Surgery for a two-headed snake is extremely rare

A rare two-headed snake in a Missouri Conservation Area required surgery after vomiting blood while eating .

The Missouri Conservancy (MDC) said the strange reptile is a two-headed rat snake named Tiger-Lily, which is being cared for at the Powder Valley Nature Center . They were seen spitting out "blood stains" while feeding them earlier this month, according to News Week.

The snake was then taken to veterinarians from the Animal Health Team at the Saint Louis Zoo. Here, they discovered that Tiger-Lily was suffering from a condition where the ovaries temporarily stopped working before ovulation, a common disease in reptiles.

Two-headed rat snakes are operated on to treat ovarian stagnation. (Photo: Missouri Conservation District (MCD)).

Normally, the ovaries will begin to form follicles, develop into eggs and release them. However, sometimes problems occur in this process, causing the follicles to remain attached to the ovaries. This condition leads to infection, inflammation or even cyst rupture, leaving the reptile weakened.

In the case of Tiger-Lily, although the reproductive cycle has begun, the follicles do not ovulate but continue to grow and stagnate in the ovaries.

Veterinarian Michael Warshaw at Saint Louis Zoo, USA shared: 'Over time, this leads to inflammation and a high risk of infection.'

On March 11, Tiger-Lily's abnormal ovary was successfully surgically removed at the Endangered Species Research Center and Veterinary Hospital of the Saint Louis Zoo. The surgery was successful and the snake is recovering well.

"We appreciate the Saint Louis Zoo's quick response and professional treatment ," Missouri Conservation District (MDC) naturalist Lauren Baker said in a statement.

According to information from the Saint Louis Zoo, the Tiger-Lily was found in Stone County in 2017 and is extremely rare because it has two heads. This condition called bicephaly occurs due to some problem during the development of the embryo.

In the case of Tiger-Lily, they are actually conjoined twins and not completely separated. This phenomenon has been recorded in the animal world, from cows and sharks to turtles and kittens, and even extremely rare cases in humans.

However, this phenomenon is more commonly seen in reptiles than in mammals because embryo implantation in mammals is often periodically checked to detect abnormalities. Animals and people suffering from this disease rarely live long, so snakes like the Tiger-Lily are rarely found in the wild.