anti-venoms

[robhalex]

i read that antivenoms for snake bites are made by injecting horses with the snakes venom, then taking blood samples, removing the white bloodcells or whatever it is in their immune system that fights the venom, and then collects enough of this to provide a dose strong enough to save a human. this would take a huge amount of horses blood and venom to create such a small amount and surely this is hardly fair on the horse in question...

i was wondering is this true?

[SiUK]

yes it is true, they cycle horses so they arnt being used all the time over a certain amount of weeks, and increase the venom they are injecting until the horse has built up a resistance then rest the horses, although they use other animals like sheep as well because horse serum is notoriously bad for allergies.

[slither61]

Originally Posted by robhalex

i read that antivenoms for snake bites are made by injecting horses with the snakes venom, then taking blood samples, removing the white bloodcells or whatever it is in their immune system that fights the venom, and then collects enough of this to provide a dose strong enough to save a human. this would take a huge amount of horses blood and venom to create such a small amount and surely this is hardly fair on the horse in question...

i was wondering is this true?

Hi all,

Yes it is true, the horses are cycled and does them no long term damage,so I see by what you say if you got bitten you would refuse the antivenom as it is not fair on the horse.

slither61

[cooljules]

Originally Posted by robhalex

i read that antivenoms for snake bites are made by injecting horses with the snakes venom, then taking blood samples, removing the white bloodcells or whatever it is in their immune system that fights the venom, and then collects enough of this to provide a dose strong enough to save a human. this would take a huge amount of horses blood and venom to create such a small amount and surely this is hardly fair on the horse in question...

i was wondering is this true?

yeah true but iirc people who say they are then alergic to horses if they have been treated is false...

[Piraya1]

I'm allergic to all furry animals so I'm screwed...self-inoculating would be my only hope from a bite and that ain't happenin

[SiUK]

Originally Posted by Piraya1

I'm allergic to all furry animals so I'm screwed...self-inoculating would be my only hope from a bite and that ain't happenin

if you are allergic to AV then they give you a shot of adrenalin before administering AV to counter act the allergy, so you would still be treated, lots of people have bad reactions to AV especially made from horses.

[kaz9t9]

edit:

[Piraya1]

Originally Posted by SiUK

if you are allergic to AV then they give you a shot of adrenalin before administering AV to counter act the allergy, so you would still be treated, lots of people have bad reactions to AV especially made from horses.

I don't do so well on adrenaline, had fits in the dentist chair once, nurses had to pin me down to stop me from shaking so much. Main thing is NEVER GET BITTEN!
But yeah, antivenin can be made from a lot of animals, even people because all that's taken from the subject is blood plasma and that's an all round compatibility, You could make it yourself if you had a centrifuge machine or use a much slower process using saline which is compatible with our blood to divide red blood cells from the plasma containing the antibodies to the snake venom. It's a lot of detailed work but easy if you have the means. Then of course you would need your animals...rabbits would suffice but then you got your whole ethics and animal cruelty thing against you.