Venom and snakebite prevention and control
Identifying venomous snakes——
For different venomous snakes, prevention and treatment methods are also different. Symptomatic prevention and treatment can only be carried out when venomous snakes are correctly identified.
The hallmark organ of poisonous snakes is the fangs, which can be divided into groove teeth and tube teeth according to their shape, and front fangs and posterior fangs according to their position on the upper frontal bone. But this kind of identification is very inconvenient in application. Another method is to identify snakes by their appearance and color spots.
The whole body is mainly green: Bamboo Leaf Green. Distributed in southern my country, the Yangtze River basin, flee when frightened. Bite symptoms are relatively mild.
The whole body is mainly black, erect, with a flat neck: cobra. Distributed in the south of the Yangtze River in my country, it has a ferocious temperament, can face off for a long time, sprays venom, but does not take the initiative to attack people. Symptoms of bite wounds include necrosis of wound tissue, chest tightness, high fever, and difficulty breathing.
The whole body is mainly dark brown, erect, and the neck is flat: the king cobra. Distributed in southern my country. Ferocious in temperament, it is the largest of the venomous snakes. Active attack, bite hard. Symptoms are extremely urgent onset, and they will die soon. When they encounter such a snake bite, in addition to active rescue, they must also pray for good luck.
The back is black with many white stripes: silver ring snake. It is distributed south of the Yangtze River. It runs away when frightened, but bites people when it gets too close. Bites are common. The wound was not swollen or painful, and after a few hours, the whole body was paralyzed and breathing stopped.
Black on the back with many yellow horizontal stripes: Golden Ring Snake. Distribution south of the Yangtze River. The rest are similar to silver ring snakes.
The whole body is mainly tan, with a large head and a triangular shape: a pit viper. It is distributed all over the country and even lives on the Lijiang Snow Mountain at an altitude of 4,000 meters. When frightened, run away more than attack. The symptoms are severe onset, systemic hemorrhage, severe wound pain, and tissue necrosis.
The whole body is mainly tan, the head is large, triangular, and the nose is upturned (looks like a cigarette butt): the sharp-nosed pit viper (five-step snake) is fierce, actively attacks, the symptoms are fierce, and the whole body is bleeding , severe wound pain, tissue necrosis.
The whole body is mainly tan, and the head is slightly longer triangle: Viper. When frightened, it can fight for a long time. Symptoms are similar to those of a five-step snake.
If you are not sure of identifying a poisonous snake after being bitten, you should try to kill the poisonous snake and bring it back. I don’t agree with fighting snakes, and I have no practical experience in fighting snakes, but for some snakes, such as cobras, covering the body of the snake with clothes should be effective.
Poisoning characteristics of being bitten by various types of venomous snakes——
Neurotoxic: the venoms of krait and krait belong to this category . The main manifestation of poisoning is damage to the nervous system. There may be no special performance locally. The characteristic of the poisoning process is that it usually takes a period of incubation period. Generally, the symptoms of systemic poisoning appear about 1 to 4 hours after the bite, but once it occurs, it develops rapidly and is difficult to control. In severe cases, the patient is in a coma and stops breathing, but the heartbeat and blood pressure are still good at this time. If artificial respiration is insisted, there is hope for rescue.
Blood circulation venoms: five-step snake, bamboo leaf green, and viper venom belong to this category. Poisoning performance is complex, mainly damage to the blood circulatory system. Poisoning is characterized by short incubation period, rapid disease progression, local necrosis and festering, massive bleeding from wounds, and even bleeding from seven orifices. There is an inherent saying that the chair is filtered on the street, but in fact, as long as it is rescued in time and sent to the nearest hospital within a few hours, it can still be cured.
Mixed venoms: pit vipers, cobras, king cobras, etc. belong to this category. Poisoning manifestations include both neurotoxicity and blood circulation toxicity. The main characteristics of poisoning are respiratory paralysis and circulatory failure, so even artificial respiration is difficult to rescue. Among them, the risk of death caused by the bite of a king cobra is relatively high, and most deaths occur within a few minutes to 2 hours after the bite. There is a village in northern Fujian, because they know that catching cobras can make them rich, all the men and women in the village go up the mountain to catch snakes, so people are bitten to death by king cobras every year. If you are bitten by a cobra in a timely manner and treated properly, you can usually recover after a 48-hour dangerous period.
Treatment of venomous snake bites (The treatment of bites by other dangerous animals such as dogs, venomous bees, and centipedes can be referred to here)
1. To distinguish whether it is a venomous snake or a non-venomous snake bite, a venomous snake bite usually sees two or one or three relatively large and deep tooth marks. Four rows of tiny tooth marks are common in non-venomous snake bites. But in some cases the wound may be indistinct.
2. Treatment principle: If you don’t know whether it is a venomous snake or a non-venomous snake bite, you should be bitten by a venomous snake……
3. Early ligation: use rope, cloth tape, straw Wait, ligate a few centimeters above the wound, not too tight and not too loose. The ligation should be done quickly and within 2 to 5 minutes of the bite. After that, relax for 1 to 2 minutes every 15 minutes to avoid limb necrosis due to blocked blood circulation. The ligature can be removed after injection of the anti-venom.
4. Wash the wound: rinse the wound with water, cold water or soapy water.
5. Detoxification: After rinsing, use a sterilized knife to cut the skin between the two tooth marks, and at the same time, on the skin near the wound, use a knife to poke the rice grains. To drain the venom. Keep squeezing the wound for 20 minutes. When bitten by a viper or a five-step snake, it is generally not used for detoxification, because they contain hemorrhagic poison, which will cause continuous bleeding. When inhaling directly by mouth, it must be ensured that there are no oral mucosal ulcers, dental caries, etc.
6. Topical medication: For example, sodium edetate injection can combine metalloprotease and inhibit the activity of some hydrolases. It is effective for local tissue necrosis bitten by pit vipers, five-step snakes and vipers. There are different snakebite medicines in drug supply stations in various places, please refer to the instructions for use. (The team leader should consider bringing snakebite medicine during large-scale and long-term field activities)
7. Artificial respiration: artificial respiration can be used to maintain the comatose patients who are in a coma after being bitten by the silver ring snake and the golden ring snake.
8. Antivenom treatment: The earlier antivenom is applied, the better the curative effect. But unfortunately, due to the difficulty of storage, only a few hospitals have antitoxin in stock. Therefore, after the injured are sent to the hospital, the ambulance should also inquire about the nearest anti-venom reserve.
