I am not a doctor, I just pretend on the web…..
This is what you will read if you look up Brown Recluse bites on the web.
What should I do if a brown recluse spider bites me?
If you think you have been bitten by a brown recluse spider:
- Remain calm. Too much excitement or movement will increase the flow of venom into the blood.
- Apply a cool, wet cloth to the bite, or cover the bite with a cloth and apply an ice bag.
- Do not apply a tourniquet. It may cause more harm than benefit.
- Try to positively identify the spider or catch it to confirm its type.
A brown recluse bite can be serious and may require immediate medical care. Call a doctor if:
- You have severe symptoms throughout your body.
- An open sore and necrosis develop. Necrosis is black, dead tissue.
How is it treated?
Medicine to counteract brown recluse spider venom is not available in the United States or Canada. Treatment depends on how severe the bite is. For bites that:
- Do not develop open sores, treatment includes applying a cold compress, elevating the bite area, and avoiding moving the bite area.
- Cause an open sore (ulcer) and dead skin (necrosis), treatment includes removing the dead skin from the sore. This may involve follow-up and replacing the dead skin with new skin (skin grafts).
The
brown recluse venom can destroy human tissue. The victim may not feel or notice the
bite when it occurs. At first, the
bite site may appear like any other insect
bite - a little red, itchy and inflamed. Over the course of a few days, the
venom destroys the surrounding tissues.
This is all over the web. Some of it is right and some of it is just wrong, some of it is misleading.
Brown recluse venom has two components.
1. It is poisonous.
2. The venom also kills and dissolves tissue….in practical use, so that it can eat it. No chewing teeth it wants the flesh soft so it can suck it up. But of course the spider is not going to eat humans.
What to know….
How the venom affects you will be dependent on your body’s reaction to the venom, but you are not going to wait to find that out. Just like a bee sting, for some people they can have hardly no reaction and some people it can kill them. Again do not wait to find that out.
If not treated correctly the flesh can die around the bite and can expand to a cone shaped wound that can go down to the bone. And or you can have a severe reaction to the venom itself. Keep in mind that the venom dissolves flesh…so that means it can dissolve nerves and can cause permanent paralysis. But do not worry, that all takes time and you are not going to give it that.
Brown recluse bites are not always felt right away. People are sometime bit while they are asleep and do not realize they have been bitten until they wake up.
Here is what ya do…..
1. Figure out where you are going for medical help…Urgent care or hospital. You are not going to make an appointment and you are not going to wait. At this point you do not know what your reaction to the venom will be and it does not make any sense to roll the dice. It is not an ambulance thing, just get treatment in a few hours.
2. Wash the affected area with soap. Antibacterial or Dawn soup will do.
3. Put wet chewing tobacco on the wound and place a band-aid over it to hold it in place. In other words you are taking the chewing tobacco from your mouth and putting it on the wound, the saliva is part of the treatment. I know, go get some.
4. Do not use a tourniquet or worry about elevating your limbs…If you got bit on the butt do not elevate your butt. lol Particularly if you are driving yourself. lol
5. Take a dose of Benadryl and your usual pain killer, Tylenol or Ibuprofen
6. Go to the local emergency room or urgent care facility…that day.
Of the times I have taken people to the hospital they are usually given a tetanus booster shot and antibiotics. They are then told how to care for the wound and told that if the wound does not show signs of improvement in days…not weeks…come back. It is a special kind of wound and may need special care. The wound starts to heal with in a couple days or you go back to the doctor. If the wound expands or gets deeper, you go back to the doctor.
Then of course I usually have to explain why I put chewing tobacco on the wound. And here is why. Chewing tobacco is good for bee stings, wasp stings, and spider bites. I have proven this fact dozens of times in my life and others have proven it too. Bee stings and spider bites involve venom…but only a small amount, the chewing tobacco has several properties that draws and neutralizes the venom. For bee stings…within a few minutes the child stops crying and is back to playing. Yes it stops the pain. I have never seen it not work.
I was with an elderly man that was stung by a bee and was normally deathly allergic to bee stings and normally kept an Epinephrine injector for such cases. At that time his wife realized that they did not have one. I put chewing tobacco on the wound with a band aid and his tongue did not swell and he had no reaction to the bee sting. Chewing tobacco was from then on, a new item in his house.
I have put chewing tobacco on brown recluse bites and it was so effective that the doctor at the hospital was surprised, no swelling and redness was fading. Either way, chewing tobacco or not…get medical care now. Do not let anyone talk you into making an appointment…do not delay.
I have been been bitten by Brown Recluses and Copperhead snakes, I have little reaction to them, but the spiders and snakes die immediately! lol
