Thursday, March 14, 2019

Snake Anesthesia before Surgery


Henry Cabrera, MD
You must be wondering why and how snakes are given anesthesia? Generally, what we’ve seen on Nat Geo, Austin Stevens – a veteran snake charmer approaches a snake swiftly from the rear and, barehanded (gloves make him clumsy), squeeze just behind the snake’s jawbone using his thumb and forefinger. Control the writhing body. And BOOM he gets a hold of it and extracts venom pinching softly and gently as if he is caressing it. 

Each snake charmer has its own quality but ever wondered what leads to a case when snakes need anesthesia? This is why I have formed a blog where I would discuss what quantities of anesthesia does a snake requires. So without further ado, let’s get into this.

Generally speaking, performing anesthesia and medical procedure on a snake ought to be drawn closer with indistinguishable standards from those utilized for domestic creatures. In any case, there is clear anatomic contemplation, just as unique parts (especially a snake) of patient readiness, situating, and equipment with which the reptile clinician should be familiar.

Reptiles make good anesthetic patients because of their physiologic resilience. In the simplest words, reptiles are very resilient and capable of surviving physiological changes. Furthermore, these species frequently undergo potentially painful surgical procedures.  New drugs that are not only safe and efficacious but also result in relatively short recovery times have greatly enhanced the design of anesthetic regimens. Further studies are required to quantitatively evaluate the physiologic effects of drugs used and validate available monitoring modalities for use in a wide variety of reptiles.

Wound Treatment 

Wounds, more often than not horribly tainted, are a successive introduction, and given the caseous idea of the reptilian incendiary reaction, careful debridement is frequently constantly essential. Sharp dissection is utilized to expel all follower necrotic and contaminated tissue that should then be submitted for histopathology and microbiology.

Surgical Procedures

Snake integument is composed of keratinized scales and thinner interscaler skin. Incisions should be made between the scales, thus making most surgical wounds scalloped. When reptile skin is incised, it has a tendency to invert. Therefore, everting suture patterns (eg, horizontal or vertical mattress) using polydioxanone or nylon are recommended to ensure opposition of tissue without future dysecdysis. Fine polydioxanone causes less reaction than polyglactin and is preferred for internal sutures. Skin sutures are typically removed after 6 to 8 weeks.

Whatever it takes, reptiles are a dangerous creature and not to be messed around.