A two-meter-long carpet python swallowed a slipper accidentally but a veterinarian rescued the snake by removing the slipper through a surgical procedure.
The operation took place at the HerpVet - a dedicated reptile department within the Greencross Jindalee Veterinary Clinic in Queensland, Australia, where the reptile was under anesthesia for more than an hour before the foreign object was removed through a 45cm incision.
Veterinarian John Llinas performed a procedure called "coeliotomy and gastrotomy" after which the python's stomach was closed in two layers - first the muscle wall then the skin.
The snake will need six to eight weeks to fully recover.
"A local snake catcher brought the snake into the clinic, so I don't know the ¬details of the gentleman who brought it in," he said. They knew it had eaten a slipper because they saw (the snake) in the room with one slipper missing," said Llinas, according to Courier Mail.
However, this is not the first time a snake ate things that were not food. People have discovered even weirder objects from the reptiles' bellies.
Electric bulbs
Vets had removed electric light bulbs from a four-foot pine snake in Gainesville, Florida in the US. What is weirder? The snake ate two bulbs back to back.
Electric Blanket
In Idaho, US, a Burmese python was found extremely sick after it swallowed a queen-sized electric blanket. Doctors were perplexed over what had possibly made the electric blanket a lucrative meal choice for the python named Houdini.
The owner assumed Houdini had swallowed the blanket after it probably got tangled up with the rabbit that was offered to the snake.
Tongs
A Queensland man had to leave his feeding tongs with his pet Woma python after it grabbed both the utensil and the rat. The owner thought the snake will let the tongs go once it finished its meal. However, to his shock, he found that the reptile ate the tongs as well. Later the object was removed from the snake's body.
Teddy bear
Again in Queensland, a snake swallowed a teddy bear. The owner of the toy? A pet dog. Later a local snake catcher took the serpent to a vet, who removed the teddy following an emergency operation.
Car part
It seems snakes in Queensland have a unique choice of meal. After a female brown tree snake disrupted a barbecue party in Black River, animal control professionals were called. One of the experts felt a hard, golf-ball sized mass in the reptile's belly. The snake was taken to the vet, who removed the foreign object, which was a round, rubber bush.
Rubber bushes are cylindrical rubber tubes that are found on the torsion bar of an automobile.
