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.

He's in a tub so I can't do bulbs. My office will stay in the seventies and I can put that up to high seventies if necessary. Does anyone know the optimum temp for these guys?

75-85 deg F. That's a sad pic . . . hope the little one survives . . .

Alright, I'm headed for bed. As of ten pm tonight, he is exploring his enclosure a little bit and moving and alive. Update in the am. Wish him luck...

He's alive today and moving around in what I would consider a normal way. More photos of the swollen area taken this afternoon.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...g/IMG_0759.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...g/IMG_0760.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...g/IMG_0761.jpg

In the top photo, it just looks like he ate something and has a food lump. In the next two you can see the blueish and broken up area. Do you think he will make it? Or should I be thinking about euthanasia so that he does not suffer terribly?

They say the 1st 24 hours is the most crucial. He made it through the night which is a huge plus. On top of that, he's exploring and getting used to his new surroundings. I wouldn't head for the needle just yet. Him being able to move around and the fact he made it through the night speaks volumes about hsi condition. Give him some more time. Personally, I think he'll make it with the care he's getting. ;)

My guess is he has a good chance.

I recently saw a thread (on a different forum) where someone had a corn snake that had gotten stuck in its enclosure while they were away on vacation. Apparently the snake looked really bad when they found it. The thread I saw was pics after it had healed, but had a lot of discoloration and scarring (if I remember correctly, a year had gone by). I think the pics of the healed corn look worse than this guy does now.

Here is a link to that thread:
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80828

Wow! Well we will keep him warm and protected then. Thanks for the encouragement guys.

I just replied to your other thread about this snake... I'll paste it in here too, just for ease! (the part about teh goldfish was in response to a post in the other thread it makes more sense there!!)

Okay, definitely do not feed him goldfish, if he survives. That is a really, really bad idea, they contain thiaminase. Thiaminase makes it impossible for teh absorbtion of Thiamine to take place. This KILLS the snake. Goldfish and rosy red minnows as well as catfish and true smelts, are not an acceptable food items for a snake for this reason, actually, not really for anything that you want to keep healthy. For a first meal, try a nightcrawler, or some guppies or silversides. If you need additional info on how to properly feed you garter a safe diet, check out first my thread here on no goldfish and thiaminase:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=89242

and you can also check out this homemade garter food recipe here and additional feeding instructions here:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=89243


I would definitely keep him warm. Just because they are not tropical does not mean they like to be cold. Especially since he is wounded, he's going to need supplemental heating to heal effectively. They also need heating to digest their food properly and incubate their babies. They don't spend half their day basking in full sunlight on a hot day for nothing that's for sure!!! Keep him at around 80. My snakeroom fluctuates, going from 70ish at night to around 82 during the peak of the day. Since your snake is injured I would keep the heat up 24/7 until signs of improvement. They need all the heat they can get to heal a wound. All 60 something of my garters thrive at the temps provided. Garter snakes are diurnal and are very drawn to heat especially in daylight hours. It will be even better if you can provide a visual heat source (basking light), they flock to it like ducks to water. If you need additional help, advice, info, etc, feel free to PM me, or you can always reach me and a variety of other garter enthusiasts on a daily basis over at thamnophis.com, the garter snake headquarters.

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

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

Quote:

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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.