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Cornsnake Radiographs (X-rays)

Sheenie99

Sheenie99

New member
I'm a Veterinary Technician and I decided to take a few digital radiographs of our 2 gravid female cornsnakes. We wanted to see if it was possible to count the eggs before they were laid. The radiographs were taken April 8th, 2010. The first female laid her eggs April 26th, the second female laid hers May 16th. Hope you enjoy!
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Wow! Thats really cool. I dont think ive ever seen something like that. Thanks for sharing :D
And welcome to the Forum.
 
These are very cool. Did you have any luck counting the eggs using these images? It looks like there are so many! Must be uncomfortable being a gravid snake.
 
We had an estimation of the number of eggs but there were still more we couldn't see because some organs may have been hiding them.
The amount of radiation is very very small. There is always some risk, as there is with any animal or human exposed to radiation, but it is miniscule. I also found this Veterinarian's quote online which explains how reptiles can be more resistant to radiation than other mammals. http://www.hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q4430.html
 
Interesting about them being more resistant to radiation. I don't know about exposure in veterinary x-rays. I know that there was a study that showed an increased risk of leukemia in human children who were exposed to diagnostic radiation in utero, but it was still only a risk of 66 in 100,000 versus 9 in 100,000 and that is in the first trimester. I wouldn't expect all the eggs to suddenly develop a second head, but I would wonder if it would increase the occurence of mutations. I'll have to go look around and see if I can find more about that.
 
All 29 eggs hatched normal snakes that never showed any sort of abnormality or mutation. All ate just fine for us and we never had any problems. I'm sure any affect on them is quite rare.
 
Hmmm, great shots. I remember reading once upon a time, and can't remember where or from whom, that it's "normal" for snakes to have fused or missing ribs. I didn't dissect every pairing, but at first and second glance, I didn't notice any in either shot. :shrugs:

D80
 
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