I understand the treatment of snake bite is a VERY controversial topic in medical and survival circles, and I am not an expert, however I would like to pass on my experiences.

Let me first give a little background information.

I heard many years ago that some missionaries in the third world were using high voltage DC shocks to treat snake bite when antivenom was unavailable. Being a curious sort of chap I decided to do some research into the subject. After some time I was able to track down most of the published, and some of the unpublished, information that is out there and this led me to a Dr Ronald Guderian.

Ron was a missionary doctor in Ecuador during the early 1980's and is the one who did the first study into electroshock therapy for snake bite. I was able to get hold of Ron and after spending some time answering my questions he was nice enough to send me a copy of his unpublished report. The report covered the successful treatment of 322 accidental snake bite victims with a 100 percent recovery rate. The snakes involved were mainly the deadly fer-de-lance and bushmaster snakes. Most treatments were administered within 20 minutes of the bite taking place and the longest time was 180 minutes. Treatment was 4-5 very short shocks to each bite mark and the pain subsided within 15-30 minutes. Any swelling regressed within 48-72 hours. The sooner the treatment the sooner any swelling subsided. In some cases a follow up treatment was needed the next day. Some lab studies were conducted on small animals (rats etc.) in the US and the treatment was found to be ineffective. This is assumed by Ron to be because it is impossible to get a localized reaction to the venom in rats. I mean come on! that's what the venom is designed to kill!

Now for my experiences.

I lived in middle Tennessee for 12 years and I saw more snakes there in just a few years, than I did in my childhood of 18 years in Australia. We had lots of Copperheads and Rattlesnakes around the yard and farm. So when I saw our cat, a female Maine Coon, come up to me with a swollen eyelid and meowing very loudly I suspected a snake. Upon closer examination I found the two fang marks and by that time her eyelid had turned inside out. We later found and killed the 3 foot long copperhead that was around her little cat house.

I had dealt with snake bites, at a vet clinic that I worked at in the past, and I knew that it was very serious. I took our cat and wrapped her up in a towel and then gave her one shock from a modified weed eater flywheel and magneto that we had lying around the house (we used it for bee and scorpion stings). I can tell you I have never seen a cat move so fast in all my life!

I wasn't sure that I had given her enough of a shock and I knew there was no way she would let me shock her again. So I remembered something I had read about vitamin C over here in Australia. They had great success with treating snake bite with high doses of injectable or oral vitamin C (the oral takes quite a bit longer). Vitamin C is a very powerful anti-toxin. I knew that this wasn't the way to conduct a scientific test of electroshock therapy, but I was very partial to the cat and I wasn't about to use it as a guinea pig!

I grabbed the cat and took her to the clinic and gave her a shot of vitamin C under the skin.

By that night the swelling had completely gone down and she was back out hunting as if nothing had happened. There was a slight discoloration of the skin and the hair dropped out around the fang marks.

Since that time our friends at a local Mennonite community have used cattle prods to treat snake bite and Brown Recluse spider bite with great success. On the one occasion when someone refused to shock the spider bite they went to the hospital and had very serious injury from the bite. It seems to work very well for pain and swelling from bites and stings even after long periods have elapsed since the initial bite or sting has been inflicted.

It is very important to use ONLY PULSED HIGH VOLTAGE DC electricity, the type found in lawn mowers, cars (a little too powerful for some), chainsaws, weed eaters, motorbikes, outboard motors and stunguns or cattle prods. Power from the mains is DANGEROUS and will not work.

According to Ron the shock works best if the shock is administered straight through limb where the bite is, and then in an x across the bite.

I apologize for such a long posting but I hope my experiences and the information will prove helpful.