Snake Bite

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Echinacea for Snake Bites

Rob (Kentucky) on 01/15/2025
5 out of 5 stars

Snakebite.- Echinacea (in fluid extract);

From the Book: Veterinary Medicine & Small Animal Clinician, p. 110. 1915

In bites from snakes and stings of poisonous insects, echinacea applied locally and administered internally is highly effective in overcoming the influence of the poisons injected at the seat of injury. This use of the drug is one which dates back to the early days of the history of medicine in this country and has been handed down from the Indians of the northwest who made extensive use of echinacea for this purpose.

Echinacea angustifolia was used as an analgesic by the Cheyenne, the Dakota, the Fox, and the Winnebago (Moerman 1986). Purple coneflower is used as an antidote for poisonous conditions, snake bite, and other poisonous bites by the Winnebago, Ponca, Pawnee, Omaha, Dakota, and by most Montana tribes (Gilmore 1977).

Use: I use this tincture as a blood cleanser of poison and infection.
As a snake bite remedy, use it internally and externally as a poultice.

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Potassium Permanganate for Snake Bite

Rob (Kentucky) on 10/24/2024
5 out of 5 stars

Permanganate of Potash Cures for Snake Bite. (also known as Potassium Permanganate)

From the Book: The Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope, Volume 37, p. 626,1910 by Cape of Good Hope (Colony). Department of Agriculture · 1910

Springbokfontein, Namaqualand, 9th November, 1910.

To the Editor, AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL.

SIR, With great interest have I read in the "Agricultural Journal " of October last the useful article on "Alleged cures for Snake bite, " by the Director of the Port Elizabeth Museum, Mr. F. W. Fitz-Simons. I have often heard and read about the successful use of Permanganate of Potash for snake bite, and would be very much pleased if Mr. Fitz-Simons would oblige the public by giving his opinion on this

subject, viz., whether Permanganate of Potash is a cure for snake bite and how it must be applied. Yours faithfully, etc.

L. HORNEMANN.

Yes, permanganate of potash is an antidote to snake bite, if applied instantly. It has the power of destroying the venom in the wound. When bitten, instantly scarify the flesh over the site of the bite. Make three or four cuts. Rub the wounds full of crystals of permanganate, or else spit in the palm of the hand and mix some crystals with the saliva and rub in the mass. It must be understood that permanganate is only a chemical antidote, and if not applied within about five minutes of the infliction of the bite, it will not be of any use. It simply kills any venom it comes in contact with in the wound. If the fangs of a snake should penetrate a vein, and the venom should be discharged thereir, then it would be instantly carried into the circulation, and any application of permanganate would be useless. The only real antidote is an Anti-venine serum which is now prepared. It is injected with a serum syringe, and can be applied an hour or two, or longer, after the bite. If the patient is not too far gone before its injection, he will recover rapidly, for the serum kills the venom in the blood. If your correspondent will write me I will give him particulars about it and how to obtain it, and the right calibre lancet, as well as the permanganate apparatus. For the permanganate treatment a penknife and little permanganate is all that is needed. A small pocket apparatus with lancet and permanganate can now be had . Full information about Snakes, their venom and the treatment of snake bite can be had in the volume I have recently written. Yours, etc.,

F. W. FITZ – SIMONS,

Director, Port Elizabeth Museum

REPLY   5      

Alum for Snake Bites

Rob (Kentucky) on 10/04/2024
5 out of 5 stars

Alum for Snake Bite. – It is said that alum is a sure antidote to the bite of a rattlesnake. Take a piece about the size of a walnut and dissolve and drink it. This, it is said, will cure either man or beast. It would be a good idea for those who are in the habit of going into the woods or the prairies to carry a piece of alum in their pockets, so as to be in readiness for the emergency of a bite. It is a simple remedy, but we have no doubt of its efficacy.

From the Book - Dr. Chase’s New Receipt Book and Medical Advisor or Information for Everybody page 236, by A.W. Chase M.D. 1920.

ALLEGED CURE OF A SNAKE-BITE.

The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 395 (Jul. 25,1868), p. 87 (1 page) https://www.jstor.org/stable/25214862

THE REV. FATHER RAPHAEI, parish priest at Bettiah, Chumparun, relates, in a letter dated May 28th, the means which he employed to save the life of a girl, io years old, that had been bitten by a venomous snake. "In the space of about ten minutes, " he says, "she lost the power of speech, her eyes became bloodslhot, and she was in a state of fearful and continued convulsions. Perceiving the dangerous state in which she was, I immediately took a small 1 ump of alum, about the size of a pigeon's egg, dissolved the whole in a large glass of water, and at once made her drink it off. In a few minutes she. began to be very sick, throwing up much matter from her stomach, when I again made her drink alum-water. This went on for about an hour and a half, during which time she must have consumed alum of about the size of a hen's egg, dissolved in two large bottles of water, the draughts being administered at short intervals after each vomiting. At the end of the time mentioned, the girl began to recover; and, within two hours' time, was able to stand up by herself, and again gained the use of her voice. After this I made her walk about a great deal, and now she is almost entirely cured."

