KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) -- It took surgery to save a 12-foot Burmese python after it swallowed an entire queen-size electric blanket -- with the electrical cord and control box.
The blanket must have gotten tangled up in the snake's rabbit dinner, owner Karl Beznoska said. He kept the blanket in the cage to keep the 60-pound reptile, named Houdini, warm.
"Somehow, he was able to unplug the electric cord," Beznoska said Wednesday. "He at least wasn't hooked up to the power. It might have been pretty warm there."
Veterinarian Karsten Fostvedt conducted a two-hour operation on the python Tuesday, and said afterward, "The prognosis is great."
Neither Fostvedt nor fellow veterinarian Barry Rathfon had operated on a snake before. "We just basically called a couple of specialists and they told us where to go in," Fostvedt said.
X-rays showed the tangle of the blanket's wiring extending through about 8 feet of the python's digestive tract. The surgery to remove it took an 18-inch incision.
Specialists at the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine told them it probably would have taken Houdini six hours to swallow the blanket and the snake probably would have died without the operation.
Beznoska, a retired ski instructor who now works as a draftsman and carpenter, is from Austria and moved to the resort area in 1965. He has had Houdini for 16 years and takes him to local schools for show-and-tell.
Snake gulps queen-size electric blanket
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wx247
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Just what I needed to read... I am going to have nightmares now!
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conestogo_flood
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Re: Snake gulps queen-size electric blanket
Janice wrote:Beznoska, a retired ski instructor who now works as a draftsman and carpenter, is from Austria and moved to the resort area in 1965. He has had Houdini for 16 years and takes him to local schools for show-and-tell.
More like show and dinner for the snake. Kindergarteners are so tiny, that snake could have one of them gone in at least 5 hours... better watch your children; parents.
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Skywatch_NC
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HurricaneHunter914
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rainstorm wrote:i will pray for the snake
Sorry, I just found what you said funny.
Last edited by HurricaneHunter914 on Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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The posts in this forum are NOT official forecast and should not be used as such. They are just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. They are NOT endorsed by any professional institution or storm2k.org. For official information, please refer to the NHC and NWS products.
The posts in this forum are NOT official forecast and should not be used as such. They are just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. They are NOT endorsed by any professional institution or storm2k.org. For official information, please refer to the NHC and NWS products.
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