Comments on Case Report: Rattlesnake Bite Cured with Homeopathy

Hi Dr. Falconer,

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I live in Austin, Texas and would like to know where I can buy these homeopathic medicines. Also, can these be used on humans? I moved here from Montana where I never saw a single snake. And here I am terrified to even go in my back yard lest a snake bite one of us. Just want to be prepared. Thank you!

Dear Mr. Falconer,

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge here, bless you! I hope to be taking several of your courses soon.

May I ask, why did you choose Lachesis and not Crotalus horr, as that is made from rattlesnake venom? I've heard 2 schools of thought, one being: like cures like, not same cures same so choose a similar but not exact match remedy like Lachesis and then there are those who say to match the exact remedy if possible like Croatalus for rattlesnakes.

Thank you so very much!

I recently had to treat my dog who was bitten by a local snake, a dugite who are common in this area (Western Australia). I didn't use those remedies, but she was up and about minutes after the first doses of two remedies I use for recent bites. I see snakes quite often, but have no concerns. My dog did seem to learn from this as she kept re-visiting this poor guy, but kept her distance.

Hello Dr Falconer,
As a practicing homeopath, I so appreciate you making this information available to people.
I've had a couple of dogs bitten by rattlesnakes. The worst case was Samson who came home after having run off into the hills near our home shrieking in pain. I found the fang marks on his head and quickly removed his collar- lucky he made it home in time before his head swelled up bigger than a football.
I immediately gave Ledum and soon began alternating it with Lachesis every 15
minutes as the wound was oozing blood and the swelling was tremendous. Soon, I noticed that the pain would subside after Lachesis but return after a dose of Ledum. It seemed to me that the Ledum was "antidoting" the effect of the Lachesis.
So I stuck with Lachesis( it might have been a 200C) for the next few hours, repeating when the pain seemed to be worsening. I held him in my lap for most of the day. He would not drink and wasn't urinating at all. By evening, I wasn't seeing improvement and was not quite sure what improvement I should be seeing so I started dosing with Crotalus horridus 30C ( Homeopathic rattlesnake venom)to see if I could abate the swelling and stimulate his body's healing mechanism a bit more.
By morning , the swelling was definitely diminished, and he began to drink a little. Later in the day he went outside to urinate and I could tell he was going to be ok. I'd say the entire ordeal lasted 24 hours.
He recovered completely. No necrosis. No ill effects from the experience. He never stuck his nose into a rattler's face again!
BTW Pat Coleby, who was mentioned earlier, says that if you can't give an IM dose of Vit C, that large oral doses of buffered C ,( 2000-3000mg) given in water every 15-30 minutes or so will work as well for snake bite, or any poisonous bite or sting. One cannot overdose on Vit C and too little is the usual cause of this treatment not working successfully. I carry Sodium Ascorbate in my pack when we walk in the desert. Just in case. My Homeopathic remedies too, of course.

Hi Dr. Falconer, thank you so much for writing this blog post. Can you provide any information on where I can order the homeopathic Echinacea and Lachesis from? I only have Echinacea in a tincture and herb form. Thanks!

For my learning I find I am curious how you knew to do a 10M for the foals. My understanding with animals is lower dosage is usually better.
I am also wondering about the effects of the poison in the system. I did some charcoal and herbals to counteract as well as the homeopathics. Will homeopathics take care of the poison completely without other resources?

When I realized I was taking my dog places she could be snake bitten I found a snake aversion class as a preventive measure. At the end of the training the facilitator said, "If your dog gets bitten you should take them to the vet and it can cost $2500." My response was whoa! there has to be a better way and I need to find it.
Well I did my research and located options that I was comfortable with to include homeopathy (which I already had some background with). Fast forward 7 years. My dog, an 85 lb Rhodesian Ridgeback female, sustains a poisonous bite on her flank, that takes me overnight to notice as I had been out of town and came in late after dark and didn't see her limp to her bed. The next day something is wrong but she snaps at me not letting me near her leg. I did some energetic trauma clearing thinking she may have pulled a muscle or broken something. It isn't until later in the day that she gets up and I can see the swelling on the inside of her leg. It was fortunate that the snake only hit her with one fang.
A practitioner friend I consult with put Raphaela on her LIFE biofeedback system, we did charcoal capsules to sop up poison, high level dose of Arsenicum, Ledum, and Croatulus. Vitamin C, greens, liver herbs, beets. Croatulus 6c and echinacea herb tincture to follow up. I also did yogurt with plantain herb. Note my dog has been on a predominately raw food diet since I got her when she was 2.
Raphaela recovered in a few days. She is 10 this year. No noticeable after effects. She acts like a pup and still easily jumps into the pick up.
Note I am currently south of Santa Fe. I have used Natural Health Supply homeopathics for years and can highly recommend their quality. I would welcome contact with other folks (especially in NM). I have a ton of snakebite research that I have done and am glad to share it if there is a way to get me your email.
Hello Dr Falconer, I used to live in Austin, and know your name. Thank you for what your are offering to support those of us who want a more wonderful way for our 4 leggeds.