Note: One very interesting thing I learned that several hunters with dogs agreed with was the use of Pickling Alum for snake bitten dogs. These gentlemen swear by mixing water with 2-3 Tablespoons of the Pickling Alum and making the dogs drink/eat it and how quick it neutralizes the venom and how it will reduce or prevent swelling depending on how quickly you get it in the dogs system. Several talked about keeping a bottle in their hunting coat/vest/shirt pocket when running in warm weather because of the rattlesnakes, copperheads and water moccasins in our area.

Dosage for Human or Animal: Mix 2-3 tablespoon of alum powder with 6 oz of milk. poor down dog 3 times a day until swelling is all gone. the bite will drain also, idk why or how but have seen this work for copperhead bite

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Clay or Mud for Snake Bites

Rob (Kentucky) on 10/02/2024
5 out of 5 stars

Clay/Mud – Snake Bitten Cattle. – Remedy.

Book - Dr. Chase’s New Receipt Book and Medical Advisor or Information for Everbody by A.W. Chase M.D., 1920.

Cattle or horses are usually bitten in the feet. When this is the case all that is necessary to do is to drive them into a mud hole and keep them there for a few hours ; if upon the nose, bind the mud upon the

place in such a manner as not to interfere with their breathing. And I am perfectly satisfied that soft clay mud would be an excellent application to snake bites on persons, for I know it to draw out the poisoning from ivy, and have been assured that it has done the same for snake bites of persons as well as for cattle. Mud draws out rattlesnake poison.

REPLY   6      

Whiskey for Snake Bites

Rob (Kentucky) on 10/02/2024
5 out of 5 stars

Snake Bites. – Whiskey

Book - Dr. Chase’s New Receipt Book and Medical Advisor or Information for Everbody by A.W. Chase M.D. page 135, 1920.

The National Intelligencer a year or two since published a recipe for the cure of the rattlesnake bite, which it claimed was infallible, it having been tried in a number of cases and always with success. It was nothing more nor less than the use of whisky, as above recommended, and it is but justice to say that a daughter of William Reed, of the town of Pittsfield, in this county, who was bitten on the arm some three years ago, was cured by drinking whisky until drunkenness and stupor were produced, and she has never felt any inconvenience from the bite since, which goes to show that the bite of the Devil's tea is worse than the bite of a rattlesnake

REPLY   6      

Onion and Garlic for Snake Bites

Rob (Kentucky) on 02/18/2024
5 out of 5 stars

Onions and garlic were important remedies for snake bites in the ancient and medieval times, they were also employed as repellents. Sometimes the onions were applied in poultices, sometimes they were eaten. The spread of their use to the US might well have been expected, and they were reported to have been tried as early as 1753 in Louisiana. They later became a regular folklore cure. Sometimes a fresh onion was cut and the juicy inside was held against the wound. It was the belief that when the onion turned green it was actively drawing the venom out and a fresh one should be applied. Onions were used by cowboys in early Pennsylvania, in New Mexico, by Pennsylvania Germans, by Midwestern pioneers and California miners in the gold rush days. From the book: Rattlesnakes, Their Habits, Life Histories and Influence on Mankind by Laurence Klauber, Page 204,1982.

Note: Onions applied topically for snakebites is taught by the US Special Forces Training members.

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Turpentine or Kerosene for Snake Bites

Rob (Kentucky) on 08/04/2022
5 out of 5 stars

Turpentine/Kerosene -

Pour pine resin turpentine or kerosene over a SNAKE BITE to draw out the poison. A lot of hunters in Eastern Kentucky have reported their hunting dogs bitten by rattlesnakes or copperheads to the head and survived by the use of turpentine or kerosene use to clean the wound and draw out the venom applied every hour.

Turpentine is also used for quick and effective relief from painful wasp and bee stings. Country folklore.

REPLY   10      

Brad Christian (Cool, CA) on 07/11/2019
5 out of 5 stars

Rattlesnake Bite Recovery Remedies

I bought items for a KIT which was kept on my vineyard/ranch at the shop and the house for rattlesnake bite, after catching four in one month on the property. Neutralizing venom is easy, and I utilize a four stage counter attack below. Most of the items I gathered from Amazon. The ampules of injectable Vitamin C are a bit harder, as the FDA has recognized the power of intravenous/injectable vitamin C and tried to stamp it out. I got mine from British Columbia in Canada after simply doing a Google search on it. The cattle prod was bought at QC Supply.

