Wow - sheer insanity!! I had a horse bitten by a rattlesnake a few years back. The vet initially said that horses were naturally resilient and the venom wold not impact him greatly. After 45 minutes, though,the horse was down and his leg was the size of a basketball (even with icing and cold water baths). The vet came out and, in the course of several hours, pumped eight bags of anti-venom into Moose. Total cost was just south of $1000.
I am a small town Doctor in West Texas and I take care of a fair amount of rattle snake bites. Cro-Fab, which is the FDA approved anti-venom we use is the gold-standard. I am told it is close to 2k/dose, and most require 6-10 doses.
It is my understanding that there are cheaper anti-venom, but the risk for anaphylatic shock is much higher, and thus never FDA approved.
My last fellow probably had a 50K dollar bill to our hospital because he required a larger dose to get control of the tissue damage.
Medicine is expensive in the good old USA, which is a whole different topic.
