Girl With Stretched Ears Hospitalised After Snake Slithers Into Her Earlobe

Every pet owner knows that the moment you let an animal into your home, you’re pretty much giving disaster and chaos an open invitation to lodge with you. Even the most benign little fluffy bunny can spell catastrophe for its owner if left to its own devices. Furniture gets scratched, bins turned over and raked through, pillows get chewed, carpets stained with excrement, the floor’s littered with hairballs and if you’re really lucky then there’s usually an eviscerated rodent lying on the welcome mat waiting for you every morning. Nice.

Now you can take all these myriad woes and worries and multiply them by a thousand depending on how big or dangerous your pet is. There’s no-one I feel worse for in that regard than snake owners.

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There’s much to enjoy about raising a slithering, scaly friend. Despite all those urban legends you hear about snake owners being routinely swallowed in the night or chewed a number of species of domestic snakes are no threat to humans whatsoever… However, that’s not to say that accidents don’t happen, or that people don’t do stupid things.

A story had emerged on social media this week that proves this axiom: a woman with an ear lobe ring was straight sent straight to accident and emergency after her particularly affectionate pet reptile tried to cuddle up to her, slithered through the ear-hole, and ended up stuck. Eurgh.

Oregonian Ashley Gawe ended up at a Portland hospital after her Ball Python, named Bart, decided to poke his head through her gauged earlobe and slide through. After getting trapped, Gawe was rushed to A&E with the ropey reptile dangling from the side of her head.

While waiting in the doctor’s office for medical assistance, Ashley took a selfie of her awkward situation and shared it on Facebook. Ashley wrote: “By far one of my craziest life moments! Went to the Emergency Room because my Ball Python decided to get stuck in my gauged earlobe!” she wrote in the caption, adding, “It all happened so fast that before I even knew what was going on it was already too late.”

The photo, first posted on Monday 30th of January, has now received over 600 shares, and numerous local news outlets have since reported Gawe’s story.  Many commenters have expressed concern that her new snake accessory might become permanent decoration, but Gawe mentioned that doctors managed to free the animal after some effort. “They numbed up my ear and used string to pull and stretch it out more so that they could get him out without hurting him,” she explained.

It’s good to know that this friendly little critter was alright by the end of the ordeal. Usually when snakes get viral attention, it’s because of their size and ferocity – like when these workmen discovered this nightmare-inducing monster.