What to do when you get bit?

[Lennie Collins]

Good god this thread is a heap of crap. I seriously hope no sane people read this and take any of it as knowledge or good reference in a bite situation.

Agreed! Would this be considered "trolling"?:?

 

[dantediss]

I am very saddened at this thread, people wishing other people dead for making a statement and about doing things we know they would never do,I was recently a passenger in a very serious car accident in which i almost did die and now will suffer from it for the rest of my life

 

[dantediss]

and to see people wishing this fate on others is disquisting. if the op did get bit and believed a benedryl and stiff drink would help so be it, and when you wish bad things upon me for saying that remember,your also wishing ill will on rob c. cus he was bit by a pokie and thats exactly what he did.... think about that one. im sad to be a member of this board right now : (

 

[Jackuul]

and to see people wishing this fate on others is disquisting. if the op did get bit and believed a benedryl and stiff drink would help so be it, and when you wish bad things upon me for saying that remember,your also wishing ill will on rob c. cus he was bit by a pokie and thats exactly what he did.... think about that one. im sad to be a member of this board right now : (

So instead of dwelling on it, why not make the best of it and post your emergency kit and what you would do

 

[cacoseraph]

Well you don't just somehow develop an allergy to something out of nowhere, so I doubt that if you were stung by a bee again you would feel anything different than when you first got stung.

actually, for bees and ppl with severe allergies to them you need to get stung once to be sensitized and then the NEXT sting can trigger anaplylactic shock (which is the ONLY time i know of epipens being medically indicated)






to the rest of you little nancies reading this... did you actually read what i posted? or just come up with some weak knee-jerk emotional response? did you read my contribution to rob c's thread? and the subsequent contributions by other members?









also, thoth... there was a girl who had something like 25% elevated IgE level a weak after she was bit by a pokie. of course, i don't know how you could differentiate that from "regular" allergies... espeically a WEEK after the bite... but the "no evidence of allergic response" tagline is no longer 100% true. i believe their is a ref in the rob c thread

 

[robc]

also, thoth... there was a girl who had something like 25% elevated IgE level a weak after she was bit by a pokie. of course, i don't know how you could differentiate that from "regular" allergies... espeically a WEEK after the bite... but the "no evidence of allergic response" tagline is no longer 100% true. i believe their is a ref in the rob c thread

There is some pretty good info in there...I admit I did the wrong thing....cacoseraph has some very good info in there and has taught me to study the venom and effects and also the drugs you mix....they can be deadly....I do trust cacoseraph advice...he at least has some experience and facts to back-up what he is saying.

Robc

 

[cacoseraph]

and i don't think i have ever said i know what will happen... if i did i misspoke. what i do know is that there are a TON of chemical reactions involved and to add even more complexity for a fairy dubious pay off will probably hurt more than help


heck, i would even venture to guess a fair amount of the perceived relief that a lot of self medicating might produce is mostly psychosomatic. from personal experience the more i freak out about a bite the worse it is... but the calmer, cooler, and more collected i can keep myself the better.







for instance... in venom one kill mechanism for verts is to have their blood pressure dropped. this causes the organs to deoxygenate. alcohol, some pain killers, and some muscle relaxers ALSO drop blood pressure

another kill mechanism is tachycardia... fast, light heart beats... if you combine tachycardia with a low blood pressure you can lose even more ability to oxygenate. in reality, your body is HEAVILY biased to protect your brain... so it might just decide to shunt blood away from extremities... of course, you don't *really* need all you fingers and toes so i guess that isn't that big of a deal...









the thing that really cracks me up is that i don't actually care if someone dies from poorly self medicating a Pokie or Hap bite... i don't keep them anymore. i like native bugs... any regulation against african or asian species wouldn't affect me in the least

 

[dantediss]

To my knowledge no t bite will kill you. My best advice is just relax and deal with it, If you must take a benedryl and drink lots of water...I would never tell one TO drink but i highly doubt A benedryll and A shot of whisky wovld kil5 you

 

[the nature boy]

when you wish bad things upon me for saying that remember,your also wishing ill will on rob c.

I don't know about you but I'll take any opportunity to wish ill on Rob, LOL! j/k

 

[cacoseraph]

barring someone with pre-existing sensitivities or conditions i would be fairly surprised if someone who wasn't going to die would die from a single low dosage of benadryl and a single shot. i would NOT be surprised if they had a worse time from some venoms. i would be surprised if it objectively helped them out at all


but... if someone were to take say, five doses of benadryl and five doses of alcohol it could be a whole different ball game. taken in the absence of alcohol and without other complicating factors they would probably just make you inordinately drowsy... but add in a decreased blood pressure from venom effect and there could be some serious medical complications that arise



in my experience, most people are horribly undereducated about drugs/medicine and how their body actually works. ppl like this might think well, i think i felt improvement from A benadryl and and A drink... surely 3 of each would make me feel even better... and that is were you run into significant risks

 

[venomous.com]

If I get bit I'll take a vicodin or two, have a couple of beers and notate the reactions and pain. Not scared in the least.

I swear, it's like some of you never lived through the rave phase

 

[cacoseraph]

If I get bit I'll take a vicodin or two, have a couple of beers and notate the reactions and pain. Not scared in the least.

