Treating A Snakebite During Your Camping Adventure

Camping can be a great outdoor adventure. However, within all of nature's beauty lurk some animals that can be harmful to humans. The most common animal that you may come across in camping adventures is the snake. Depending on where you camp, you could run across numerous species of both poisonous and non-poisonous varieties. Now keep in mind that we are the ones invading upon their territory. Therefore, if you do not want to get bitten, you need to take the proper precautions to ensure that does not happen.

Of course, no matter how careful you can be, sometimes, snakes can sneak up on you and strike. Do you know what to do if you or someone else with you is bitten? Well, until you can get to a hospital, it is up to you to treat the snake bite yourself. With a bit of common sense, you can take care of that snake bite and get to the hospital before it becomes life threatening. Even if the snake is non-venomous, the bite could still become infected and pose a serious danger to health. Therefore, it is important to wash the bite with plenty of soap and water. Look for dirt or even teeth from the snake in the wound.

If possible, without harm to you or anyone else, try and determine the type of snake it is. This could help a hospital in determining which anti-venom medicine is needed, if any. Even if you are positive that the snake is not poisonous, it is still a good idea to go to the hospital for the bite to be inspected. If anything, another tetanus shot may be in order.

When treating the snake bite, remove jewelry and other items which might restrict blood flow. If swelling starts to occur these items might cut off circulation and you could lose a finger, toe or other limb. If you are a distance from any type of medical help, construct a splint for the area where the bite occurred. This will ensure that there is no movement to the area. Hopefully, this will slow down the spread of the venom throughout your body.

Whatever you do, do not try the old cut and suck routine. This just works in the old Hollywood movies because in real life, you could cause an infection. Imagine being sick more from the infection than the bite itself! If you are a frequent outdoorsman, consider always carrying a professional snake bite suction device. While it will not remove any noteworthy amounts of venom, it may slow the spread of it to buy some time.

Other things you should not do in the event of a snake bite is use alcohol to clean the wound or use an ice pack. Neither of these does anything and in fact, could be detrimental. In addition, do not eat or drink anything or apply a tourniquet to the snake bite area. The bottom line is that you should do what you can with what you have in the immediate time frame and then call for help once the snakebite is treated. The quicker you can get to the hospital, the quicker an anti-venom could be administered if needed.

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