Awww....wild snake operated on after swallowing doorknob

This wild snake needed a tummy operation after he swallowed a doorknob. The western rat snake used to catch rodents outside a family’s chicken coup in their garden in Ballwin, Missouri. They placed an old white door knob on the ground as a ”dummy egg” to encourage hens to lay. But they were stunned when they found the snake sprawled out on the ground with an enormous bump in his stomach. Incredible x-rays taken by vets show the white outline of the doorknob lodged half-way down his long body. Surgeons have now operated on the snake – nicknamed ”Doorknob” – and returned him to the wild to carry on catching rats.
More pictures after the cut