I'm freaking out about my wee one.

[Kadabasaur]

Husbandry; She is in a 50L plastic tub, fitted with airholes. She has a heatpad which is controlled by a thermostat. Her hot side is usually 26-27c and her cold side is 20-21c. I feed her a varied fish diet, and supplement her water everyday with vitamins.<br><br>Basically, there was an incident around 2-4 weeks ago where Athena, my 2-3 year old albino checkered garter snake had suspect inhaled water during a shedding bath. She was very lifeless, and water was coming out in forms of bubbles from her mouth/nose. I waited it out. She recovered well, and was back to herself again.&nbsp;<br><br>One night ago, she started acting strange. I picked her up, and her bottom half of her body was completely fine (ie coiling round me as usual) but it was like she had no control of her top half. It would be completely lifeless.&nbsp;<br><br>Today, she was the same but she had what I could only describe as a seizure. She started thrashing herself against the walls of her enclosure with her mouth wide open. I collected the substrate from her mouth, and left her to it. She is moving, but everything is backwards. She moves about tail first, and no tongue wiggles or such from her at all.&nbsp;<br><br>I've taken her water dish out as a preventative measure.<br><br>I contacted the vet and have an appointment with them tomorrow.&nbsp;<br><br>Right now I guess I need some like minded people to talk to about this. My boyfriend/family don't seem to understand why I'm so upset/worried about her. She's my little squiggle and I want her to be ok. :(

[Kadabasaur]

Not sure how to delete this, my wee Athena passed away the same night.

[guidofatherof5]

So sorry to hear about Athena's passing. R.I.P. Athena.
If I may suggest you feed more then a varied fish diet in the future. Lob worms and frozen/thawed pinkies would be a great addition. Each food has its own great nutritional value. Also, maybe cut back on the vitamin supp. in the water everyday. Rep-Cal w/D3 is a good calcium supp. that can be sprinkled on food twice a week. Once or twice a week should be fine.
We all know how you are feeling at this time.

After 30 minutes you can't delete a post only and admin. can at your request.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//821/medium/repcal_d3.png

[Rushthezeppelin]

So sorry to hear : / By varied fish diet, what kinda of fish? What sources? Unfortunately the obvious neurological damage that was there makes me think thiamin deficiency from feeding thiamanaise carrying fish (and enzyme that blocks the uptake of thiamin aka B2). Also I kind of wonder if she was getting too much of any fat soluble vitamins if you were supplementing her water. Really not sure what those symptoms would be. Many of us that do a varied worms/pinks/safe fish (and sometimes frog legs) diet don't really even supplement. I could see throwing a bit of calcium in if you can't get one to feed on pinkies but that's all in my mind you should need.

[indigoman]

Sorry to read of your loss, good feed back from the other forum members

[Albert Clark]

Wow, that's a tough pill to swallow. No one wants to lose a animal much less to witness any suffering or bizarre behavior. My condolences to you for the loss.

[Kadabasaur]

I thought it may of been the food too, but I have another snake Pandora and she's completely fine, and I've had her on the same diet. By varied I mean Smelt I get from my breeder, salmon, and sometimes very small pieces of pinkies scented with fish.

I think I may of been giving her too much vitamins, I prepared the same as Pandora but Athena was alot smaller.

Other than food/vitamins I have no idea what it could of been. She was having alot of problems shedding before this happened, so that may of been linked?

Athena was a rescue, I believe her parents were siblings, and generally didn't come from a great place. So that could of been an issue too.

She was an awesome pet, and I loved her too bits. I'm still devastated that my time with her was cut short.

Thank you for the kind words and replying with possible issues with my husbandry/feeding, I will be checking everything, and start to look at different diets, means alot. :)

[Rushthezeppelin]

Hmm as long as they are getting whole fish (especially safe live like your smelt) and occasional pink parts that's fairly complete nutrition. They are getting calcium from bones and other minerals and some vitamins from organs. Still wouldn't hurt to throw some earthworms in. They are packed with vitamins and very easy for them to digest (also good for sick snakes..it's like chicken soup :D). I personally would ditch the suppliments.....keep in mind most herps that are supplimented are insect eaters and often aren't able to be given the most nutritionally complete insects (even with gutloaded crickets). Ours primarily eat eartworms, slugs, amphibians and fish, much the same as the diet they get in our captivity (sans phibs of course unless you want to breed them).

[Tommytradix]

Smelt contains thiamine. And salmon sometimes has additives to preserve freshness. Always read the ingredients it should say just salmon

[boyer45]

So sorry about the loss of your Athena.

[guidofatherof5]

Smelt contains thiamine. And salmon sometimes has additives to preserve freshness. Always read the ingredients it should say just salmon

I don't think that is always true Tommy. I think some countries lie and our FDA doesn't check everything. I stay away from any products of China.

[Rushthezeppelin]

I don't think that is always true Tommy. I think some countries lie and our FDA doesn't check everything. I stay away from any products of China.

The FDA is constrained by law to only check something like 5% or 10% of any food product coming from China. You have no idea how much "organic" food that comes from China that isn't organic because they spoof the regulators when they inspect or at the very least it's loaded with heavy metals because of the rampant pollution coming from China's industrial centers. This is all because of the wonderful trade deals we have set up with China that constrain us in this way.

[Mommy2many]

I am sorry to hear of your loss. I have had a similar experience with one of mine in the past. They also did not make it.

[d_virginiana]

\ You have no idea how much "organic" food that comes from China that isn't organic because they spoof the regulators when they inspect or at the very least it's loaded with heavy metals because of the rampant pollution coming from China's industrial centers.

Very true; and not just for products from China. As a plant biologist I had to get really closely acquainted with what exactly could pass as 'organic' for sale (due to the concerns surrounding GMOs and pesticide use on plant products) and suffice to say it's about as accurate as shoving a thousand chickens into a barn and calling it 'free range'.