Hello Dr. Falconer,
Last summer my half lab was bitten by a rattle snake in between her toes on her back left paw. I had turmerick on hand, as well Benedryl capsules. I also gave her a shot for tetanus. She healed up in two weeks but still has a bright red side on her belly. She had a swollen leg that had turned black and blue, as well as that left side of her belly. Some of the hair around that paw fell out. What can I give her to get the color back to a light pink again on her belly? She's 10 years old. I'm wondering if it's permanently damaged tissue.

My husbands horse was bitten by a rattlesnake sometime through the night, last night. He is in rough shape, uncomfortable, breathing but you can tell he's having a hard time, he's bleeding from his nose and his face is swollen. My husband rushed him to the vet this morning and they gave him some shots. We live in a small town in NM and I was wondering if i ran to the herb store and picked up Echinacea tablets, if that would be okay to give him and how many of the 350mg tablets? I am sorry if this sound like a simple question, I am new at all of this. Thank you in advance.

My husbands horse was bitten by a rattlesnake sometime through the night, last night. He is in rough shape, uncomfortable, breathing but you can tell he's having a hard time, he's bleeding from his nose and his face is swollen. My husband rushed him to the vet this morning and they gave him some shots. We live in a small town in NM and I was wondering if i ran to the herb store and picked up Echinacea tablets, if that would be okay to give him and how many of the 350mg tablets? I am sorry if this sound like a simple question, I am new at all of this. Thanks in advance.

Hello,
My cat got bit on the thigh of her right hind leg by a rattlesnake, in April of 2004, when we lived on a ranch, in California. The emergency vet did a blood transfusion and pumped her full of Vit K, and she survived. She's a tough cat! She's now 15-16 years old.
However, I can't help but wonder if she's still experiencing health problems because of the bite. Ever since the bite, she's had a slight limp in that leg, and over the past year or two it will "catch" (won't extend), sometimes, when she gets startled and tries to move quickly. Also, she's got hyperthyroidism (I put methimazole on her ear tips), a significant heart murmur and recurring inner/middle ear infections in her right ear (4 times, now). During this last episode, she suddenly experienced major pain in her right hind leg, as well...and then she began to limp on her front right leg. All of the issues are happening on the right side of her body, which is the side of her body she was bit on.
Would the homeopathic remedies you mention above still help her, 13 years after getting bit by the rattlesnake, or are there more appropriate ones that would work better at this point? Also, where can I purchase the homeopathic remedies?

My dad is one of those tough old Cowboys.
His hand got bit by a rattlesnake way out in Bloody Basin, AZ. He made it to a cold natural spring, laid down, put his hand he was bitten on into the stream of water/creek, kept it much lower than he was and slept. He got sick but obviously survived. The next day it was swollen and sore, but the worst was over.
Out there it's such rough terrain that he wouldn't have made it out to any doctors.
I need to make sure that echinacea is taken out there and kept on hand next trip.