Any one of these methods would handle the venom, but personally I would use all three to be absolutely sure. That’s just me. The vitamin C treatment is consistently used on animals to counter venomous bites. Charcoal has been used to great success again and again. The cattle prod delivers just enough current to slap the venom around, beat it up, and neutralize it and has been used with much success. You don’t need a doctor filling your body with ugly ANTI-venom and charging you $40K for the pleasure.

TAKE THESE STEPS AS INSTANTLY AS YOU CAN AFTER BEING BITTEN.

Almost all snake bites go into the muscle, NOT the veins. From there, the venom is absorbed NOT by the blood but by the lymphatic system and spread through the body.

We can solve any venom issue with a four stage COUNTER ATTACK on the venom. FYI, 99% of poisonous snakes in the USA are Pit Vipers (triangle head containing venom glands). The rattlesnake is a Pit Viper.

1. Clean the area FIRST with the alcohol pad, and thoroughly wash your hands. Use a disposable scalpel to cut a small “X” on the fang marks to open them up a bit more IF the wound is not big enough. Opening the wound a bit more just allows the charcoal binder to enter more easily. Activated Charcoal is a binder that latches on to toxins and renders them INEFFECTIVE. Take large amounts of the charcoal paste included in the Kit and spread it IN the wound and ALL AROUND the wound 4-6 inches all over, minimum. Wrap the area with the included rubber tape, creating a poultice around the area. The charcoal will suck the venom to itself and bind to it through the skin. An hour later, wipe this off and apply a new dressing with NEW charcoal.

2. Swallow 4 charcoal tabs included in the kit. We want the charcoal moving through the whole body as fast as possible to bind anything it comes across. This is perfectly safe. Take 2 more every half hour for a few hours.

3. Start using the “cattle prod” electric treatment included in the Kit (blue device). This sounds scary but isn’t. It’s a fairly light electric shock and this has been used VERY successfully to “shock demolish” venom (black widow, brown recluse, scorpion, snake). It’s amazing how FAST you will feel better using this. Several treatments. “Prod” yourself or have someone else do it, and when the body naturally pulls away, that’s considered a treatment. Zap the area in different sections, wherever the venom has travelled.

4. Vitamin C is incredible in HIGH DOSES to destroy venom. In fact, intravenous Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has been used to cure many forms of cancer. So venom is nothing for this powerful antioxidant. NOTE: if you are taking the charcoal tabs, no need to swallow any of the oral Vitamin C, just use ampule of pure Vitamin C and the syringe to inject it directly into the muscle around the bite. Here’s how. Clean the area with an alcohol wipe. Take one of the disposable syringes and open it. Open a vial of Vitamin C. Press the plunger down inside the device and then stick the needle into the vitamin C ampule at the top. Suck a full load of that good liquid into the needle. Hold the needle upright and ‘flick’ the plastic part to make sure there’s NO AIR in the needle. Push the plunger a little until you get a drop or two of liquid coming out, confirming that there is NO AIR. Not one bubble…this is very important. Stick the needle into the muscle “near to” or “around” the bite, less than a quarter inch into the skin, up to a quarter inch. Press the plunger firmly and steadily, and deliver the liquid into the muscle surrounding the bite.

Good work. Let the vitamin do “its thing”.

Note: about 25% of venomous snake bites are “dry” – no venom. Let’s hope yours is.

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If you think that anti-venom given at the hospital is a silver bullet, please educate yourself. Treatment with Anti-venom is massively expensive, often very damaging to the body and some people can have permanent damage to their bodies or come close to death. It is important to know the facts so you can make the best decision for you in an emergency.

A popular ‘generic’ anti-venom is called CRO-FAB. This drug is $3800 per vial and you can easily need 10-15 vials, depending on your size. There’s NO guarantee with CroFab either. There are MUCH better, cheaper and natural ways to stop Venom in its tracks.

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REPLY   5      

Successful Rattlesnake Bite Treatment

Flower's Mom (Pueblo Of Acoma, Nm) on 09/15/2017
5 out of 5 stars

My dog, Molly, got bit by a rattlesnake on the leg just above her foot two nights ago. By the time I saw her yesterday morning, her whole leg was swollen to three times its normal size and she could not bend it or walk. I put a teaspoon each of ground turmeric, organic coconut oil, organic raw honey, a couple pinches of ground black pepper and 2 droppers of colloidal silver into a few ounces of raw ground turkey and mixed it up really well and gave it to her on an empty stomach. She ate it up with no hesitation and laid down. Then I applied a castor oil pack over the 2 puncture wounds and held it there for about 40 minutes or so, during which time she rested. As she was not showing any other signs of distress, such as breathing difficulty, seizure, etc., but was sleeping, I put her in the hands of the benevolent Creator and left for work. I hated to leave her, but I had no choice.

