DENVER – A previously untested method of treating skin cancer in a king cobra at the Denver Zoo has been deemed successful.
Veterinarians diagnosed the 18-year-old snake with skin cancer last year after zookeepers noticed abnormal coloring and weight loss.
To treat the cancer, one of the zoo’s veterinarians decided to try a novel but untested technique – putting chemotherapy pills into dead rats that were then fed to the 12-foot-long snake.
As it turns out, the technique worked. The Denver Post reports the cobra finished treatment in July and skin biopsies taken in December verified that the cancer had not returned.
