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Shock Therapy for Snakebites
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by BlackMamba88 on June 21, 2014
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My friend just made me aware of the fact that some people claim that stun guns can be used to treat snake bites. I googled it and read conflicting articles on the subject. I and many of my friends are venomous enthusiast and keep hot snakes. If one day me or one of my friends were to be tagged, especially if we were out in the field and far from a hospital, would a stun gun be of any help ? Does anybody have any experience with this ?
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RE: Shock Therapy for Snakebites
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by CharlieO on June 23, 2014
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Mamba...
This thread may address some of your questions...
http://www.venomousreptiles.org/forums/Experts/47071
Charlie
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RE: Shock Therapy for Snakebites
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by LarryDFishel on July 6, 2014
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Disclaimer: I got an A in first-semester college biology, and that's about the sum total of my formal qualification.
That said, even I know how silly this concept is.
MAYBE if someone did some formal research and found that some particular frequency of microwaves were preferentially absorbed by the proteins in snake venom (which seems pretty unlikely, but I won't claim to know), it MIGHT be possible to treat a snake bite to the hand without completely destroying the hand.
Like blackstones and many other folk remedies, this one persists because most people don't realize that most snake bites would be survivable with no treatment whatsoever. So, someone gets bitten by a snake, pokes himself in the eye with a stick and lives. This proves that being poked in the eye will save you from a snake bite, since no one has a working time machine yet, that they can use to go back to right after the bite to see that they would have survived anyway.
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RE: Shock Therapy for Snakebites
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by BlackMamba88 on July 7, 2014
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I figured this was probably BS but I also took anatomy and physiology in college and I remember that electricity does denature proteins so I could see how some people may believe that there is something to this. With this said I haven't really come across any good studies proving or disproving this theory. However, if I ever got tagged I would never shock the area as I could also see how this could make things much worse.
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RE: Shock Therapy for Snakebites
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by LarryDFishel on July 8, 2014
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Again, I can't claim to KNOW, but I see no reason why "electric current" (which is the issue here) would denature snake venom any better that it would denature the proteins that make up your hand. Also, I forgot to mention that the most dangerous snake bites are ones where a fang penetrates a vein, in which case, unless you did it withing a second, you'd have to fry your heart, if not your whole body to have any effect.
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RE: Shock Therapy for Snakebites
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by LarryDFishel on July 8, 2014
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Oh, and another, mostly useless point... I've never personally met someone who has been hit with a stun gun, that I know of, but I have to assume that if they were leaving big areas of necrotic tissue, due to denatured proteins, that they would be much more tightly regulated.
My understanding is that they operate at a high voltage and very low amperage, intended to temporarily disrupt nerve activity and do no lasting harm. I've seen (on TV, and probably youtube), plenty of demonstrations (including actual Tazers, which ARE carefully regulated) on volunteers.
I also suspect (but don"t know) that the ones you can buy at Walmart or a gun show, probably don't really do much more than sting.
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RE: Shock Therapy for Snakebites
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by BlackMamba88 on July 8, 2014
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Well the human body is very complex and it may have ways of fixing denatured proteins before necrosis sets in. For example, there are proteins in the body called chaperonins that form chaperonin ring machines that aid in the folding proteins to make sure they are and stay folded correctly. There are no chaperonin proteins for snake venom. I am not saying that this is the actual science of how proteins are reapaired after the administration of a shock I am just saying that I could see how its possible. It would be nice if they could do an experiment and inject venom into an animal then administer a shock and document the exact results. Again I don't condon this and I agree that it would probably doing nothing to help and may cause more damage.
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RE: Shock Therapy for Snakebites
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by LarryDFishel on July 15, 2014
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It's been a while, but I'm fairly sure that's one of the many bite remedies that HAVE been tested on pigs. Seems like I saw it on one of the shows with/about Dr. Sean Bush, and discussed here years ago, but don't shoot me if I "mis-remember".
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