Hurt by a crow. Please help me save him!

[Mom2TheDfenceless]

It's been about 2 weeks since I found and rescued Oscar (less than 1ft baby garter snake). He was being picked apart by a crow at the bottom of my street. He needed help. I brought him in my house and set up a nice cage for him. While inspecting his damages caused by the bird. I found 2 lumps which at the time I thought were just from the skin being pecked at. He had minimum use of his lower half. The bird was trying to break his spine directly in the mid of his little body. :-( So, I have been letting him heal and relax. Only taking him out or, going in his cage to feed or inspect him.

He has eaten possibly 2 crickets in this time frame. I'm not sure how badly he is hurt. However, he doesnt use his lower half. He just drags it along with him. He seems ok. But to look at his wounds you know otherwise. Now, where the bird had cause the lumps are open sores. Pretty deep! I dont know if this is part of the healing for him or, if he rubbed the scabs off by accident. I have been loosing my mind worrying about this little guy and trying to save his life.

I live in PA and there is pretty much no help or vet's here that know anything about wild snakes. I have many animals, some very exotic. I need some help to save this little guys life. I would be heart broken if something were to happen to him! I have no intentions on letting him go esp. being hurt and it being cold out already. He just simply wont survive. And I could not let him die alone after being tortured the way he was.

I'm new here, just joined today. I need urgent help for baby Oscar!

Thank you,

Jessy

[guidofatherof5]

Jessy,
Glad you joined the forum. Thanks for coming to the rescue of Oscar.
Ditch the crickets and find some night crawlers.
Here's a link to the forum care sheet. It will answer a lot of questions for you.
Garter Snake Care Sheet - Caresheets (http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets/index.php?title=Garter_Snake_Care_Sheet)

Provide a good water supply and some additional heat and you'll just have to wait and see if Oscar is going to survive his injuries.
It's great that you took the time to inter seed for him. Nice job;)

[infernalis]

http://www.thamfriends.com/mat.jpg

Bless you for helping out.

Steve summed it up nicely, crickets are not garter food.

It is possible for your snake to live with paralysis as long as the internal organs are still functioning, but only in your kind care would it stand a chance.

This may sound sad, but to a crow garter snake livers are a real treat, the crow was trying to open up the snake to get at the liver.

Unfortunatly for the snake, the crows usually extract the liver and leave the rest for the snake to die slowly.

Best of luck with your recovery, I hope it has a happy ending.

[Hornets23]

Seriously? They just eat the LIVER? Seems it would be tiny. I had no idea..

[guidofatherof5]

When I visited the Narcisse Dens in Canada Narcisse Snake Dens Update Page! (http://www.naturenorth.com/spring/creature/garter/Narcisse_Snake_Dens.html)
I saw many snakes dead from crows.
The crow will first attack the head of the snake and try to destroy its brain. Then it removes the liver and sometimes the heart. The crows know exactly where both organs are located. I found one snake that was still alive after such an attack. I had to put him down to end his suffering.
This was the hardest part of our trip, seeing all the dead snakes. My oldest daughter started crying. I held back my tears and explained to her that far more snake were alive and doing well. It seemed the crows picked on a certain size snake. Nothing too big, as an adult female and nothing too small. It seemed the adult males where the target. I didn't find any females dead.

[Stefan-A]

Seriously? They just eat the LIVER? Seems it would be tiny. I had no idea..
When there's plenty of prey around, some animals don't bother eating more than the most nutritious parts. On a snake, I'd imagine that would be the liver and perhaps some of the other organs.

If you've ever watched a nature show that shows bears catching salmon by a river, the narrator will sometimes tell you that the bears usually end up eating only the brain and the eggs.

[Mommy2many]

Welcome! Sorry it is such bad circumstances that brought you here. Hope the little guy recovers. Please post a picture when you can.

