Written by Karl Beidatsch Thursday, 15 January 2009 10:10
“At the moment, when an animal arrives at the vet clinic, they’re given a few vials of antivenom and then put under observation,” she says.
“If the animal doesn’t show signs of recovery after a few hours, then the vet gives them another dose.
“Since antivenom costs from a few hundred to a thousand dollars per vial, depending on the type, this can get really expensive.”
Ms Jacoby is collecting blood samples from all patients admitted to Murdoch Veterinary Hospital with snakebites and charting the progression of these victims in order to better forecast recovery patterns.
“Brown snake venom uses up all of the patient’s clotting factors,” says Ms Jacoby.
“It usually takes twelve hours for the patient to replace the clotting factors, and so while the venom may be gone from their system, they’re not yet showing any signs of recovery.
“It might be better to administer a couple of vials of antivenom and then wait for them to recover rather than re-treating.
“Since the amount of venom in the bloodstream is proportionally so low, it’s not possible to do a blood test to see how much is left. We can only check for the presence of venom.”
Ms Jacoby has also been given permission to approach the owners of any Murdoch snakebite patients that have been euthanased to request tissue samples.
“I’ll be analysing samples from these patients to see how antivenom penetrates into muscle tissue, where the venom gathers.
“We need to see if we’re soaking up the free antivenom in the bloodstream but not what’s in their tissues.”
Ms Jacoby has almost completed her PhD but is excited about the avenues for research this study is opening up.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with Dr Katrin Swindells at Murdoch, days and days talking over all the questions this is asking.
“When you’re working with people this passionate about what they do, it’s very exciting.”
