quote:

Originally posted by okiesharpshooter:
One bit of advice that was ran in an article in Outdoor Life magazine many years ago was to treat the bite area with high voltage electrical shock from a sparkplug wire. Supposedly, quail hunters in Texas started doing this to treat rattler bites to their bird dogs. Remove one sparkplug wire, clamp on the jumper cables, one to the sparkplug wire, one to a chassis ground. With large nails in the other ends of the cables, apply the tips directly to the bite area. In some way this proceedure would neutralize the snake venom.

My guess is that once hit with this type of shock therapy, you would forget all about the snake bite.

Search the WWW and get both sides.
Sounds like a waste of time.
But if I were way out someplace I might give it a try. But most modern automobiles have some pretty serious ignition voltages and are well "serious" if you get shocked. I don't pack a stun gun or chainsaw so????
Dan

quote:

Originally posted by Rifleman1776:
My son is an emergency room physician with about 14 years experience. He is an outdoorsman (modern style) and has practiced emergency medicine from southern Louisiana to Alaska and currently in Missouri. He is a member of the Wilderness Emergency Medicine Association. I posed the question to him last night about what to do if bit a long distance from help. He said that one is basically in serious trouble, there is nothing that can be done. Only option might be a loose tourniquet but that would mean sacrificing the limb to later amputation. Carrying a locator (like a Spot, or whatever) would be your best hope for help. Best cure is prevention.

I agree with this, but in some circumstances losing a limb is better than losing your life. A big rattler can be very dangerous, but some South American snakes will just flat kill you. I would likely do nothing until I could get to help if bitten by the average Copperhead. But what about a Bushmaster or Fer-de-lance? You are in serious trouble. On my first trip to the bush of South America I saw natives walking through some high grass swinging machetes in front of them--they were not obviously cutting anything, just swishing them back and forth as they walked. I asked a local, why? "Bushmasters" was the reply--apparently every once and awhile a Bushmaster would raise its ugly head right in front of you and you'd just swipe off his head with the next swing. I had the sudden urge to get a machete.

YIKES!

quote:

Originally posted by Mike R:

quote:

Originally posted by Rifleman1776:
My son is an emergency room physician with about 14 years experience. He is an outdoorsman (modern style) and has practiced emergency medicine from southern Louisiana to Alaska and currently in Missouri. He is a member of the Wilderness Emergency Medicine Association. I posed the question to him last night about what to do if bit a long distance from help. He said that one is basically in serious trouble, there is nothing that can be done. Only option might be a loose tourniquet but that would mean sacrificing the limb to later amputation. Carrying a locator (like a Spot, or whatever) would be your best hope for help. Best cure is prevention.

I agree with this, but in some circumstances losing a limb is better than losing your life. A big rattler can be very dangerous, but some South American snakes will just flat kill you. I would likely do nothing until I could get to help if bitten by the average Copperhead. But what about a Bushmaster or Fer-de-lance? You are in serious trouble. On my first trip to the bush of South America I saw natives walking through some high grass swinging machetes in front of them--they were not obviously cutting anything, just swishing them back and forth as they walked. I asked a local, why? "Bushmasters" was the reply--apparently every once and awhile a Bushmaster would raise its ugly head right in front of you and you'd just swipe off his head with the next swing. I had the sudden urge to get a machete.

So will some in Asia. Cobra and Krait are a couple. Some poisonous snake expert stuck his hand in a bag someone had brought in with a snake in it. It was a Krait. He was too far from any help.
One less poisonous snake expert.
Shoulda looked first.
On the other hand a man survived a Black Mamba bite in Africa. Unheard of... Was so long getting to the hospital they refused to believe it was a B Mamba since he was still alive. Must have been a minimal envenomation. Or it was not his day to die.
I tend to terminate every rattlesnake I see. I can barely hear them rattle and I figure the next time he might get me if I pass him by.

Dan

Dan, as I said, my son pointed out that, under the circumstances described, a bite by a venomous snake would be a serious event. You would be simply SOL. They wouldn't be called adventures if risk was not involved. We do what we do by choice. I choose to not live locked in a closet. 'stuff' happens. Tomorrow is not promised. Live for the day to the limits you feel comfortable with.

quote:

Originally posted by Rifleman1776:
Dan, as I said, my son pointed out that, under the circumstances described, a bite by a venomous snake would be a serious event. You would be simply SOL. They wouldn't be called adventures if risk was not involved. We do what we do by choice. I choose to not live locked in a closet. 'stuff' happens. Tomorrow is not promised. Live for the day to the limits you feel comfortable with.

Exactly right.

Dan

Where I lived in coastal North Carolina, canebrake rattlers would crawl out of the drainage ditches to lay in your freshly plowed garden spot. Apparently that time of year happens to be their breeding season, so they're more active then.

We were within 6-7 miles of the Virginia state line, and those rattlers were listed as "endangered" on one side of the state line (Virginia, I think) but not the other.

My neighbors and I all agreed that any canebrake rattlers that showed up in our garden spots were definitely endangered. It wasn't uncommon to see them in early spring.

As I understand it, those are fairly docile rattlesnakes (as rattlesnakes go), but still...

I used to look for the venomous snakes on purpose (long story).


The best defense is not to get bitten in the first place. Learn about the snakes, and where they live.

Most importantly learn how to identify them. Getting yourself all worked up about a venomous snake bite only to find out it was a water snake is both silly and embarrassing.

Step onto logs and rocks and not over them (the effective strike range for snakes is about half their body length on average) stepping off of a rock or log rather than next to it where the snake is likely hiding puts you out of the strike range of most snakes. All pit vipers are sit and wait predators, they wait under these rocks and logs for rodents to come by. If you step in front of them there is a very small chance it might bite you defensively.

Regardless of what people say snakes won't chase ya. They hide from you, remember that one might be hiding under the next log or rock you decide to sit on or turn over and check for it first.

Snakes have to thermo regulate, so if you just woke up from a really cold night and the sun feels amazing on your skin, you can pretty much accept that there are snakes enjoying it as well, look for them.

Respect your native snakes, killing them for no good reason has lead to near extinction in a lot of states. Venom is expensive for these snakes. they require it to hunt and feed. If a snake envenomates you it can no longer hunt or feed. It is effectively out of ammo. This is why there are dry bites (no venom).

and if ya sit on one? all tergether now...(chorus) "sonny, that's when ye find out who yer real frends are!"
mind yer topknots! windy

Ain't we kilt thet snake yet?