Soft tissue tumour in the buccal cavity of a python

A 9-year-old python, weighing 50 kgs housed in the Binkadakatti zoo of Gadag District of Karnataka was observed to have a swelling in the lower jaw. The snake was off-feed and unable to lift the lower jaw freely during progression. The animal was restrained physically by the zoo staff. Visual examination revealed swelling in the buccal cavity anterior to the airway outlet in between the rami of mandible. The python was anaesthetized with ketamine @ 11 mg/kg body wt and Diazepam @ 1 mg/kg body wt intramuscularly. The python was placed in ventral recumbency. Oral cavity was kept open by nylon slings pulling apart. Palpation revealed hard mass which was immovable. A sterile needle was introduced into the swelling. Aspiration revealed blood. The cyst, abscess, haematoma were ruled out by fine needle aspiration. Buccal mucosal incision was placed to the extent of 2.5 cm length over the mass, which exposed the tumour lumps. The entire mass was resected and care was taken to avoid aspiration of blood into the lungs and the air way was kept unobstructed. The bleeding points were ligated with No. 1/0 chromic catgut. The buccal mucosal wound was closed by simple interrupted sutures using 2/0 chromic catgut. The surgical site was dressed daily with tincture iodine. Cifadroxyl was administered orally with total dose of 500 mg/day for 5 consecutive days using sterile nasogastric tube. The sterile PVC soft pipe was also used as oesophagial-gastric tube to feed the python daily. Histological section of the samples revealed connective tissue, angioblasts, numerous fibroblasts and numerous necrotic foci suggestive of soft tissue tumour.