Don't wash, suck, cut or tourniquet the bite. There are a lot of old methods of treating snake bites that are now known to cause more harm than good. Washing the snake bite site can wash off venom that the hospital staff may be able to use to identify the type of snake that bit you.
Wash the area with clean water 2 times a day. Don't use hydrogen peroxide or alcohol, which can slow healing. You may cover the bite with a thin layer of petroleum jelly, such as Vaseline, and a non-stick bandage. Apply more petroleum jelly and replace the bandage as needed.
If you are able, redraw the circle around the site of injury marking the progression of time. It is helpful to remember what the snake looks like, its size, and the type of snake if you know it, in order to tell the emergency room staff.
Ice: Do not use ice for snakebites! Ice causes the smaller blood vessels to constrict and when combined with viper venoms it can produce dramatic tissue damage. Again, better to let the swelling happen and focus on getting to a hospital.
Don't use a tourniquet or apply ice. Don't cut the wound or attempt to remove the venom. Don't drink caffeine or alcohol, which could speed your body's absorption of venom. Don't try to capture the snake.
If you or someone you know is bitten by a snake, call 911 right away and try to stay calm. If you can describe the snake, that can help first responders figure out the right treatment. Until help arrives, try to keep the bite below heart level and wash the area of the bite with warm, soapy water.
Do not allow the victim to eat or to drink water in order to keep metabolism at low rate. No water No food is the golden rule. DO NOT COVER THE BITE AREA AND PUNCTURE MARKS. The wound should be gently cleaned with antiseptic.
"Most venomous snakes are believed to have some immunity to their own venom, but there are a few cases of fatal self envenomation. In the very rare chance a venomous snakes does bite itself and dies, other factors such as disease or stress are the major reasons for a fatality."
Treatment: First Aid
Keep the area of the bite below the heart to keep venom from spreading. Keep the person as still as possible to keep venom from spreading. Cover the bite loosely with a clean, dry bandage. Help the person stay calm to prevent shock.
The Sind Krait can be easily classified as one of the most “toxic snakes” in India but there is no effective anti-venom to treat its bite, the study added.
Wound aspirate, serum, and urine are the most suitable materials for venom detection. ELISA has been used for clinical diagnosis of snakebite, to monitor antivenom dose, to study clinical syndromes associated with envenomation, to detect venom in forensic cases, and to evaluate first aid techniques.
The inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) is considered the most venomous snake in the world with a murine LD 50 value of 0.025 mg/kg SC. Ernst and Zug et al. 1996 list a value of 0.01 mg/kg SC, which makes it the most venomous snake in the world in their study too.
Swelling may become apparent within 15 minutes and becomes massive in 2-3 days. It may persist for up to 3 weeks. The swelling spreads rapidly from the site of the bite and may involve the whole limb and adjacent trunk.
The chances of dying from a venomous snakebite in the United States is nearly zero, because we have available, high-quality medical care in the U.S. Fewer than one in 37,500 people are bitten by venomous snakes in the U.S. each year (7-8,000 bites per year), and only one in 50 million people will die from snakebite (5- ...
Yes, they can. The good news is that not all snakes have fangs strong enough to go through rubber boots. When snakes strike and the fangs sink into their target, they don't necessarily know whether they've broken skin or pierced a boot.
"There is residual electrical energy, for a lack of a better word, so it may move. "So, if you decapitate a snake and then pick up the head, it's fully capable of biting," Pfaff says.
Various organisms have been reported to cause infections after snake bites. Polymicrobial infections are seen frequently, with Enterobacteriaceae being among the most common isolates (9).
This story is perhaps not as uncommon as it may seem, because snakes—like many other reptiles—retain their reflexes even hours after death. The bite reflex is extremely strong in venomous snakes, because their instinct is to deliver one extremely quick bite, move away, and wait for their venom to work.
Twenty minutes after being bitten you may be lose the ability to talk. After one hour you're probably comatose, and by six hours, without an antidote, you are dead. A person will experience "pain, paralysis and then death within six hours," says Damaris Rotich, the curator for the snake park in Nairobi.
These findings suggest that after an hour of heating most toxic components in snake venom were already destroyed and heating could be used as a simple technique to detoxify cobra venom. In cobra venom, the major components are cardiotoxins and neurotoxins.
The killer of the most people
The saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) may be the deadliest of all snakes, since scientists believe it to be responsible for more human deaths than all other snake species combined.