EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

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   The following is  a  summation  and series of quotes from a two part
   article that appeared in OUTDOOR  LIFE  magazine.   The  name of the
   article is "A  Shock  Cure for Snakebite" and was written  by  Larry
   Mueller. Part 1 of the article was in the June 1988 issue and Part 2
   was in the July 1988 issue.

   Back issues of  OUTDOOR  LIFE  can  be  purchased by writing OUTDOOR
   LIFE, Back Issue Department, P.O. Box 54733, Boulder, CO 80233.

   The price per back issue is $4.00.  A cheaper way out is to call the
   OUTDOOR LIFE home office at (212)779-5000 and ask them to send you a
   copy of the article.  They will do  this  free of charge but you may
   have to tell them that you are a subscriber to their magazine.
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                        A SHOCK CURE FOR SNAKEBITE

                                  Part 1

                   ************************************

   The first part of the article tells several stories  of  cases where
   high voltage DC  was  used  to treat snakebites.  In the first case,
   Dr. Daryl Neans, a veterinarian of  Pflugerville,  Texas,  tells the
   story of a rancher who brought in a dog that was bitten  on the face
   by a rattlesnake 30 minutes earlier.

   The dog's face  had  started  swelling  and  because  Dr.  Neans had
   previously read an OUTDOOR LIFE  article  about  the  treatment,  he
   connected a wire to one of the spark plug wires of  his  truck  then
   grounded another one  to  the  frame and used the two wires to shock
   the "dog's face half a dozen times around the bites."

   The treatment seemed to relieve the  dog's pain, but "for insurance,
   Dr. Neans had followed the shock treatment with the usual cortisone,
   antibiotics, and tetanus  antitoxin,  but  he's convinced  that  the
   shock had already effected the cure."

   The article explains why Dr. Neans believes in the cure:

         "Body tissue  is  negatively  charged, snake venom is slightly
          positive, and unlike charges  attract.   If ionization of the
          venom molecules is altered by electrical shock,  he reasoned,
          perhaps they  can't  attach  themselves  to animal tissue and
          destroy it."

   Dr. Markus Kryger  had read about the treatment in a medical journal
   when he opted  to  use  it on courthouse  employee  in  southwestern
   Missouri who was bitten by a copperhead just outside the courthouse.

   He used jumper cables attached to the spark coil of his car to treat
   the wound after giving the woman a tetanus shot and disinfecting the
   bite.  "Within the hour, the puzzled patient was back at work."

   Dr. Kryger became  convinced that electrical shock could  deactivate
   snake venom because   of  the  chemistry  of  the  poison.   Besides
   proteins and enzymes, venom contains  copper  and other trace metals
   whose electrical properties  could be easily upset  by  high-voltage
   shock, thereby possibly uncoupling what makes the venom work.

   Dr. Ronald Guderian is a missionary doctor from Seattle who is given
   credit for being   the  first  to  use  high  voltage  DC  to  treat
   snakebite.  He has "successfully treated  more  than 60 cases in the
   Esmeraldas Province of Ecuador."

   Based on Dr. Guderian's experience it seems that if the treatment is
   received within 15 to 20 minutes after the bite has  been  inflicted
   then the pain stops almost immediately and no swelling will occur.

   If swelling has  already  started,  then  it stops and the pain soon
   subsides.  Dr. Guderian typically  uses a Nova Technologies stun gun
   with one of  the  electrodes  modified so that the  current  can  be
   passed directly through  the  limb  by  placing an electrode on each
   side.

   "All of the successful treatments have been performed
   with 20,000 to 25,000 volts or more."  It has to be DC voltage, too.

   The article expresses a concern that  someone with a pacemaker might
   be killed if  they were shocked with the voltage from  and  ignition
   system.  The frequency  and  duration  of  the pulses of an ignition
   system, it is  feared,  might  scramble   a  pacemaker.   "The  only
   medically tested shocking device that is safe for almost all people,
   including those with heart pacemakers, is the Stun Gun, made by Nova
   Technologies (2207 Braker Lane, Austin, TX  78758,  512-832-5591)."

   "NO ONE HAS EVER USED ELECTRIC SHOCK TO TREAT SNAKEBITE INFLICTED BY
   SNAKES WHOSE VENOM ATTACKS THE NERVOUS SYSTEM."  (ex.  cobra)   "The
   only venomous snake  of  this kind in the United States is the coral
   snake."

   The article warns  that the high  voltage  DC  shock  would  not  be
   effective against the neurotoxins in the venom of snakes such as the
   cobra and coral snakes.

   Dr. Guderian's success has been with using the Stun Gun made by Nova
   Technologies.  The FDA won't let Nova advertise the  stun  gun  as a
   treatment against snakebite until further testing has been achieved.

   There has been  some  trouble  with  reproducing  the  effect of the
   treatment in the laboratory.  It has  been  proposed that the reason
   that the treatment has not worked in the laboratory is because those
   who were doing the testing were using one of the many imitation stun
   guns imported to the US from Taiwan or South Korea.

   Another factor in  why the treatment does not work in the laboratory
   is that, in the laboratory, it is  tested  on small animals.  In the
   words of Dr. Guderian, "Think about it.  Snake venom evolved for the
   purpose of quickly  killing prey.  Humans are not  snake  prey:   we
   just get in the way some times.  There may be biological differences
   causing small animals to be more susceptible than humans to venom.

   Or it may  just  be  a  matter  of our much larger size.  ....When a
   small animal is snakebitten, all of it's biological systems shut
   down so fast that nothing can be done  to  stop it.  When a human is
   bitten, he has  a  local reaction, followed by pain,  swelling,  and
   possible death perhaps 24 hours later."

