Alliedassault - The Python Story (A story about a Python)

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Unplugged: python who ate an electric blanket
By Jacqui Goddard

A snake's unlikely snack took six hours to consume, two hours to remove and days of recovery

GIVEN his name, one might have expected Houdini the Burmese python to be able to get himself out of a tangle. But swallowing a queen-size electric blanket proved to be a stunt too far.

The 12ft (3.7m) pet ended up with a severe case of indigestion after a slight mix-up involving a rabbit that had been put in his tank as a snack.

When his owner checked on him hours later, expecting to find Houdini taking a postdinner snooze with a rabbit-sized bulge in his belly, he was horrified to find the snake unreasonably swollen, sore and traumatised from a serious episode of culinary confusion.

Last night Houdini was resting after undergoing a two-hour operation to remove the 6ft blanket, control box, electric cord and plug from his digestive tract.

“He’s not a happy camper right now. He’s not feeling very well,” lamented his owner, Karl Beznoska, from Ketchum, Idaho, commending the snake for at least having the presence of mind to tug the blanket out of its socket before eating it.

“Somehow he was able to unplug the electric cord. He at least wasn’t hooked up to the power,” he said.

The incident is thought to have happened as Houdini, who has lived with Mr Beznoska for 16 of his 18 years, was trying to finish his dinner. When the rabbit became caught up in his woollen bedding, the snake just swallowed that, too.

Mr Beznoska wrestled his 60lb (27kg) pet into the back of his pick-up truck and took him to the local veterinary clinic, where X-ray images revealed the blanket’s extensive wiring wound through an 8ft stretch of his innards.

“It was just a big electrical mess,” Mr Beznoska told his local newspaper.

Unfamiliar with handling such a problem, the vets made a telephone call to specialists at the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, who explained what they should do.

They made an 18in incision in Houdini and slowly pulled out the blanket.

The doctors estimated that it had probably taken him six hours to swallow the item and that he would have died by today had they not operated.

Houdini was something of a local celebrity even before his mishap, visiting local schools and libraries with his owner for educational sessions with children.

“The kids just love him,” Mr Beznoska said. “He’s a good boy, he’s very mellow and friendly. Hopefully we can get him through this.”

Burmese pythons are non-venomous and kill their prey by constriction. They are popular as exotic pets, but cannot generate their own body heat so, in domestic captivity, they require other sources to maintain their warmth, such as electric blankets or heat-lamps.

Because the metabolism of snakes is slow, Houdini is expected to take several days to recover from his latest trick.

Karsten Fostvedt, one of the two vets who operated on the snake, said that his prognosis was great.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 30,00.html[/quote:c0952]

[img]http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,322832,00.jpg[/img]
X-Ray of the stupid bastard.