An unfortunate brown tree snake has had a close brush with death, leaving her with a wound so severe that her heart was beating outside her body for several hours.
A reptile carer and vet nurse found the wounded creature in Marlow’s Lagoon in the Northern Territory and brought her into the Wildlife Rescue Darwin centre on Sunday afternoon.
Dr Stephen Cutter was able to close the wound during a tricky surgery that took about half an hour, and the three-year-old reptile – who they have nicknamed Night Tiger – is expected to make a full recovery.
‘She is now back to her normal cranky self,’ Dr Cutter told Daily Mail Australia on Monday morning, adding that aggression after surgery is a good sign.
A brown snake was found with a wound so severe that her heart was beating outside her body
She’s ‘back to her normal cranky self’ after Dr Stephen Cutter closed the wound during surgery
‘It was a fiddly surgery, but most of my work with wildlife is like that. Lots of my patients have been even smaller.’
He explained that the actual surgery was very unusual, because the tear in the snake’s skin was directly over the heart.
‘She is doing really well now. The actual heart wasn’t punctured, which was incredibly lucky. It’s the only wound of its type that I’ve ever seen.’
The surgery was very unusual because the tear in the snake’s skin was directly over the heart
Veteran surgeon Dr Stephen Cutter operated on the injured brown snake on Sunday afternoon
Wildlife Rescue Darwin’s Vice President Andrea Ruske said that it was the first time either she or Dr Cutter had seen a heart actively beating outside a snake’s body.
‘We are not sure how the injuries happened, but we know that she was hit by a car,’ Ms Ruske told Daily Mail Australia.
‘My guess is that she would only have survived one or two more hours maximum.’
She explained that exposed organs die off as soon as they dry, and it was incredibly fortunate that the vet nurse who found her knew what to do.
‘This was a more than lucky snake…Our vet nurse knew she had to keep everything moist until she arrived in the clinic.’
Night Tiger will recover at The Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston before being released back into the wild where she was found.
‘Snakes do everything slowly, including healing, so she will be with us for probably another three months,’ Dr Cutter added. ‘She is in good hands.’
Dr Cutter is the the head veterinary surgeon and founding member of The Ark Animal Hospital
The Ark Aid Animal Hospital in Yarrawonga sees on more than 3000 animal surgeries per year
Dr Cutter is the head veterinary surgeon and founding member of The Ark Animal Hospital and Chairperson of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee in the Northern Territory.
A dedicated animal welfare activist and veterinary surgeon since 1995, he opened the centre in 2007 and was Award winner in 2010 for the Pride of Australia in the environment category.
The mission of Wildlife Rescue Darwin is to aid sick, injured and orphaned native Australian wildlife and migratory birds, and operates out of Ark Animal Hospital in Yarrawonga.
The hospital sees more than 3000 animals per year, and have a dedicated wildlife room for emergency treatment and care for sick and injured native Australian wildlife.