Injured garter snake, advice asap please?

sounds like things are looking up at least! keep us posted :)

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Originally Posted by ZinniaZ

He pooped! That has to mean he has good function internally, yes?

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I'd say that's a good sign! You won't know for sure until he has eaten and then pooped out the new meal.

awww poor guy, but ill tell you what! them garters are seriously tough snakes.
my first two snakes were garters and my older one got trod on by my annoying little brother.
the snake had a really really bad wound, he had his side ripped open and the skin on one of his sides was completley open and flapped down, and lord it stank bad..

i called the vet at his home and he said watch him thru the night and bring him in the morning and i did, he made it thru the night this way and i took him to the vet and they stitched him up and the vet assistant lost him thru being an idiot! she put him in a "CAGE" like for a dog lol... so he escaped easy but they allowed me to go look for him and i found him in a draw playing in the vials :)

i took him home with the sticthes and he was right as rain!
took him back when they told me to for the stitches to be taken out.. and he was good to go! and after a few shedding's he was awesome again :)

PS, they lost him after taking the stitches out, not on the day they put them in! sorry. :)



but as for the one you have. i would hold him for a while if i was you, just feeding him worms, they are soft and squishy and wont hurt his sides going down, both my garter snakes used to chomp down frogs and worms like no tomoz!

Wow-- amazing recovery! Our little guy is definitely doing well. Very active if we open his enclosure. Moves around, we think he ate a worm, looks about to shed and generally behaves as I would think a happy little snake would behave. We gave him some reptile dirt type substrate which he seems to like a whole lot better than newspaper. Anyhow, he continues to be alive and seems hopeful.

I think you could set up his enclosure outside. He should be used to those temps. Plenty of leaves, grass, maybe soil as a substrate, piece of wood to hide under, and of course fresh water. I'd avoid direct sunlight, at least not on the entire enclosure.
I think that others will not agree with this technique, but all of the native snakes I've kept were in enclosures outside. I've never kept a native snake over winter.
I hope the little garter makes it!

Awesome! I think we were typing at the same time. Glad the little garter is winning the fight!
I'd probably keep him til he sheds and let him go.

I'm glad to hear such a positive update!

I would not put him in an outside enclosure. While it might work just fine, if the temps in the enclosure do get outside of the proper range, the snake is trapped and can't do anything about it.