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Journalism of Courage
Veterinarians in Australia had to perform a kind of magic trick on a snake to help it out. They had to operate on a snake named Monty to remove a beach towel it had swallowed whole.
According to Invention, a community on Instagram, which posted a video about the procedure on the reptile, the “curious snake accidentally ate an entire beach towel”. “When Monty’s family suddenly noticed her eating something strange, they were confused at first, until they recognized the end of a beach towel sticking out of the snake’s mouth and realized she had somehow swallowed the entire thing,” it said.
They rushed the 18-year-old female Jungle Carpet Python, weighing 5 kg and measuring 3 m, to the Small Animal Specialist Hospital in Sydney. The hospital said in a Facepost post in February 2020 that Monty was anaesthetised and radiographs were taken to confirm where the towel was lodged inside her body.
“A flexible endoscope was placed down Monty’s gastrointestinal tract, which allowed us to visualise the end of the towel sitting in her stomach. With assistance from our internal medicine team, very long forceps were placed through the endoscope and used to grasp the towel. Once we had a good grip, the towel was able to be carefully removed from the gastrointestinal tract with endoscopic guidance. It was smiles all round and we’re happy to report that both Monty and the beach towel have lived to see another day!” said the hospital.
The video shows the towel being pulled out of the snake’s mouth as one vet holds the snake’s mouth open and another pulls out the towel.
Monty was discharged from the hospital the same day and she is “back to her happy, hungry self”.
