What if a snake bites you?

If a snake bites you

• Remain calm.
• Immobilize the bitten arm or leg, and stay as quiet as possible to keep the poison from spreading through your body.
• Remove jewelry before you start to swell.
• Position yourself, if possible, so that the bite is at or below the level of your heart.
• Cleanse the wound, but don't flush it with water, and cover it with a clean, dry dressing.
• Apply a splint to reduce movement of the affected area, but keep it loose enough so as not to restrict blood flow.
• Don't use a tourniquet or apply ice.
• Don't cut the wound or attempt to remove the venom.
• Don't drink caffeine or alcohol.
• Don't try to capture the snake, but try to remember its color and shape so you can describe it, which will help in your treatment.

The Krait

Now comes the second in line.
A snake who has no anti venom...the Krait. The worst part about this snake is that when he bites you , you dont feel the pain until it is too late. Chances of you being cured by an anti venom is also very rare as the poison itself is very lethal.

So you will ask how to keep yourself protected ... Well its easy...STAY AWAY.

Luckily krait is the most easiest snake out of the Deadly 4 to identify due to its specific and very easily detectable patterns.

Crait is black small and this with King Cobra like stripes on it. The patter is similar to a few cobras but yeah if its a crait its very noticeably smaller than cobra.

 

Thus as shown above it is a crait. A black snake with white spots. Remember, When you see it. You better run away

The Cobra

When we think of snakes the first thing that comes to our mind is Venom and Panic..But the actual fact is that out of hundreds of species of snake only four of them are venomous.
Here I am not talking about the snakes in India, But only Maharashtra and western ghats in specific

Now you are obviously saying what happens if other snakes, that is snakes other than these 4 venomous snakes bite us...The answer is quite a relief. If you are a healthy person (By healthy I mean a person who can walk a hundred meters without any effort) you just have to wash the snake wound with water and forget about it. Nothing will happen to you.

But what if the snake is Venomous- No No, Death is still NOT a certain thing. It has been observed that a average male and female have roughly around 45 mins before they actually die of a venomous snake bite. And if you want to increase the time you have, the first thing you need to do is identify the snake...
Now why to do that- because an anti venom for each snake is different. So if you get bitten by a cobra and you are given an anti venom of a viper- you land up in a great trouble.

So lets check how to identify the BIG FOUR which i call THE DEADLY FOUR:

In this post i have covered cobra. Check my blog every Sunday for updates on other snakes.

1) Cobras-

Cobras are divided in 2 subspecies (Popular Subspecies)
      a) Spectacled Cobra (Used During Naag-Panchami)       b) King Cobra


before telling you further the first thing to know about cobras is that they have hoods. And they will show off their hoods as soon as they feel threatened.
So lets see how a hood of spectacled cobra looks like:

So first the front side. After hood of the Spectacled Cobra is shown you can clearly see eyes like pattern right in the center his hood. When you see that. You know that you gotta run.

On the other hand on the back side you can see an alphabet U. These two signs are strong indicators that the snake you are about to witness is cobra...One of the DEADLY FOUR!


Now comes the KING. The name itself should ideally be enough to warn you and tell you that dont mess with this one...This is the longest venomous snake in the world and has a capacity of injecting venoms of large quantities.
Kind is basically known by his hood and the pattern on the scale which is white strips on black body.

However Identifying this one could be tricky....Check out a few steps on how to Identify:
Begin by observing that the king cobra is the longest venomous snake in the world. This incredible snake can grow to over 18 feet in length. While not especially heavy, they are sturdy and can weigh over 20 pounds. This size gives the king cobra plenty of respect in the wild among most animals.Notice that the king cobra is generally an olive color, but can also be black, light green, brown, and almost a navy bluish type color. The underside of the king cobra is generally a light yellow but can also be white. Another telling sign of a king cobra are the light colored bands that run across the body of the the king cobra.Observe from a distance that the head of the king cobra can seem quite large compared to many snakes. It has very large scales on its head and prominent eyes. This snake, like all cobras, will flatten out its neck in an impressive display if you happen upon it.Remember that the king cobra is unique in that it can raise one third of its body off the ground when angered, and still advance and attack without even coming down. Given the fact that they reach up to 18 feet in length, this allows the king cobra to literally look a human in the eye.Listen carefully for the king cobra as it emits a chilling sound. When it is upset, the king cobra will lash out and hiss to warn off predators. This hissing sound is absolutely chilling. It almost sounds like a hocking noise. This deadly predator can drop an elephant so you can imagine what could happen to a human. All king cobra bites are serious because of the deadly venom, but also because the king cobra is so large that it can inject more venom than most snakes.

The pic below clearly tells you details about the pattern of king cobra