American alligator Dixie recently had a health check at our vet hospital!
The primary reason for this check-up, was that Dixie was observed swallowing a jandal in her habitat. Although after this she continued eating well, our veterinary team wanted to ensure this was not going to be a longer-term health issue for her.
Alligators can consume foreign objects because they're ‘sit and wait’ hunters. If something moves near them, they will often automatically snap and eat it. They also play with objects and swallow stones for buoyancy control. This means that in the wild, alligators can die from ingesting man-made objects.
Our skilled veterinarians were joined by Dr Tommy Fluen, an external specialist experienced with endoscopy (where a thin flexible tube is passed into a patient’s body). Once Dixie was safely anaesthetised, Tommy was able to look inside her stomach using a small camera attached to the scope.