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, Jessy :)

[mustang]

welcome and thanks for helping oscar

[ConcinusMan]

I doubt he ate the crickets, it is more likely that the cricket would start eating the snake, especially if the snake has broken skin.;) A cricket will make a slight wound turn into a huge crater, all the while torturing your snake with being eaten alive. You should make sure there are no crickets in his container. They are a danger to the snake.

[Mommy2many]

How's he doing?

[Mom2TheDfenceless]

Thank you all so much for your help! I have been staying at home with little Oscar since all of the new info. I have gotten rid of all the crickets. Got him worms. New bedding. more places to hide. 2 heat rocks and lamps. Spent over 100$ on just comfort for him. Poor little guy has yet to eat anything as far as I know.

He is still very active. very nebby, wants to explore everything. Sits in his water dish and just looks around. His wounds seem very deep and kinda drying out now. not really looking any better. :-( He still drags it along behinde him. He does not seem to be getting any better or worse for that matter. Yet, im worried about him eating or getting a serious infection from his deep wounds.

I read that neosporin could be applied to deep wounds? I dunno if thats true or not. Or if it would disrupt his own healing process that they do? I'm not really sure if there is anything else I can do for him? I just feel so badly and helpless. I dont want anything to happen to him. The little guy has grown on me very quickly.

I will post pics once I figure out how to do all that. lol I'm not too good on here. I spent 20 mins figurin out how to log in. Sorry everyone. Bare with me and I will get some on here.

Again thank you all for all of your help!!!!

Jessy & Baby Oscar :-)

[guidofatherof5]

Great news Jessy.
Be careful of the heat rocks. They have a bad history of burning animals.
Something for you to look into. Do a search on the internet. I warn you, some of the pictures are very graphic.

[infernalis]

One thing about heat rocks, they earned a bad rap when the technology was in it's infancy.

The newer heat rocks made by zoo med or exo tera are superior to the old junk that fried animals.

They now have thermal fuses in them to shut them down (permanently) should they malfunction and overheat.

[guidofatherof5]

One thing about heat rocks, they earned a bad rap when the technology was in it's infancy.

The newer heat rocks made by zoo med or exo tera are superior to the old junk that fried animals.

They now have thermal fuses in them to shut them down (permanently) should they malfunction and overheat.

Thanks Wayne.
I guess I still don't trust them.
New bought may lessen the risk but there are thousands of the old ones still out there on Craigslist and yard sales.

[Mommy2many]

Good advice from both Steve and Wayne. Trust your instinct. If you have any doubts, don't use. There are different ways to warm your snakes. I use overhead lamps. Steve uses under tank heating. My home is usually around 65 -70 degrees in the winter. I make sure the lamps are on all day and night time lamps are on at night. I have 3 tanks and 6 lamps! I hope he continues to heal.

[kibakiba]

I was going to say something about the heat rocks, but I had just woken up and was grumpy so I decided against it. But I'm with Steve, I wouldn't even risk using them. Nor would I spend 100 dollars on the snake. I spend a lot on mine on a monthly basis and spent 80 on Snakey when I got him, but you don't need the really fancy stuff to make them happy. Dollar store things and toilet paper rolls for hides work just as well as a 30 dollar plastic hide from the pet store. It's nice of you to care so much about him, though.
Also, Neosporin is okay to use on garters, I'm not sure about really deep wounds but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. I read that the neosporin with the painkiller in it could harm reptiles if you used it on them, though. I don't know if it's true, but I wouldn't even risk that.


Le Ann, What kind of bulb do you use for a night time lamp? My babies get really cold at night and we don't have a heater other than the small ones that don't help much. Since we'll be getting another lamp for the adults, we might as well get 2 extra and use them for night time.

[ConcinusMan]

I have used heat rocks when I was breeding various western spiny lizard species and never had any problems. A quality heat rock that is well cared for can last several years and not burn an animal. I just don't think they are appropriate for garters. Small lizards perhaps, but not snakes.