Zookeeper Tales: Medicating a Burmese
Aug. 1st, 2010 04:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elionwyrSo as I've said, Burmese pythons are susceptible to respiratory infections.
Ours was no exception.
At some point, the female was shipped off to Reptiland, after she'd laid a clutch of 34 eggs and we kept a few of them to raise and include in our collection; and the male (if my vaguely sleepy memory serves) was moved into a healthier-for-him enclosure in our reptile room.
He was struggling with respiratory ick, and we were instructed to medicate him. Part of his health care regime involved his getting sub-cutaneous fluids.
Allow me to share the following illustration with you:
Check out those lungs and other organ placements.
Giving any kind of a shot to a snake? Friggin' SUCKS.
Again, this snake weighed over 100lbs. Giving him fluids was a multiple person operation. One keeper had to restrain him; at least one had to be in charge of the bag of liquid and the needle; and one had to hold the tail up so that we could get that needle into the right position on the snake's body.
The snake was less than grateful, but was - generally speaking - fairly docile for this operation, which went relatively quickly.
On the day of which I write, I was one of the few, the proud, the terrified that were giving the python his fluids...a process suddenly interrupted by the very obvious signs that he was about to defecate.
*insert sounds of screams and running feet*
And then we realized that the fellow holding the tail? He hadn't left his post.
*wince*
Man, it looked like a green poop-volcano.
..I'm sure the smell came out of his clothing eventually...
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Ours was no exception.
At some point, the female was shipped off to Reptiland, after she'd laid a clutch of 34 eggs and we kept a few of them to raise and include in our collection; and the male (if my vaguely sleepy memory serves) was moved into a healthier-for-him enclosure in our reptile room.
He was struggling with respiratory ick, and we were instructed to medicate him. Part of his health care regime involved his getting sub-cutaneous fluids.
Allow me to share the following illustration with you:
Check out those lungs and other organ placements.
Giving any kind of a shot to a snake? Friggin' SUCKS.
Again, this snake weighed over 100lbs. Giving him fluids was a multiple person operation. One keeper had to restrain him; at least one had to be in charge of the bag of liquid and the needle; and one had to hold the tail up so that we could get that needle into the right position on the snake's body.
The snake was less than grateful, but was - generally speaking - fairly docile for this operation, which went relatively quickly.
On the day of which I write, I was one of the few, the proud, the terrified that were giving the python his fluids...a process suddenly interrupted by the very obvious signs that he was about to defecate.
*insert sounds of screams and running feet*
And then we realized that the fellow holding the tail? He hadn't left his post.
*wince*
Man, it looked like a green poop-volcano.
..I'm sure the smell came out of his clothing eventually...
Click Here to Donate