torbs
06-29-2012, 07:41 PM
I'm currently in a very remote area of coastal British Columbia. I found a garter snake this morning on the beach that looked like it may have washed in with the tide. I thought she was dead but she had gone into hibernation from the cold (or it seemed that way anyway, she might just barely be living), so I moved her off the beach and draped her over a warm water bottle in the bushes for a while. It eventually became evident that more care was necessary, so I built a make-shift enclosure for her (I used to work at a wildlife rehab center so I know the basics of what she needs for an enclosure, although its not as warm as I'd like it to be. It is warmer than outside though and we do have wild garter snakes living outside here.). She did eat a small banana slug, and I've brought her another one though she hasn't eaten it yet. She looks like she's about to shed too. She might even be blind at this point (her eyes are totally blue).
What concerns me most though is that she's leaving her back half quite limp, even when I touch her (when I touch her she moves her front half). She even lets it roll upside down when she drags it around (which is rarely, she's not moving a ton. Right now she's got her front half hidden in the hideaway and her back half part way through the water dish under the desk lamp I'm using as a light since we don't have any heat lamps here). There was a moment earlier today where I went to move her back half and she was holding it in place over the water bottle, but since then she hasn't flexed any muscles in the back half. I've never owned snakes, and I don't know if she's got an injury back there or if she's dying or if she's just too exhausted and stressed to care/bother moving that half.
Any ideas what's going on? Ideally I'd prefer to bring her back to health over the next several days if possible, and if it's a survivable injury that would kill her in the wild I might see if there's somewhere I can keep her until I go home and bring her back with me, but if she's really suffering/definitely going to die I'd rather just put her out in the cold and let her go into hibernation until she dies of heat loss instead of prolonging her suffering.
What concerns me most though is that she's leaving her back half quite limp, even when I touch her (when I touch her she moves her front half). She even lets it roll upside down when she drags it around (which is rarely, she's not moving a ton. Right now she's got her front half hidden in the hideaway and her back half part way through the water dish under the desk lamp I'm using as a light since we don't have any heat lamps here). There was a moment earlier today where I went to move her back half and she was holding it in place over the water bottle, but since then she hasn't flexed any muscles in the back half. I've never owned snakes, and I don't know if she's got an injury back there or if she's dying or if she's just too exhausted and stressed to care/bother moving that half.
Any ideas what's going on? Ideally I'd prefer to bring her back to health over the next several days if possible, and if it's a survivable injury that would kill her in the wild I might see if there's somewhere I can keep her until I go home and bring her back with me, but if she's really suffering/definitely going to die I'd rather just put her out in the cold and let her go into hibernation until she dies of heat loss instead of prolonging her suffering.