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I chatted again this year at NAVC with some of the leading reseachers and authors in the field of reptile medicine for some additional updates on the venomoid industry. According to one well known source, true regeneration would not be likely if the entire venom gland were removed by a competent professional. However, if any scrap of gland tissue was left behind, it would be quite functional. The key words here are "competent professional". According to another equally well known authority in reptile medicine, re-fissuring and regaining functional envenomation capacity after a ductectomy or a partial gland removal is a normal and expected occurrence in his personal, clinical experience.
My own veterinarian performed two adenectomies at my request on patients that had just died from other causes. We could not save them, so we continued operating on them to further our knowledge and understanding of the anatomy of these species. He stated (and I observed) that the true venom gland itself is a difficult structure both to reach and to identify. The first thing he removed was a muscle that was rooted at the base of the fang that was difficult to distinguish from the gland. Identification of the removed tissue was accomplished under the clinic's microscope by cytology using stains.
My veterinarian is not an inexperienced one. He had at that point a few years of clinical experience treating venomous reptiles specifically and more than ten years doing surgery on reptiles generally. He has been employed by the state to perform telemetry implants on indigo snakes. If a reasonably experienced veterinarian can fish around in a snake's head and remove a piece of muscle rather than the gland, I would not hold out a lot of hope for what a non veterinarian might be doing in there. A non veterinarian who did not have a clinic's resources for in-house cytology (the setup ain't cheap) would not be able to find out their mistake either, except the hard way when the snake was done healing and was able to envenomate.
He stated that the mechanical result of this muscle being removed would be the classic sunken-headed appearance and a decreased ability to envenomate, and perhaps no ability to envenomate for some time during healing. I have seen a number of cases where I believe this to be a likely scenario. Eg, the animal presented the sunken headed appearance (in an elapid no less) but had the ability to envenomate especially if it chewed vigorously. Contact Ray Hunter (his information is available here if you search on his name) for more specific details and documentation of the snakes he has seen presenting like this.
I'm sorry, but the evidence suggests that handling a venomoid that was not done by a properly licensed and experienced veterinarian is rather like having your parachute packed and serviced before a jump by a kid who works at McDonald's flipping burgers. There are perhaps a small handful of veterinarians who are qualified to do this operation in such a way that regeneration or re-fissuring would not be a serious possibility. Most of them will not do it for the private sector. As a consequence, the market is dominated by greedy, inhumane amateur hackers who do not use appropriate procedures either for the snake's health or yours.
Another observation is that the people who deal in venomoids tend to be the real bottom of the barrel in this industry. They are already well known as the Bad Guys for what they are willing to do to make a profit, and that comes out pretty clearly on the BOI. Some searching and reading will reveal the way that these people do business. Eg, stealing other people's photos to misrepresent their animals. Trying to cheat their suppliers by claiming days later that snakes arrived DOA, then being unable to produce the bodies because they had actually died under botched surgery conditions. Sending dead or dying snakes with the stitches still in, and refusing a refund. History of arrest on animal cruelty charges. Read it all right here on the BOI. Even the dealings they have in nonvenomous reptiles tend to be horrendous, with a lot of customer complaints. This is a good place to do some homework before you decide to buy from someone you don't know.
These are not nice people. Even if you don't care about the ethical aspects of how they profit from torturing and mutilating snakes, it isn't a good idea to do business with them unless you have some KY handy to make your screwing more comfortable. If you absolutely must have a venomoid, buy a healthy adult captive bred animal from a reputable breeder and go find a real veterinarian who will do the procedure appropriately and humanely. But I won't sell you anything of mine.
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