first aid - primitive / wilderness preparation

[your_comforting_company]

It occured to me while cleaning trails that we might need some medical attention from time to time in the woods. My dad and I were hacking away at a trail when the machete glanced off a limb and sliced a real nice gash in my shin. It looked like it went to the bone and simply refused to stop bleeding. I realized then that my remedy knowledge is very limited so I thought I'd start a thread regarding wilderness medical treatment.

we broke a couple pine tree limbs trying to get sap, but either it is the wrong time of year and the sap is going down, or the wrong time of the month and the sap is decreasing like the moon. Our intentions was to cover the wound with sap, let it dry like 'liquid skin band-aid' and finish making the trails. No sap, and spider webs would not hold it together. no yucca's around this place for stitches either... we tied the wound up with flagging tape and the top part of my sock and carried on.

I will try to keep editing this post to keep the info up top. what do you use in primitive/wilderness situations when '$h!+ happens'?

Improvised kit: 1 gallon buckets (like lard or sheetrock mud) left on the trail packed with gauze, medical tape, alcohol swabs, band-aids, salve, tournicate materials, emergency blanket, firestarting supplies, and snack bars. (did I leave anything out?)

stitches / bandage : clothing strips folded and tied. human or animal hair for stitches (still need a needle, any ideas?)
Moss to pack a wound, and sutures of a sort from split sticks and twine to hold them closed (sort of like tweezers)
Milkweed sap and seedpod silk. cattail fluff, cottonwood fluff.
spider bites
Minor snake bites : There is no substitute for medical treatment for rattlesnake, moccasin, and coral bites! seek medical attention IMMEDIATELY. for minor snakes, a poultice of cypress vine.
red bugs
headache / pain relief : inner willow bark is what aspirin is derived from. Highbush cranberry bark, lousewort
astringent / coagulant : (stops bleeding) most oak and willow inner barks. spider webs; Pipsissewa tea, Heal-All tea,
Coneflower tea, Common Juniper tea, Yarrow, shepherds purse. Alumroot, Bistort, cranesbill geranium, false solomons seal, Henbit leaf tea, periwinkle, wild mustard seed poultice (black and field mustards). Common Plantain
antiseptic : red oak, white oak, and most all willows inner bark is considered antiseptic; Sweetgum gum and bark; Common Plantain is antiseptic and antimicrobial. Milkweed sap. coneflower root or leaf tea
Sprains / Breaks : splints fashioned out of sticks, cordage from clothing, roots, vines, laces, etc.
rotten / infected skin : Maggots applied to the area
Poison / rashes / insect bites/stings : jewelweed, Alpine smartweed(s), Lady's Thumb, Milkweed sap, coneflower leaf or root tea
MINOR burns : balsam fir, porslid's white spruce
Mouth sores / sore throat : Birch Betula bark tea
Upset Stomach : Beebalm Monarda spp.
anything else you can think of that one might need.

sure, anybody can reach in their pack and pull out a first aid kit if you have one but we didn't and needed one. sometimes you gotta make due till you can get out.
I still haven't been to get stitches, btw, and the spiderweb seemed to be antiseptic enough that I dont have any infection. thanks for the info on that shadow!

[crashdive123]

sure, anybody can reach in their pack and pull out a first aid kit if you have one but we didn't and needed one. sometimes you gotta make due till you can get out.

That's the whole point to being prepared. While I agree that knowing what is available in nature is valuable information, I also believe that being prepared is important. Good thread. Sprains and breaks are probably fairly common. If you don't have the materials with you, being able to fashion splints and cordage is important. Splints are relatively easy. Cordage from clothing, belt, shoe laces, vines, roots, etc.

[Rick]

There are two things that should go into the field with you each and every time. 1). A well equipped first aid kit and the 2). the knowledge of how to use it. There are certainly a lot of wilderness remedies that you can use and it IS worthwhile to know what they are but a serious injury, even when someone else is with your, can put your life in danger if you don't have a quality first aid kit. AND, there are injuries that no wilderness remedies will help with. I don't care how much boot time you have, those two items are a MUST in my book.

[your_comforting_company]

too right. Our biggest thing was getting the trail cleared. all we took in with us were the implements of destruction for hacking our way through the dense undergrowth. it was easily a 30 minute walk back out of the woods to the truck. now, I know I wouldn't have bled to death in 30 minutes, and we did have a kit back at the truck but at the time it seemed unreasonable to bleed all over everything if there had been something handy to use in the meantime.
that is my purpose for this thread. what to do when you find yourself unprepared.
you can't be prepared for everything all the time, so sometimes you gotta improvise.

[Rick]

Compression bandage made from anything available. Bandanna (everyone carries one of those, right?), handkerchief. Strips of cloth from your T-shirt. Tear your underwear into strips of cloth (clean side against the wound. Did I need to say that?). Know how to tie a compression bandage.

