Removing a fishing dart from an Indian rock python using C-Arm X-ray

Abstract

An Indian rock python rescued by the Department of Forest and Wildlife, Government of Kerala was brought to the Department of Veterinary Surgery and Radiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy. The reptile weighing 7 kg was presented in a conscious and responsive state, with a steel arrow dart gathered at its midlength. It was sedated with ketamine 10 mgkg and midazolam 0.2 mgkg prior to survey radiography. The dart was penetrating the muscles just lateral to the spine, in between the ribs and covering the entire width of the coelomic cavity. The python was intubated, and anaesthesia was maintained with isoflurane. The wound was dissected to free the dart, but the reverse barb was trapped between the ribs. Hence, the shaft was unscrewed, and the barb was carefully removed, but the attempts to retrieve the arrowhead failed as it was trapped within the deep ventral muscular layers distal to the visceral organs. The trapped arrowhead was retrieved under C-Arm image intensifier assistance, and the tissue injuries were repaired in the routine manner. Postoperative antibiotic therapy was instituted, and the python made an uneventful recovery at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and was released into the forest after one week.