Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking on Herpafauna.com, and saw that you could buy venom. What would you do with it? I know that antivenoms are made from venom, but I doubt that normal keepers are mixing up antivenom in their kitchen. I don't know much about snakes, especially poisonous ones. I was just curious what that was all about.
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~Melissa

I would imagine it would be to attempt self immunization without haveing or before obtaining an animal....although it is not the smartest idea to openly sell venom unless its regulated somehow... yet I have not seen the sale you are talking about

So you buy some venom and inject a little into yourself at a time? Or what? Sounds kind of dangerous.

If you go to http://www.herpafauna.com/ and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, there's a picture of a yellow snake and next to it it says "snake venoms".
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~Melissa

But then if you click on it it talks about them making antivenoms and it doesn't look like you can actually order any. Whoops. Should have read the whole thing. Sorry.

There are some pretty nasty pictures there though. Yucky.
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~Melissa

They sell regularly to researchers not to private individuals. I have bought a fair bit of venom from them.

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
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Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
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Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit,
Museum Victoria
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http://www.venomdoc.com

There are a few companies on the net selling freeze dried venom. It can be used in several ways, some a tad dangerous. I know that some individuals attempt to gain antibodies in their blood by injecting very small amounts of the venom into their bloodstream. This basiclly is how antivenin is made but in most cases they would use a donor animal like a sheep, and then process the blood similar to the procedure used to extract human plasma. Self envenomation is VERY dangerous, and not something I would risk. You can actually become hyper sensitive so a normal bite could do more damage than could normally be anticipated. This is more true for the neurotoxic venoms. You would also risk injection site damage, disease from nonsterile items, and possibly severe envenomation. There are other potential health risks, and there is no scientific way to do this safely. Not worth the risk in my eyes.

Venom can be used for research, or even to determine an LD50 I suppose. It is freezedried, and needs rehydrated before use. When you do this you need to be very certain as to the amount of everything you mix. Venom also quickly breaks down, and this is why it is sold freezedried, and not frozen. I am considering using it on certain venomoids of mine to aid in my research of digestion. While I have yet to observe any lack of digestion with the proper temps maintained the venom may play crutial in a lower temp range. Who knows! That is why research is needed! I was thinking of injecting frozen and thawed prey throughout the body cavity (to mimic the "fang walking" done by many bitis species), and see if it does in fact make up such an important part of digestion. We know it causes tissue damage, necrosis, etc, and may aid in digestion, but there is no information that is yet proven by science to say it is as important as some claim.

On a legal note regarding the sale of venom...importing it may be difficult as I am not sure how it is regulated! If you plan to buy venom in any state please check the legalities first!

Hope that helps give you some ideas for the use of venom by an individual.

-Steve Clark