[wareagle69]

is this property that you were clearing yours?is it relativley safe from tresspassers? safe to stash something? i know on my property i have three deer stands set up and with them i have placed 5 gal buckets of things that i might need or am expeimenting with or if i had to bug quickly and could not grab my bag from home my discreetly placed buckets there and elsewhere would help a bunch
Now i have found so far only two reasons for first aid in the bush, cuts being number one and next would be burns, i don't really carry much in my packs when it comes to first aid there is much to be improvised in the field but for cuts and burns i do have a very small spot in my pack for some quick remedy. other than that i look at the law of probability how often do i need something vs actually carrying it. but it is a reason i do have my stash buckets around

[your_comforting_company]

The property belongs to one of my dad's coworkers. As far as we could tell, the people who check the fields don't go into the woods (and probably with good reason) and I'd bet it is/was because of the thickness of the woods around the creek. Keep in mind this is the back side of a field so when it rains the water comes way up. There's not much in the way of stand hunting back there and the bucket is going to be the stand, the problem with this is that the rains will probably wash it away if it's not nailed down. I'd have to leave the bucket back up the hill quite a bit for any long term 'stash' which will basically make it inaccessible from my hunting position.
This is still a great idea and I will be leaving some 1 gallon mud buckets with first aid at least at the entrance to the wooded trail.
This is a good idea for anyone hunting and I will include this at the top. Thanks again WE. helpful info as always!

[Rick]

If no one goes back there why not hang it in a tree to keep the water away from it?

[your_comforting_company]

got tree kits ready to go.

was doing some reading on various trees around the house and added stuff about astringency and antiseptic first aid.
thanks for the inputs guys.

[Ponce]

To stop a bleeding use spider webs.....it works.

To get rid of rotten skin get hold of some maggots and they will eat the rotten flesh....

[your_comforting_company]

Thanks Ponce!

[your_comforting_company]

added "hair" info from another thread.

this is slowly building into a wilderness kit. thanks for the inputs everyone!

[chiangmaimav]

My wife spent most of her life in the jungle and often far from any medical facility and even if there was one nearby her family had no money. Consequently whenever there is any kind of medical problem whether it is an injury, insect bite or illness, she always manges to find some plant or herb which seems to be effective treatment. Most of these plants are indigenous to Asia and besides she only knows Thai names so I cannot even research this on internet but I am learning about the medicinal properties of local plants by sight even though I do not know what to call them in English. After I suffered herniated disk I took all kinds of prescription medications which did little except make me sick. Wife gave me some homemade root tea which tasted awful but it took pain away. She says, "My family rice farmers long long time. Know all about pain in back." I suppose this makes sense. I am not claiming however that homemade medicine is superior to modern medicine in any way. I work on local mountain rescue team and they definitely use modern medical techniques not homemade remedies.If I were seriously ill I would definitely want to be in modern hospital and so would the Thai people. I am just saying there is a lot of value in traditional and herbal medicine also.

[Rick]

I couldn't agree more. For me, where the rub comes in, is knowing which ones truly work vs. which ones might cause harm. I think modern science is learning there is value in some (many?) traditional forms of medicine and they are debunking some long held myths.

[rwc1969]

Much of our modern medicine comes from folk/ indigenous medicine. They just don't tell you that cuz it would cut their profits.

[Rick]

I don't buy into that at all. There are way too many synthetic medications for that to be the case. Some surely do but most do not.

[rwc1969]

Many of our synthetic medicines were derived from natural sources. The reason it's synthetic is so that it can be patentable and get FDA approval. It's kinda hard to patent jewelweed, but to patent cortizone is much easier, especially when it's mixed with certain percentage of inert ingredients.

I don't think you can easily get a patent on willow bark, but you can get a patent on salycilic acid when it's mixed with a certain percentage of inert ingredients.

Drug companies are doing research on a variety of shrooms. The main thing preventing these shrooms from being used mainstream is the inability to patent the product. You can't easily patent a mushrooom, or get FDA approval, there are too many variables that can't be measured. But, you can patent the individual ingredients that make that mushroom medicinal when combined in a certain fashion.

"They" are now realizing that it's not necessarily the individual ingredients that are beneficial, rather the shroom as a whole. Until they find a way to synthesize the combination of ingredients that make up a shroom we won't be using them as cures in mainstream medicine. There's no profit in a non-patentable product that can't get FDA approval.

Scientists are starting to realize the reason many of these modern medicines have such harmful side effects is because they have been broken down into individual compounds. When the plant, shroom, or whatever is whole it has no where near as many bad side effects.

There's alot of good info on the net about natural medicine and such. much of which has the backing of scientists and such. Not just hokey pokey folk medicine ramblings.

[Rick]

I do buy your explanation and appreciate you posting it. I do agree with that take on it. Thanks!!

[wildWoman]

astringent / coagulant : (stops bleeding) most oak and willow inner barks. spider webs; Pipsissewa tea, Heal-All tea,
Coneflower tea, Common Juniper tea

Yarrow and shepherd's purse are two very common plants that help stop bleeding. Apply mashed leaves to the wound or take as tea for internal bleeding (and then get to the closest ER very quick if it's an internal leak!).

Highbush cranberry bark and lousewort (Pedicularis ssp) are excellent muscle relaxants which can be used in combination with willow bark against pain - usually, your body cramps up somewhat when in pain and combining the muscle relaxants with the pain killer gets you a much better result than using only the pain killer.

[your_comforting_company]

I missed WW's post. it was forever ago, but I got it added to the list.

I found another natural remedy for sore muscles and achy joints.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrEgrX7BRek