Lydia waking up after the anaesthetic, still very groggy!

Lydia, a 3 yr old 7 foot Reticulated Python was brought to us with a puffy swelling the size of a small grape on her face above her upper lip. It didn't seem to be sore, she was eating well and active. An abscess was suspected and a course of antibiotics was started. By early December the swelling had reduced to the size of a pea but was very hard. Anticipating a possible underlying tumour we decided that we should remove it surgically. We anaesthetised Lydia using Isoflurane gas anaesthetic by mask. She accepted this well and after about 15 minutes we were able to intubate her and proceed with the surgery. Once we were through the skin we found a dense hard mass that we were able to detach from the surrounding tissues and remove. We closed the skin with nylon sutures and gave her a 15 minute bath in water at 28 degrees C until she was fully awake. She was soon back to normal. We examined the tissue we had removed and found it to be a cyst full of dense impacted material.

Close up of the operation wound before stitching


Closing the wound, the cyst removed is on the swab.


Lydia having her recovery bath.

<top of page>