Mashadar went to the vet

...don't worry it was a teaching moment!

We have had a few small groups of high school seniors in and college freshmen (all in pre-veterinary studies) coming to the clinic over the past few weeks to observe and do basically 'show and tell' of how vet clinics work with the doctors and a few of us staff. I was giving a presentation on proper restraint and body language cues of cats and dogs when I noticed that some of the students seemed a little board. So after my talk I talked about some of my experiences with wildlife and exotic medicine, and it turns out, there is a LOT of misinformation about reptile (go figure). So I asked my boss and their chaperon if I could bring in my snake and do a session on reptiles and they agreed.

It went really well. I have to say, I am quite proud of him. He was a perfect gentleman, let some of the students touch and hold him, tolerated being fake restrained, and held mostly still for radiographs. It is amazing how many people thought he was going to be "slimy" or mean. I showed his spurs and heat pits and all the awesome things that make snakes great, as well as teaching them that unlike cats and dogs reptile illnesses are often caused by husbandry issues and owner mistakes even when they mean well. Anyway. . . since this is the pictures tab. . . I've uploaded two of his better radiographs, just since I figure you'd all be interested.

The first is a really good picture of his skull, the second shows everything but his head and tail. Also, 7 days post-eating a 70 gram rat there is nothing left to show up on radiographs, so that was neat as well.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/450442571596955653/558451806250729473/image1.jpg

hummm, body picture didn't work for some reason and it timed out on me. So lets try again. Near the top of the picture you can see his lung really well, and some stool in his colon +/- urates near his tail end.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...473/image1.jpg

First time I have seen a snake x-ray, very cool, thanks for posting!

Gotta admit, I'm out of practice reading snake radiographs :)
At least there were no obvious enlarged organs or tumors, and no arthritis...not that I expected any on a 3 year old lol

Their ribs look so "pretty" on radiographs. :cool:

I'm so glad you thought to bring in your snake to share with them...:gj: You did good!

Would've been even cooler if he had a rat inside of him a skeleton in a skeleton

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Very cool that you shared with the class. Gives them all something to think about. Very cool radiographs, too. Not something you see every day. :D

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Originally Posted by Jakejeckel25

Would've been even cooler if he had a rat inside of him a skeleton in a skeleton

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But it would have risked a regurge...:( oh well.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

But it would have risked a regurge...:( oh well.

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That was my thought too. I think it would have been cool but I also made sure not to offer food on Monday so I could be sure he was empty and not at risk for that.