tumor - red tailed boa

Question
QUESTION: 25-year old red tail boa.  Owned him since birth.  Now has a sizeable tumor on one kidney (had sonogram yesterday).  Exotic pet vet indicates surgery and removal, leaving other kidney to function.  He indicates snakes are relatively quick/good healers.  Wondering if boa is at end of lifespan and/or if you know of any figures around success rates of surgery on snakes.

ANSWER: I believe there was a boa that lived over 40 years in captivity.  I have had tumors removed from boas and pythons (oral tumors), and had one boa that lost 20% of it's skin to a mouse, all of which survived and flourished after surgery.  Only ever had one snake die after surgery and that was an egg-bound corn snake.  If you can afford it, go for it.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks.  Is kidney/tumor removal difficult for an exotic vet, or a straighforward operation?  I don't know if my vet does very many snake operations every year....

Answer
I am NOT a vet, so my opinion is just that - my opinion.  If he is taking the whole organ, kidney removal shouldn't be that difficult.  One big artery, one big vein.  As long as they are properly closed I should think it would be pretty straight forward.  If the tumor has been there a long time it may have developed it's own blood supply which could make things more difficult, but he should be able to tell via ultrasound.