   The Japanese have reported to Dr. Guderian "that his shock treatment
   works on people  bitten  by  their  venomous  snakes."   He has also
   received letters telling  of  success  stories  in  Peru,  Columbia,
   Argentina, New Guinea and Africa.

   As an explanation for why the treatment works, the  article  cites a
   Texas chemist who suspects that electro-phoresis is taking place.

   In electro-phoresis a  high  DC voltage is applied to a substance to
   dissociate the compounds in that substance.

          "Snake venom is a complex  combination  of  proteins, enzymes
           (which are  proteins  with  biological activity)  and  metal
           ions....The positively  charged  proteins  travel toward the
           negative terminal,  and  the   negatively  charged  proteins
           migrate toward   the   positive  connection....The   chemist
           suggested that   high-voltage   shock   would  cause  enough
           separation to render the venom inactive."

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                       A SHOCKING CURE FOR SNAKEBITE

                                  PART 2

             ************************************************

   This second part of the article opens  by  describing the experience
   of Jim Scroggins, vice-president of Nova Technologies,  when he took
   a trip to Ecuador for the purpose of verifying the incredible claims
   being made by  Dr.  Ronald Guderian in regards to the ability of the
   Nova Stun Gun to treat snakebite.

   On a hike through the jungle to visit  an  indian  village,  Jim was
   bitten on the arm by a conga ant.  The conga ant's  "venom can cause
   a limb to swell so badly that it can't be used for days."

   Jim claimed the  bite felt like "five wasp stings in the same spot."
   He shocked the wound with a stun  gun  and  "within 30 to 60 seconds
   the pain was gone."

   Even though conga ant bites are supposed to swell  the  whole  limb,
   Jim had no  swelling,  only  a  discolored  area  the  diameter of a
   baseball.

   Dr. Guderian began the high voltage DC shock treatment, not on
   snakebites, but originally on stings and bites from scorpions, ants,
   bees, wasps, and other kinds of insects.

   In the beginning he used the ignition systems of outboard motors and
   chainsaws to treat the stings, but he later was sent a portable,
   battery powered "buzzer-and-coil"  setup  from  a friend in Indiana.
   Later on the same friend sent him several Stun Guns to try out.

   While Jim Scroggins was in Ecuador, a girl was stung on the toe by a
   scorpion and given the shock treatment with a stun gun.  After a few
   minutes the pain was gone and the girl left the emergency room.

   After Scroggins got home from his  trip  to  Ecuador,  his  wife was
   working in the  yard when she was bitten on the hand  by  four  fire
   ants.  "Donna starts getting a reaction to just one fire-ant bite in
   about five minutes.   Then,  she  goes  into  anaphylactic shock and
   can't breathe."

   In the rush to go to the hospital,  the Scroggins took time to treat
   the hand with "two quick half-second zaps" from a Nova  Technologies
   Stun Gun.

   On the way  to  the  hospital,  the pain had stopped, so they turned
   around and went home.  "There was little or no swelling, perhaps one
   third of what she usually gets from a single bite."

   Dr. Guderian has found out through  various sources that shocks have
   been used to treat scorpion stings for years in places  like  India.
   40 years ago,  people  in  Nigeria  who were stung by scorpions were
   commonly shocked with the ignition system of a motorcycle.

   High voltage DC can be used to treat other things as well.  While in
   the city of Esmeraldas, Dr. Guderian  had the opportunity to treat a
   child who had been stung on the back by a stingray.

   He used a  wire connected to an automobile's ignition  coil  and  20
   minutes after the  treatment  the  child was back in the water again
   playing as if nothing had happened.

   A Dr. Stoddard talked to by OUTDOOR  LIFE  points out that bacteria,
   like venom, is largely protein.  So are viruses.  In Europe, acne is
   being treated with electricity.

   Dr. Guderian has treated boils with high voltage DC.  According
   to him, if a boil is treated before it comes to a head, the swelling
   and reddness will be gone in three to four days.

   Dr. Stoddard even suggests that in the future rabies  may be treated
   with electric shock.

   Dr. Guderian is  amazed  at  how  well  the shock treatment works to
   relieve pain.  He suspects that the  pain  deactivation  process  is
   separate from the deactivation of the poison.

   The article tells the story of a Texas woman who suffers from severe
   migraine headaches and  voluteered to be treated with  a  stun  gun.
   She was shocked  on the back of the neck and once on each side.  The
   pain went away, but in the morning  it was back, only this time much
   weaker.  The process  was  repeated  again  and  the   pain  totally
   vanished.

   It is proposed  in  the  article  that, "the same high voltage shock
   that upsets the electrical charge  of  venom  proteins may upset the
   charges in body proteins that signal pain to our brains."

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                  Submitted to KeelyNet by Michael McQuay
                         EXCELLENT, thanks Mike!!

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good read I tried finding a nova stun gun that's gonna be the hard part looks like

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

   I remember reading them articles when they first came out , still today lot's of skeptics  .

x2...only reason I subscribed was to read the Larry Mueller monthly hunting dog articles...

It works

I sure wish a Tri-tronics collar would produce enough voltage to work!!! Id have a snake bite kit every time I stepped in the woods. lol

Don't do it. This is nothing new. We tried this back in 88 on the King Ranch after the manager read some article on snake bite. We lost several dogs per year to snake bite.

The camp bought stun guns for every guide truck with instructions to apply it at the snake bite. One guide did just that on a high dollar field trial dog. The dog dropped to the tailgate when they shocked him. When he got to the vet he was pronounced dead and appeared to have died from electric shock.

We quit using them because it does not work. 2 cc of cortisone in the muscle is as good as you are going to do. 2 cc of antihistamine in the muscle in addition is good but it has to be kept refrigerated but cortisone does not. I use 2 benedryl.