A crocodile ate a shoe in Florida, but it didn’t go down well. See how vets removed it
Paging McDreamy, reptile version.
A crocodile had to undergo surgery earlier this month after a shoe she swallowed didn’t go down well.
A team at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine opened up the croc named Anuket on Feb. 5 after she gulped down a sneaker that fell off a zipliner at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, the school announced in a release on Facebook.
“If the shoe fits your fancy …. swallow it? Not a good idea!” read the post explaining that the 10 1/2-foot, 341 pound Nile crocodile had thrown up the non-edible item, but unwisely gobbled it up again.
Initial nonsurgical efforts to remove the shoe were heroic, but ultimately unsuccessful, the animal doctors said in the post. A zoo medicine resident actually even reached his arm up and through the croc’s esophagus while the beast was sedated.
In a dramatic pic, Anuket is seen strapped to a gurney, unconscious, the carnivore’s large arm slumped over the side, its tail hanging over the end of the table.
Ultimately, the croc’s stomach was opened in a procedure called a gastrostomy, and the shoe removed. A picture of the tattered green sneaker is seen on the surgical room’s floor.
As for Anuket, she returned home after an overnight stay, and has been recuperating at the park since then.
An FB commenter couldn’t resist a joke about the name of the Gainesville school’s fame football team.
“Gators removing a shoe from a crocodile.”
