I did not say that they don't have enough antivenom, what i'm saying is that in Australia there are limited supplies of exotic antivenom. Often the only institutions that hold exotic antivenoms are the places where venomous exotic snakes are kept. Its not as easy as walking into a hospital and saying you need Mamba Antivenom. As far as i'm aware there isn't actually any mamba antivenom in Australia as none are kept in legally in the country. For example, the last exotic bite that occured at a zoo in Australia ended up using up all the Crofab Rattlesnake antivenom in the country. This prevented any rattlesnakes in zoos in Australia from being cleaned / fed / having the cage door opened until there was more antivenom for this species in the country.
All antivenom for exotic species needs to be sourced from overseas, and is almost always manufactured in the country where the snake is native too. Eg Rattlesnake antivenom is made in America, King Cobra antivenom is made in Thailand etc. Because of this and slight differences in the process of antivenom manufacturing this can lead to side effects upon administration of the antivenom.
My statement about possible side effects was based upon a comparison of some exotic antivenoms compared to that of Australia. We are lucky that our antivenoms are relatively 'clean' reducing the risk of side effects however that risk is always there. Same applies to any foreign protein based substance being injected into a human.
Exotic bites often also present different symptoms to that of natives...do a google search for rattlesnake, viper or cobra bites and you'll see what i mean.
This, combined with most doctors inexperience of treating exotic snake bites makes it a bit of a different situation than it would be if it was the bite of a native species.
Hope this has cleared some things up.
Lets all keep our fingers crossed that he is ok and has no serious long tem effects.
