removal of injected venom

[da_illest]

i was wondering what you thought of this.. somebody told me that when a t bites you you can suck out the venom and spit it out like when a bee stings you...

true or false?

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by da_illest
true or false?

False. It's false with snakes, it's false with bees, it's false with Ts.

You can, with a slow steady vacuum, suck out *some* venom and the steady vacuum may help slow the spread but it's only a minor effect. However, it's going to take the sort of suction devices in a snakebite kit not the sort of suction you're going to get from your mouth.

From the minute a venomous critter hits you, the venom is being carried by blood, if it's a neurotoxin it's travelling down nerve pathways, it's moving into the lymphatic system, it's diffusing into nearby cells. Suck all you want, you're still going to be envenomated.

 

[da_illest]

yea? thanks for clearing that up so i'm not sucking on my blood for no reason if i get bit... the guy at the pet shop who sold me my first t told me that's what he did when he got bit and when he gets stung by a bee too... i was a full pledged newB at this point so i bombed him with questions

 

[luther]

I've never been bitten, but my plan should it ever happen, is to suck as hard as I can on a bottle of vodka.

 

[BBlack]

luther did you read my mind? You got only one thing wrong it's whiskey!

 

[G_Wright]

I didn't bother sucking when I got bit by my P murinus. It just stung for a few hours then cleared up the next day. Although it was small then

 

[cricket54]

Hey, Luther I like the idea of hitting the whiskey, or tequila if its a mexican/south american tarantula. Acutually, alcohol wouldn't be the best to take at first untill you find out how you react to the bite. I wonder if those snake bite kits actually do any good? I hear
that cutting open the wound to suck out the venom, does damage because some people are so vigorous making the cuts that the poor victim has to have lots of stitches afterwards and still will have some of the side effects from the snake venom.
Once you are bit, yoa just have to deal with it? What about apply ing ice to tarantula,scorpion, wasp/bee, or snake bites? What about millipede bites?
Sharon

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by cricket54
I wonder if those snake bite kits actually do any good? I hear
that cutting open the wound to suck out the venom, does damage because some people are so vigorous making the cuts that the poor victim has to have lots of stitches afterwards and still will have some of the side effects from the snake venom.

Cutting and sucking is *only* a last resort when you know you can't reach medical help in a timely matter. As you mentioned, the physical damage is often greater than the venom damage. The suckers from a snakebite kit themselves aren't bad and have some effect, but cutting is pretty much useless unless you are just in such a bad location that you think that the extra drop or two you'll pull out by bleeding yourself like a medieval patient will make a difference. It's also generally discouraged even in a worst case scenario because people go ape and can endanger their lives from blood loss.

Once you are bit, yoa just have to deal with it? What about apply ing ice to tarantula,scorpion, wasp/bee, or snake bites? What about millipede bites?

Since there are no antivenins, yep, you get to deal with it. Ice can slow the spread of venom but doesn't really do much in terms of alleviating anything other but pain through numbing things (although for intense venoms such as pokies and centipedes, if you can stop the spread that may be of use, although diluting in your system may be of use as well - ye old 6 one way, a half dozen the other). For many venoms, though, that's enough - e.g. bee/wasp venom usually completely subsides within a few hours other than some minor swelling and maybe itching, you keep ice on that and it's going to help.

And millipedes? What are you doing to millipedes that they're biting you (is it even possible to get a milli to bite?)? Did you perhaps mean "centipedes"?

 

[Lycanthrope]

Yeah, I think he means centipedes. For the record though, I had a giant African milli that would wedge his face under my fingernails and chew at the soft skin underneath. Didn't really hurt or anything, but it did feel mildly unpleasant.

 

[wsimms]

I'm an M.D. at a regional snakebite center, and many of the principles of treating snakebite apply to envenomation in general. C.M. is right when he states that cutting and sucking are no good. One should never put ice on a snakebite, particularly any pit viper bite, but it probably won't hurt for a tarantula bite. Unfortunately, those rubber suckers that come with most snakebite kits don't do the job either. Although we instruct people that the best snakebite kit in the world is a set of carkeys, The Extractor by Sawyer is a close second. It is the only commercially available kit that generates enough suction to pull venom out of lymphatics, where the majority of venom transportation occurs. It can even generate enough suction to pull blood through intact skin, so you can imagine its not exactly a painless procedure. It works well on wasp and yellojacket stings (to which I can personally attest) and would work well with a T bite or scorpion sting too.
http://www.sawyerproducts.com/Extractor/

W

 

[jesses]

Originally posted by da_illest
i was wondering what you thought of this.. somebody told me that when a t bites you you can suck out the venom and spit it out like when a bee stings you...

true or false?

Your entire question is false since you can't suck the venom out of a Bee sting, seeing as how a Bee will put the entire stinger in you, so if you suck it out all you're really doing is giving yourself a bee-sting in the mouth or tongue. Read a book

 

[Malkavian]

My mother has used tobacco (from a shredded cigarette) to supposedly pull venom from a yellowjacket sting--I was young at the time, but I do remember the tobacco pullling yellowish stuff up from around the sting site (and from noewhere else on my skin) -0---perhpas that would be of some use if bitten by a T that had a significant bite

 

[jesses]

Originally posted by Malkavian
My mother has used tobacco (from a shredded cigarette) to supposedly pull venom from a yellowjacket sting--I was young at the time, but I do remember the tobacco pullling yellowish stuff up from around the sting site (and from noewhere else on my skin) -0---perhpas that would be of some use if bitten by a T that had a significant bite

Careful, you might give yourself Bonus-Eruptus, which is when the skeleton jumps out of the body. Also the tobacco can cause skin failure.

 

[cricket54]

My husband used chewing tabacco (he had been chewing) when he was stung by several brown wasps. A nurse that was there at the time suggested he try it and it did relieve some of the pain.
Maybe it would help some with some spider bites (I won't chew it). Shredded cigarette tobacco won't help much unless it soaking wet and you wring a lot of the water out. This is an old folks, old timey remedy from way back. I don't think the baking soda paste helps or the baking soda and vinegar past works much at all. The baking soda paste does help us for the urticating hairs on your hands though.

Sharon