full documents> VenArt1p.htm VenSur6.htm HarEvi2.htm
| "The lower jaw and upper jaw were then fixed in a position to allow surgery to start. Veterinary surgeons suggested using string, sutures and other materials to affix the snake’s jaws during surgery, but after some previous testing on the snake (without actually doing surgery), it had been established that the best means to affix the jaws and head in place was as follows". |
| "Venomoid surgery is not essential to snakes in that it is not necessary to save the snake's life. It is best classed as "elective surgery" and hence should only be undertaken on healthy well-adjusted snakes in circumstances where there is no known risk to the snake from such a procedure". |
| "The subject was a half-grown Tiger Snake. It was put in the fridge to get it's temperature to the desired 5 degrees Celsius, which was the setting in the fridge.
The snake was in a state of torpor, but obviously still alive. It was then quickly removed from the fridge and placed upside down on a 60 cm long wooden plank (removed from the fridge) and then by it's head and snout sticky taped down to the wood, with the snout and neck at a predetermined spot and held down. The tape ran over the head only. The following section of the neck was quickly sticky-taped down to the wood (with the tape running around the board in full circles), with the rest of the snake then being unrestrained but placed over an adjacent towel. The area near the heart (about 1/8 of the way down a snake's total length) was not restrained in any way (nor was lower down the snake's body in this operation, but for later operations lower down was restrained as well, as sometimes this moved away from or out of contact of the towels and the further restraint prevented this). The towel (just mentioned) had previously been folded, wet with water and frozen solid. Before the operation it had been allowed to thaw to the extent that it was still mainly frozen (in the core) but the surface was wet and it could also be bent or moved with some difficulty. In other words it was pliable. (At a room temp. of about 20°C it takes about an hour for a towel to reach this state and it remains OK for about an hour and by rotating towels, a supply can be maintained indefinitely). A second similar towel was placed over the snake's body, forming a cold blanket above and below the snake. This design allowed me to maintain the cold torpor during the course of the operation, but not actually freezing the snake". |
| "Now recall, that snakes don't get morphine and other painkillers after operations". |
| "The final 'product' in this case is a non-venomous snake. The means of choice to test is a live rodent or similar.
As I don't have ready access to them as a matter of course (I get my rodents frozen), I used live Indian Mynar Birds (Acridotheres tristis) (a feral species here in Australia) that are trapped in a specially made bird trap in my back yard. The snake is made to bite into the flesh of the bird and if the bird doesn't die then the snake is presumed harmless. The test is repeated three times on three different birds to confirm the result. Later tests on rodents confirmed my earlier results". |
| "In the operations I conducted, slightly warmer snakes would attempt to move when cut, whereas properly sedated snakes didn't.
The more significant issue is in terms of pain after the operation". |
| "The implants were made from strips of clear silicone (Sealastic) that were cut into shape to more-or-less match the original venom glands. In all cases the implants were made slightly smaller than the original glands and fitted in the same part of the head like a glove.
For each snake, the venom glands were removed, the implants added and then the wounds sutured closed over the implants. Within an hour, the Red-bellied Black snake was moving about it's cage in a manner indicating discomfort to the head and so the snake was sedated a second time and the implants were removed. In it's case the implants were proportionately larger than for the other three snakes and in hindsight the problem was probably that they were too long, too wide, or both (probably too long). The sutured wounds healed without incident and it was otherwise a routine venomoid operation. The following day the sutured wounds in the Copperhead appeared to be weeping as opposed to being scabbed up as seen in the Tiger Snakes and all earlier operations (except the very first). Hence it was assumed that the implants may have been causing the Copperhead problems and it too was sedated and the implants removed. Interestingly however the sutured wounds had almost completely healed and the flesh had to be re-cut as in an original operation, rather than re-opened as expected. The implants were removed and the wounds resutured and like all other snakes, this one made a perfect recovery. Whether or not the implants were in fact causing a problem in this snake is uncertain. The initial worries over the weeping may have been unnecessary". |
| "Based on the minimal discomfort seen in snakes subject to the venomoid operation, the above-mentioned Red-bellied Black Snake was operated on with two mice in it's stomach.
They had been eaten 24 hours earlier. Noting the placement of the windpipe and the way in which snakes regurgitate, there was no risk to the snake during the operation itself. Essentially the operation was done as one of four at my convenience and on the basis of my educated guess that the snake would probably not suffer as a result. It was therefore effectively a test to see if the snake would regurgitate or otherwise suffer in any way as a result of short-term cold torpor, as indicated by Fry (1991), p. 421." |
| "On 23 August 2004 a group of snakes operated on included a pair of young Collett's Snakes (Panacedechis colletti), both about 60 cm in length". |
| "On 11 April 2005, I "tested" all venomoid snakes at my facility for venom.
The simplest way was to acquire a live mouse-sized rat. All venomoid snakes were forced to bite into it's body. This included 9 very large Tiger Snakes, 5 Copperheads, 2 Collett's Snakes, 4 Death Adders, 2 Eastern Brown Snakes and Three Red-bellied Black Snakes (well over 20 snakes). In many cases the snakes were hungry, refused to let go of the rodent and they "pumped" their fangs intensively. The rodent was left alone for three hours being still alive and well. It was then euthanazed and fed to a venomoid Death Adder that I had been forced to use forceps to make it release it's earlier grip". |
| "While I may one day get an adverse venomous snake bite, what is dead certain is that the venomoid ones won't be getting the better of me. As of April 2005, all (over 20) tested as "non-venomous" with most having been operated on more than a year earlier. I have also lectured veterinarians and other academics and twice have been asked to prove that the snakes are venomoid by allowing one to bite me". |
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