Vet's extraordinary treatment for snake after eating poisoned rats
WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT: A NSW vet has shared incredible footage of how he extracted three rats from the belly of an eastern brown to potentially save the snake’s life.
When a Hunter Valley property owner discovered the deadly snake in the yard he feared the creature could have been accidentally poisoned if it had swallowed a rat, as the man had left poison out to keep the rodents at bay.
He kept the serpent contained and called wildlife experts to help.
“This male brown snake was being pinned down by the property owner with two shovels when the wildlife carers arrived,” Dr Jonathon Howard wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, sharing the unbelievable clip.
“There was a high chance that the rodents had a gutful of poison that would in turn poison the snake,” he added.
Dr Howard took X-rays which revealed three rats in the snake’s stomach, so he anaesthetised the snake to extract the rodents, robbing the predator of its meal.
“We did what we had to do and anaesthetise the snake and get those rats out!” the vet wrote.
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Dr Howard said the patient recovered well without fractures, ready for release into the wild the following day.
Many commended the property owner for raising the alarm instead of potentially leaving the snake to die, or taking matters into his own hands.
“I think the property owner deserves a huge congratulations and show of appreciation for not killing the snake. So many would’ve killed it,” one person wrote on Facebook.
Others praised the vet and wildlife carers for their help in ensuring the reptile made a safe return to the wild.
“He seemed happy to get out of there. Probably going for a decent feed after his lucky escape,” one woman wrote in response to a second video which showed the snake’s release into bushland.
Footage of the procedure came days after a Queensland snake catcher shared a confronting video of a baby reptile reeling in pain after being sprayed with Mortein, begging others not to use pest spray on the creatures.
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