When an emaciated yellow rat snake with a perfectly spherical bump in its middle was brought into Young’s Animal Hospital in Titusville, Dr. Angela Bockelman said there were only two options: euthanize the reptile, or perform surgery to remove whatever was blocking it from eating.
“I really care about wildlife” said Dr. Bockelman, who says she didn’t hesitate to perform surgery on the wild snake, even though it wasn’t a pet.
Initially, she suspected the snake swallowed a golf ball, but once the veterinarian surgically opened the snake up, she removed what was clearly a plastic ping pong ball.
“We can assume the snake just thought it looked like an egg” said Dr. Bockelman. After the surgery, the snake was sent to the Florida Wildlife Hospital in Palm Shores, where the staff cared for it but were unsure if she would survive.
But on Tuesday, after two months of care, veterinarians declared the snake fully recovered and ready to be released back into the wild. Dr. Bockelman was invited to watch as hospital staff set the snake free in a thick forested area behind the facility on US1 near Pineda Causeway. The snake didn’t waste much time slithering away under some thick brush. Within seconds the rat snake was out of sight.
Dr. Bockelman says she felt good about saving the snake, but hopes what happened to the reptile can serve as an example of the human impacts on wildlife.
“I know no one threw a ping bong ball out hoping a snake would eat it” said the veterinarian. “But we still impacted that animal, and I think it’s only reasonable we try to fix it.”
