Conjoined rattlesnakes OK after separation surgery

A veterinarian at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was successfully able to separate a pair of conjoined rattlesnakes, an official said Friday.

“They both appear to be stable,” Craig Ivanyi, the museum’s associate executive director for living collections, said of the western diamondbacks, who were born connected at the neck. “We continue to be optimistic.”

The rattlers were found two weeks ago at a north side construction site and brought to the museum.

Experts determined the snakes needed to be separated in order to survive. Keeping them attached, Ivanyi said, would have caused one of the two to become highly stressed due to the other becoming dominant.

If left in the wild, Ivanyi said, the snakes would likely have not been able to feed properly and would have been picked off by predators.

The surgery was performed Thursday by Dr. Jim Jarchow, a veterinarian the museum consults with on issues related to reptiles and amphibians, Ivanyi said.

via Conjoined rattlesnakes OK after separation surgery | www.azstarnet.com ®.