Heart-warming rattlesnakes

This was a nice heart-warming story I think.

http://news.aol.com/article/conjoine...undergo/650664

Vets Separate Conjoined Rattlesnakes

(Sept. 1) -- Two heads are better than one, except if they're conjoined, and that goes double when each noggin sports venomous fangs.

Veterinarians at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum successfully separated conjoined rattlesnakes, saving the life of one of the diamondbacks, who'd been joined to his twin at the neck.

"We have every reason to believe that it wasn't the surgery that caused one of them to die," Craig Ivanyi, the museum's associate executive director for living collections, told AOL News.

"The one who died was the weaker of the two. He was being dragged around by his twin, and it was harder for him to recuperate."

Ivanyi says the conjoined rattlers were unlike anything he'd seen in his 25 years at the museum. They were found three weeks ago at a construction site north of Tucson and brought to the museum.

"It's unlikely they would have survived if left in the wild," Ivanyi said. "They'd be easily picked off by a predator."

Luckily, Dr. Jim Jarchow, a veterinarian who works with the museum, had experience separating conjoined tortoises.

Dealing with four sets of fangs is no picnic, except perhaps for the reptilian patients.

"Any time you deal with animals in surgery, you don't know how long the anesthesia will last or how it will affect them," said Ivanyi. "They can awaken agitated and unpredictable."

Western diamondback rattlesnakes are among North America's most dangerous snakes, and often grow more than 6 feet long. Their hemotoxic venom can cause serious tissue damage.

Over its half-century in existence, the museum has promoted the better understanding of desert creatures, and curators are hoping to tell the surviving snake's story.

"We just aren't sure how we're going to tell this extraordinary tale," said Ivanyi. "This snake doesn't even have a name yet."