Several years ago, my Mustang gelding was bitten twice by a rattlesnake just beside his nostril and inside his mouth. I had never treated a snakebite with homeopathy. This horse was very sick from it and was going into shock as well as having breathing problems.
My gut feeling was that if I got the regular vet involved that he would get laminitis or not do well. I used alot of tools in hindsight but it worked. First I used an essential oil on the bite to help pull out the toxins while I figured out what else to do. Then I did some energy work. The coolest part was watching the herd come over and blow on his nose.
I gave him a series of homeopathics (including ledum, lachesis, and apis and another for shock) over a few days as his symptoms changed. He also ate homemade fruit/veggie smoothies for high antioxidants and medicinal mushrooms.
The horse completely healed within 5 days. The vet was stunned as he said the healing that had been done in that amount of time was equal to a horse he treated over a couple of weeks. There was no infection, no tissue death, and the horse was dappled and the soundest he'd ever been after all of this. I've got pictures of the whole sequence if anyone would like to see.
I am a firm believer in homeopathy and its ability to treat snakebites. To a purist, I probably did too much. But, I also learned not to question my own guidance and to use all the tools available depending on what the horse really needed at that time.

I would like to know if homeopathic echinacea can aggravate autoimmune conditions the way the regular herb can?

In the post above I mentioned blood coming out of the corner of my husky' s eye, forgot to add it was not red fresh blood but rather darker in color older blood.

Terrific topic again!
Although we do not live in snake country or scorpions, deep in the woods we do have the copperhead and cotton mouth, so I would like to have the kit just in case. But I have a little story, I have a very plain not very big yard. One typical day, our dogs have been out, and later on my Siberian Husky had her right side of her nozzle close to her eye a bit swollen. She did not wanted me to open her mouth, I thought perhaps was something with her teeth. So I decided to give a dose of hypericum. She seems to be uncomfortable like in pain. It was not helping and by late afternoon the swelling seems to be getting worse, then I took a look at her again and decided to try Apis (she did not appear to have a sting or show any sign of it). Lord and behold in about 20 minutes her swelling started to go down, and blood was coming out from the corner of her right eye. We could see she felt better, relieved from the remedy. Repeated the Apis late that night before bedtime, by next morning some more blood has come out of the same eye, all swelling was gone. She was feeling good, acting normal and my husband and I were amazed at what Apis has done. But we still do not know what had caused her the problem. Was it a spider?, bees were gone too cold for them, we had have snow already. But she was digging behind a shed we have. So Dr. Falconer if you have any idea what Apis might have help with, I appreciate your opinion. Kenna, the Husky completely recovered.

Regarding the rabies vaccine, I have a young adult terrier that was a pet shop rescue, he has been vaccinated for everything but rabies (assuming that the paperwork is correct).
He was sickly and lethargic, but I have him stabilized and I am following your diet recommendations and using minimal chemicals for pest control.
I can't license him, should I consider giving him the rabies vaccine one time?
The problem is, they will make me give it to him again in one year...I would not be adverse to giving him the rabies vaccine once every five years.
So, it leaves some of us with no options other than to "fly under the radar".
Thanks for listening.

I live in rattlesnake country, too, here in rural north central New Mexico. About ten years ago, we came home to find one of our dogs had been bitten just under the jaw while we were away for most of the day. The only local vet available at the time gave her anti-venom and antibiotics, and she survived, but eventually, her muscle tissue just dissolved, she lost sight in one eye, was unable to eat property, drooled all the time, and had a pretty miserable time of it. This was before I "discovered" homeopathy and natural dog rearing, and one of the catalysts to this present natural-rearing path.
My present dog pack have all been through a rattlesnake aversion clinic held locally by some folks from southern CA, using local rattlers. They were "tested" last summer by a prairie rattler right by the chicken coop. All four responded appropriately, but the littlest one came closer than she should have. Still, it was a teaching moment, since I was present and able to prevent any contact, and able to reinforce the danger. I shudder to think what might have happened had I not been with them at that particular moment.
I'm anxious to hear about the rattlesnake venom kit; something I'd like to have on hand.
My present vet is a homeopath, but far enough away to make emergencies hard to deal with if I am unable to contact her. Homeopathy has been a huge part of my present pack's good health, along with a raw diet and no vaccinations since they came to live with me.
Thanks for all your good advice and encouragement.

Hi Dr. F.
Great blog posting this week. Can you please advise on whether you require the "pet versions" of Bach Flower remedies that are made with glycerine or can I use the standard version that are based in a little alcohol.
Thanks for reminding me about this great tool. I forgot about it. We are doing a lot of house renovations and our Doodle has been acting anxious, which is not her typical demeanor . Have a wonderful week.
Lori
Millie and Jordan in Chicago :)