I went home to check on her at lunch time and was thrilled to see her relaxing outside the front door! I mixed up another dose of the turmeric, OCO, honey, pepper and colloidal silver in the ground turkey and gave it to her again. As I did not have time to sit with her to do the castor oil pack, I just put a couple drops on the puncture wounds and went back to work. When I arrived home in the evening she was again outside and got up to greet me when I drove in. The swelling in her leg had gone down some more and it now looked about 2 times its normal size and she did not appear to be in as much pain. She still could not walk so I helped her inside and again mixed up another dose of the same ingredients in the raw turkey and again applied a castor oil pack to the site. She rested comfortably throughout the evening and slept good all night. This morning the swelling in her leg has gone down so that the leg looks almost normal and she can bend it, but the foot is still pretty swollen. It looks like a ball at the end of a stick, but she is starting to put a little weight on it. I will continue to give her the same mix morning and evening until all the symptoms have subsided. I did not expect her recovery to be so rapid, so I am thrilled to share my experience. Thank you again, Earth Clinic, and all those involved in maintaining this wonderful resource! It has been lifesaving for me and my family!

REPLY   17      

Treatment of Snake Bite With Low Current DC Shock

Tim Mitchell (Taree Nsw) on 11/22/2016
5 out of 5 stars

When in Tennessee our cat was bitten by a 3 foot copperhead snake and her eyelid turned inside out very quickly with the entire side of her head swelling up. I found her very quickly and wrapped her up in a towel (I worked at a vet clinic) and I gave her several pulses from a magneto based DC electroshock unit which we had on hand at the farm. We had used this unit with success for scorpion stings, bee stings and spider bites, and I gave her a good shock on either side of the swollen area. I have never seen a cat move so fast.... she wasn't about to let me give her another dose, so I took her to the farm area vet clinic and gave her some inject-able Sodium Ascorbate (buffered vitamin C) under the skin. The pain left, the swelling went down and within four hours she was looking normal and back outside catching mice. Our experience is that High Voltage (12KV) Low Current Pulsed DC electroshock is safe and has worked well for many things. The treatment is normally applied for about 6 doses as a one shock per dose treatment. If you are shocking yourself it is impossible to give yourself too much of a shock as your hand will jerk away with each dose. Avoid using high powered stun guns as they can cause a localised burn to the skin.

This method of treatment has been used extensively at the hospital Vozandes in Quito, Equador with resounding success for decades. It has been used by Dr Stan Abrams (published in JAMA) with great success on snake bite and spider bite. That is to name a few.

An Italian research team have proved the action of this treatment by showing that the proteins in the venom are broken apart and rendered permanently inactive by the action of the low current DC shock. This has been shown in vivo and in vitro tests. See "Inactivation of Crotalus atrox Venom Hemorrhagic Activity by Direct Current Exposure Using Hens’ Egg Assay" and "Inactivation of Phospholipase A2 and Metalloproteinase from Crotalus atrox Venom by Direct Current".

There have been US based studies which have appeared to show this method ineffective, however these studies when read in fine detail and with knowledge of the process, are shown to have been conducted in an improper way which yielded misleading results for the researchers. The Italian studies have now shown what the several doctors which use this technique have claimed all along, it does work. If done correctly it is also safe, in other words, don't hold the shock source on for an extended period of time or do something stupid like hard wiring yourself to the very high powered ignition system of your car..... like one guy did.

This treatment method seems to work for both haemotoxic and neurotoxic snake venoms according to case studies. Most venoms contain very similar types of proteins and it is these proteins which the pulsed DC electric shock attacks, breaking a zinc ionic bond in the protein chain. As a result it has been shown to be effective against many types of bites and stings.

REPLY   3      

Steph Williams (Danville, VA) on 11/08/2007
5 out of 5 stars

I've had great success with turmeric to stop wounds from bleeding. If you catch a slice by the kitchen knife quick enough, the blood will coagulate behind a layer of turmeric. I also add turmeric to a warm water soak with sea salt or epsom salt to draw out infection/inflammation from wounds for my family. I treated our dog's copper head bite with a turmeric poultice. Her leg was swollen and the skin around the 2 puncture wounds was necrotic and oozing and after many soaks and poultices, it healed leaving no scar.
REPLY   3      

T. Srikantharajah (London , UK) on 12/04/2007
5 out of 5 stars

Curry leaf (Murraya Koenigi Spreng) protects the liver and the liver cells and is even used as medicinal cure of certain liver diseases, the control of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and high cholesterol especially. It is an excellent culinary herb for fat reduction. Curry leaf not only makes a dish palatable but also adds flavour and nourishment too. Almost every part of the plant,its leaves, the root, bark, petals and fruits are all made use of either in cooking or medicinal purposes. Spicy curry leaves porridge is useful in the control of health problems. Even if stung by a snake, curry leaves porridge is commonly given to remove poison. It was considered a multi-purpose, all time herb.
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