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Snake gets emergency surgery

Emergency surgery was performed to save an Australian snake that swallowed four golf balls after mistaking them for chicken eggs.

Yahoo! News reports that a couple discovered the one metre python at their property with four bulges in its stomach and realised it had eaten golf balls placed on nests in a chicken coop to calm broody hens.

They took the ailing serpent to Currimbin Wildlife Sanctuary in Queensland state where senior veterinarian Michael Pyne safely removed the balls.

Pyne said: “The golf balls had travelled as far as they could in the snake’s system and it was destined for a slow, painful death without surgery.

The snake, which is not considered dangerous to humans, was recovering well after the surgery late last month and would soon be released back into the wild, near the property where it was originally discovered.

“I think the people who brought it in will have to make their chicken coop a little more snake-proof once it gets back,” he said.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .