Snakes have always been one of the common creatures to be found in forests and rural areas. Often their venom turns out to be poisonous, endangering people.
A snakebite is an injury caused by the bite of a snake, especially a venomous snake. A common sign of a bite from a venomous snake is the presence of two puncture wounds from the animal’s fangs. Sometimes venom injection from the bite may occur. This may result in redness, swelling, and severe pain at the area, which may take up to an hour to appear. Vomiting, blurred vision, tingling of the limbs, and sweating may result. Most bites are on the hands, arms, or legs
Even a bite from a harmless snake can be serious, leading to an allergic reaction or an infection. Venomous snake bites can produce an array of symptoms, including localized pain and swelling, convulsions, nausea, and even paralysis.
Not every snake bite is deadly.
Dry bites: These occur when a snake doesn’t release any venom with its bite. As you’d expect, these are mostly seen with non-venomous snakes.
Venomous bites: These are much more dangerous. They occur when a snake transmits venom during a bite.
Did you know that there are so many types of venom? Well, here you go! Different species carry different types of venom. The major categories include:
Symptoms
Symptoms specific to coral snake bites include:
Symptoms
Copperhead snake bites share symptoms with water moccasin snake bites. Symptoms can include:
Symptoms
Symptoms specific to rattlesnake bites are immediate and include:
Symptoms
Water moccasin bites share symptoms with copperhead bites. Specific symptoms include:
Should you be bitten by a snake, it’s essential to get emergency treatment as quickly as possible. However, there are some tips that you should also keep in mind:
It’s important that we do not mess up the first aid, listening to the myths. This may put the victim’s life into danger even.
If the bite is not serious, the doctor may simply clean the wound and give the victim a tetanus vaccine.
If the situation is life threatening, the doctor may administer antivenom. This is a substance created with snake venom to counter the snake bite symptoms. It’s injected into the victim. The sooner the antivenom is used, the more effective it will be.
Antivenoms are created by immunizing horses or sheep with the venom of a particular snake. Their blood serum (the watery part of the blood) is then processed, as it will contain antibodies capable of neutralizing the effects of venom. There are antivenoms that treat bites from a specific type of snake (monospecific antivenoms) and also those that treat bites from a number of snakes found in a particular geographic region (polyspecific antivenoms).