Surgeons at the veterinary college here, under the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, recently conducted a rare surgery on a cobra which was critically injured after swallowing a men’s fairness cream tube.
“The cobra is now slowly recovering at the forest range office here. The reptile is out of danger and we are very much hopeful of its survival,” said Subhendu Mallick of Bhubaneswar Snake Helpline, which rescued the cobra from a residential colony.
Mallick said when Snake Helpline volunteers reached Rental Colony after getting a call from the residents, the four feet long female cobra was not able to move as its stomach was swollen. The tube was stuck in the middle of its body.
“We rushed the cobra to the veterinary college for an X-Ray which confirmed the presence of a foreign object,” said Mallick.
Experts in veterinary college swung into action and a two member team of surgeons performed the rare 90-minute long surgery to remove the plastic tube from the cobra’s body. Mallick said the snake will be fed liquid food, mostly egg yolk. Once it is fully fit, the cobra will be released in the wild, possible in the jungles of Chandaka at the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.
Experts believe that the snake could have consumed the fairness cream tube after entering a shop or someone’s house mistaking the object to be an eatable.
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