A critically injured king cobra rescued by soldiers has been nursed back to health and returned to the wilderness today.

The 16ft leviathan named Boonrod survived a vicious dog attack and was freed near a forest in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand on March 28.

Footage shows Boonrod's caretaker Phantharet Samphaosong from the 4th Special Warfare Training Camp dousing the snake with water amid the scorching heat before leaving it to slither back into the woods.

Troops had last month found Boonrod with its internal organs spilling out from its ruptured skin following a fight with a dog at a local orchard.

Lieutenant Pornpitak Chimkhonburi and Sergeant Major First Class Tharet Sampaosong of the Sichon Special Combat Training Camp rescued the cobra hanging from a tree and rushed it to the Sichon Animal Hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, around 500 miles south of Bangkok.

Veterinarian Piyaporn Wattanapan removed Boonrod's severely damaged reproductive organs to save its life.

She said: 'The removal of the snake's reproductive organs was needed to save its life.

'If we had tried to salvage them, the injury would have festered and led to its death within a few days.'

Cobras are one of the world's deadliest snakes.

Researchers found that 7,000 people are treated for snake bites each year in Thailand. Suchai Suteparuk from the Division of Toxicology at Chulalongkorn University reported that 30 of those die, with cobras being the biggest killer.