News Archive

Spring 2004

Gaboon Viper Operation

Occasionally animals at Cotswold Wildlife Park require some form of veterinary treatment, most often for routine treatments such as hoof trimming or general check ups, essential for keeping our animals in the best of health. Every now and then there are more unusual exceptions, and when head Reptile Keeper Marc Ormond noticed a swelling inside the mouth of our female Gaboon Viper alarm bells began to ring.

Potentially one of the most dangerous animals at the Park, treating this snake was not going to be a routine procedure. Gaboon Vipers are armed with the longest fangs of any snake species, each of the two inch long fangs enable the snake to inject deadly venom deep into their prey. Needless to say this animal needs to be handled with extreme caution.

A mock run-through was performed by the keepers beforehand with a non-venomous snake to establish the smooth running of the procedure.

After every possible eventuality had been considered the snake was taken to the veterinary surgery where she was anaesthetised and x-rayed.

The x-ray revealed a fang which had broken off and become lodged inside the sheath resulting in a rather nasty infection. The offending fang was carefully removed and the wound cleaned. She recovered well from the operation and will now have to undergo a course of daily injections of antibiotics to fight off any remaining infection.

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