Our team of vets at Terra Natura Benidorm have treated an Indian python (Python bivittatus) weighing 29 kilos and over 3.5 metres long to cure an infection that had been detected in one eye. The keepers noticed a few days ago that Valencia, as this 14-year-old python is called, had an opacity in his right eye.

After detecting the opacity, an examination was carried out, where it was found that the cause of the opacity was an infection, possibly originating in its mouth. In order to transfer and treat the python at the park’s veterinary clinic, a total of five keepers were required due to the size of the animal. One of the vets at Terra Natura Benidorm proceeded to sedate the animal with general anaesthesia, so it had to be intubated beforehand.

Once Valencia had been anaesthetised, a drainage procedure was carried out in the space under the eye scales to remove some of the pus that had caused the infection. An ophthalmic ointment was then applied and a combination of systemic antibiotics was administered. Currently, this species is threatened according to the IUCN and its conservation status is vulnerable. This species, also known as the Burmese python, arrived to the park in 2014.

The Indian python is characterised by a powerful mouth with almost a hundred teeth and yellow-orange eyes. Pythons have no venom, so they prey using their powerful constrictor muscles. Although they do not have venom, a bite from this species can be dangerous due to the numerous bacteria in their mouths which can cause infections.

Indian pythons can reach a maximum length of seven metres and weigh up to 100 kilos. Females are usually larger than males. They are carnivorous and feed on live prey, usually rodents and other mammals, although sometimes they include other animals such as birds, amphibians or reptiles in their diet. When they for food, they stalk their prey, ambush it or choose to feed on carrion.

When they kill its prey, they bite and squeezes it in a deadly embrace until it suffocates and then swallows it whole. To do this, they are able to dislocate their jaw and stretch its elastic skin around the prey so that it can fit completely into its oral cavity. These snakes have very poor eyesight, which they compensate for with an extremely well-developed sense of smell thanks to the heat-sensitive pits they have inside each upper lip scale.

This species usually lives up to 15 years old. During egg incubation, females rub their musculature to raise their body temperature and do not separate from the eggs until they hatch. Once the eggs hatch, the babies quickly become independent. Indian pythons inhabit rainforests and areas near water, as they are capable of swimming long distances. The undue trade of this species as a pet and the use of its skin in the fashion industry threaten its conservation.