Injured garter snake, advice asap please?

My son found a garter snake out in the yard that had gotten caught in a tiny hole over the wheel of our lawn mower. Basically half the diameter of his body. He took the wheel off and used butter to help him scale by scale through the hole. He is swollen and battered from the hole. We cannot take him to a vet. He can still move his tail and his body above and below the bruising. Should we let him rest in a tub in our house for a week or so? Or would he be better off released into the woods? Any advice would be much appreciated.

His best bet at survival is you keeping an eye on him for a while.. but I wouldn't count on anything depending on how bad he is injured. It sounds like it is pretty bad though :( good luck.

Yep, it looks bad. Ok, we will ready a spot for him. I need advice on a tiny tub for a garter. Diameter of my pinky finger. The hole he tried to go through was less than a quarter inch.

Here's a photo of the damage. I'm not photographing more as he is extremely listless and I think he has barely any chance to make it and I want to leave him alone.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...uredgarter.jpg

I hope he makes it, keep us posted,

Me too. Two little girls and one big teenage son are rooting for the little guy.

YIKES!!! I would say since he is able to move his tail that you should keep him till his next shed and see if its better after that. Hopefully a good shed will mend it but I'm not for certain since I'm not there to actually take a good look at the damage. would say get some leaves and grass and a little hide and keep him for a bit. Hope he gets better! .. Poor little dude...:(

It looks worse than the photo. More indented and swollen around the squeezed part. I don't want to get my hopes up that he CAN make it.

Does he need heat? We are in maine, temps going to the thirties at night and about sixty or so during the day. He is in my office, temp stays warm, about seventy or so in here.

He could use some heat, but not alot. A regular lightbulb in a fixture would suffice and if you wanted you could invest in a night time heat lamp for him to keep him warm at night. Optimum conditions are essential if he's to have any chance of survival.