got a large hunting dog it has limited effectiveness if you follow the current recommended dosing, HOWEVER if you can find a vet that truly understands whats going on in the whole process you can make it much more effective for larger dogs but giving them more shots than is recommended....

unfortunately the way its done at the moment its set up for the safety of the smaller dogs which means the bigger dogs dont get a large enough dose to make it extremely effective, and this is why some people are saying its not very effective....find a vet that understands what the "vaccine" is actually doing and shell out for about twice the number of shots as is recommended and it will be very effective for larger dogs....esentially your doing the same thing to a dog that Bill Hasst did to himself....

oh forgot one other fact, up to 1/3 of pit viper bites are "dry bites" that do not inject venom, venom is "expensive" to produce, very energy demanding so if a snake thinks it can get away with it it wont inject in alot of defensive bites.....this further adds complications when saying the electric shock works.....if everyone does it immediately after rattler bites 1/3 of the people that dont know any better are gonna say it works when they got no venom to start with....

Damn it. Don't tell people that. I was just gonna sell them snake oil to wipe on a bite. I would tell them it works 2/3's of the time on snake bites.

As "Rattler" said most snake bites are dry. What you really have to worry about is infection. Snakes carry all kinds of crap in there mouth and two deep puncture wounds are hard to irrigate.

I have seen studies that showed that some snakebites are dry, but I don't think I have ever seen anything that showed that "most" snakebites are dry.

they figure bout 1/3 of pit viper bites in the US are dry.....but it is pretty species dependent....never heard of a dry black mamba bite would think as pissy as cottonmouths are dry bites might be a bit more unlikely with them....

I wish it was higher than 1/3, but that is still higher than I would have thought. It wouldn't surprise me if most of those bitten by pit vipers in the US were messing with the snake to start with. That probably skews the number towards the high side of those that got a dose of venom. If people would just leave them alone or go ahead and kill the buggers if they are in an area where they might endanger someone and then leave them alone, there would likely be a lot less people bitten by snakes. Too many "hold my beer and watch this" moments for the good of the people as well as the snake.

was thinking the same thing. Much rather deal with a bear than a snake. Love AK..

rattler,

you're not entirely correct. My dad has the same kit and has had it for years. they come with a razor so you can open the wound to get better suction. Take a look at the picture of his leg, notice one of the bite marks is slit open.

The problem with these "kits" is that at best they only get get a very small percentage of the venom out. The 5-10 minutes wasted in an effort to remove an insignificant amount of venom would ne better spent getting to a hospital faster.

There seems to be controversy within the medical profession on how to treat a snake bite in the field. Some years ago I took a first aid course designed for hunters. When dealing with snake bites the instructor advised to do nothing. He contended the extractors did more harm than good. Ice while it may slow down the spread of venom will eventually allow a massive dose to hit critical organs. A loose tourniquet was the only suggested field treatment. I once had a number of friends from Peru that swore by using a car battery to shock victims of deadly snake bites in the jungle. My understanding is that the method is still being used today. Yet, all our medical experts contends there is no benefit from electric shock.

We have a crap load of cottonmouths were I hunt, and I hate em all. I NEVER EVER go into the woods/swamp without a gun(s) of some sort and knee high boots. We have rattle snakes (2 kinds), copperheads, diamondbacks (rare) and coral snakes (rare). I do believe some of those nasty no shoulders are protected too. HA!

I also read this: Pit vipers generally inject large amounts of venom into hunting bites, but often little or no venom into defensive bites. In fact, up to 25% of pit viper bites in humans are non-venomous "dry bites". A provoked and angered snake, however, might not only "load up" to be quite venomous, but may also strike several times!

far more damage has been done with those kits than good over the years.....in the time it takes you to dig out the kit and work up the nerve to cut yourself the venom has traveled a fair ways away from the bite.....you will not get much out....chances are the guy recieved lil venom in the bite and it only appears that the kit worked....guarentee you it didnt pull chit out for venom.....

ever get a shot of morphine or such in the arse at a hospital? its taking affect in minutes.....thats how fast chit moves in a intramuscular injection.....now granted venom molecules are a bit bigger than morphine alkaloids but its still gonna be a fair way away from the bite within the time it takes to dig the kit out.....