I swear, it's like some of you never lived through the rave phase

most vicodin these days are a tiny amount of hydrocodone paired with 200+ mg of ibuprofen (ooh, could that be a synergistic reaction? i think so ). to my understanding, the hydrocodone is the one you would potentially have to worry about... but as i said it is a TINY dose per pill. most american beer is about as strong as my piss after a good night drinking. combining a relatively small amount of hydrocodone with a relatively small amount of alcohol and you probably won't see much happen. probably.

combining those two drugs in the presence of a venom cocktail and it becomes much more difficult to predict. there is probably a tiny chance that if you have a bum ticker or bad nervature or the venom is particularily sedative in nature something bad could happen.

and if you take something with some actual punch to it, like meperidine and drink a few shots of alcohol you could actually reasonably expect to see surprising effects


i have been to quite a few raves. rather enjoyable until lots of ppl started drinking at them. and when i went.. i was the one ppl would ask their party favor questions to


it's not like i'm pulling all this out of my ass... i have read quite a bit about how my body and the drugs in it work

 

[Dave]

So, cacoseraph,
If you have any insight, what is the reasoning behind consuming alcohol after getting tagged, since it seems to be such a popular thing to do, and also is the underlying antagonist behind this crazy thread?
Is it just a "tough guy" thing to do, or is there actually another reason, perhaps just to calm the nerves?
This is a question by someone who does not drink and therefore has no justification into the topic.

 

[cacoseraph]

well, it is a CNS depressant so it does dull pain. it also would probably calm some ppl down, which would alleviate psychosomatic affects.





and to be honest, in venoms that don't seem to have neuro effects i personally do drink some. but this is because i did enough research to feel comfortable that the alcohol and venom wouldn't synergize on me. it is still not a sure thing... but i did do enough research to have some weak form of an informed opinion





and really, i don't think i have ever said A drink is likely to mess someone up... i am more against mixing multiple CNS depressants with venom that does exhibit neurological affects without doing so much as a single freaking google on anything, much less and kind of substantial research

 

[dantediss]

I in no way suggest getting bit and binging.But i do know that a single shot or a speedily drunk beer will take the edge off ,Usually long enough for the relaxing effect of tylenol pm...Make it easier to relax and cope with the venom allowing it to run its course my 2 cents

 

[cacoseraph]

in my experience a single drink of alcohol won't do anything noticeable for pain severe enough to want to do something about it. i have had some pretty gnarly centipede bites and even five drinks didn't do anything (the venoms from those species are not known to have systemic affects). Excedrin didn't do anythign that i could really tell either



that has kind of been one of my points in the past... bites severe enough to make someone really want to treat them are not likely to appreciably respond to a single dosage of OTC drugs (including alcohol) and taking more than one dose even in the absence of complicating venom factors is increasing folly. taking enough doses of OTC drugs (or worse prescription drugs or even worse alcohol + drugs) to actually feel nice is just plain stupid

 

[venomous.com]

and to be honest, in venoms that don't seem to have neuro effects i personally do drink some. but this is because i did enough research to feel comfortable that the alcohol and venom wouldn't synergize on me. it is still not a sure thing... but i did do enough research to have some weak form of an informed opinion

As an ex-hots keepers, I'd never recommend mixing venomous and drinking. Real venom and alcohol can be a potent mix. Also with venomous you have to consider the chances of venom sensitivity and anaphylaxis even if you've never been bitten before.

I don't consider a T to be in the league of any of the creatures I used to keep. I'm sure a pokie bite might hurt and all but I don't even slightly consider it as 'life threatening'

 

[cacoseraph]

hot snakes and centipedes have almost nothing in common.

in centipedes there is maybe one species that has the possibility of gross systemic effects that we know of (Scolopendra alternans). most just have local effects. all the med. lit. i read lead me to believe mixing alcohol would not be a big deal. there are three cases of death from centipedes that can be found and two of them were obviously from secondary infections (and said as much).

would it be safer to abstain? almost certainly... but have i read anything that would make me leary of stacking centipede venom and alcohol? not yet.


the dopey stuff i read from some of the ppl in this thread leads me to believe they didn't do any research at all AND some species of tarantula have pretty dramatic systemic effects making them a horrible candidate to drink or do other drugs with

 

[Fran]

Dont do stupid things. Dont bother the animals, let them be, take precautions and it will be almost imposible to get bitten.

If you decide not to, then deal with it if they bite you...what can I tell you.

 

[Thoth]

...
also, thoth... there was a girl who had something like 25% elevated IgE level a weak after she was bit by a pokie. of course, i don't know how you could differentiate that from "regular" allergies... espeically a WEEK after the bite... but the "no evidence of allergic response" tagline is no longer 100% true. i believe their is a ref in the rob c thread

I have seen the paper. That is no indication of correlation. First it is the only such mention of such an elevation. Second like you mentioned it was measured a week later, which in the meanwhile anything could have caused it. Also if she was given cortisone to treat any symptoms, it is known to cause an increase in IgE levels. So I am still not convinced, if further proof is published I am willing to concede and admit I was mistaken, till then I stand by my original assertion.


Though the hairs from a tarantula are a different issue and are well known allergens and there has been documented case of anaphylaxis from inhaled hairs.