Eastern Garter snake drowned and braught back to life ...intense story inside

[ClosedCasket88]

today i gave my female easter garter that i braught out of brumation last week a good routinely soak in some warm water, ive done this once already a few days ago , she has some shedding problems here n then so i figure this would help things a bit . well id ont know whut happend , there was only a inch of water in there ,w asnt too cold or too warm or too deep, just perfect, i do this with all my snakes from time to time , and it helps any mites that occasionaly come back too. well i loook over at her in her sweater box filled with water and shes floating upside down limp , and very dead. im screamin noooooo . yellin for my girlfriend to come upstairs, she yells becuase of how unlively and limp the snake was ( noone wants to see a littel beautiful creature like this) so i was panicing not knowing what to do , i took him out and started gently pumping on his stomach and i held him face down and tail up on an angle for gravity to make it easyer for the flow of water out the lungs. he was still all limp i opened his mouth and start blowing air into his mouth or lungs or anything thats will clear up . eventualy water is running out of his mouth/nostral as im yellin "cmon baby" , keep in mind i take a snake death as a friend or family member.. anyways , it starts showin sign of life after a good 2 minutes of nothing but pure limp deadness (sorry for the obscene words folks just trying to get my point across) hes startin to move but still flippnig himself upside down like a typical dieing snake . then slowly he starts flicking his toungue half way out as im still blowing into his mouth . then eventualy im startin to get full movement and toungue flicking , i remain holding him upside down type angles position as i hold him for a good 5 minutes still blowing in his nostral and mouth as he kinda coughed the remaining water out through both his nostrals and mouth. i kept my eye on her for for another 20 minutes after wards and she seems perfectly fine , i got my girlfriends to take a picture of her after she got her life back . shes crawling around fine and all her survival functions seem and appear to be well and looks like no signs of brain damage or type of damage to the body or its functions THANKFULLY .
well please do me a favor all you out there and keep a close eye on your snakes , i dont know how this happend , she might of been a little slow still from brumating all year but shes been eating fine and very active . ive never had a problem aver before with soaking my snakes .
maybee she has a small upper restpretory(spelling?) infection and i didnt know and she could of caughed under water and that could of happen.
this is how i feed my garters fish too . never ever ever ever had a problem b4 . any possibly explanations ?
i was gona let her go in the spring sicne she was the one my girlfriends dad braught me in the middle of a 40 degree day in the winter . but i dont have the heart to let her go , maybe shes better of were she originated , i feel bad , but i dont know if she would be ok out on her own after this . could that damage any of her instinct at all? i tried feeding her a good 6 hours after all this and she refused food ....she usualy gobbles anything and evrything i put infront of her . she might just be a bit shaken up from all this or maybee here whole respretory sytem is wet and jacobs organs are temporarily wet/damaged too maybee? i realy dont know , but she seems fine .
has anyone ever had a problem or situation like this .
i fawking love this snake now n for soem reason shes real nice n docile to me after her little shining of the light earlyer . she used to be real aggresive n nasty . time will tell i suppose .
just figured this would interest you's .
thank god she made it
take care
-Ryan

[Gijs & Sabine]

Wow, what a story !!! Glad she made it.
Never knew that mouth to mouth could be usefull to snakes as well.
We never had any problem like this, but than again we never had any sheddingproblems as well.
I think when you soak a garter you should always stay nearby to keep a close eye on it.
Maybe your garter did get stressed, Ryan. But good job you rescued it !

[Cazador]

Hey Ryan,
Quick thinking. This won't be pleasant to hear, but I want to be honest with you. If she's been out of brumation for a week and eating, the "drowning" wasn't linked to brumation. I'm sorry to say, but there must be something else wrong with her. I definitely wouldn't release her because she'll be in contact with other wild snakes, and she might might harm your local wild population. You might consider calling a vet to see if they can make any recommendations. I'm afraid you're probably not out of the woods with her, yet. Keep your fingers crossed.
Rick

[mikm]

hello Ryan ... you did a great job of bringing her back. Not many folks think too clearly in a life threatening situation. It's understandable that you would feel more attached to her now ...

best wishes,
marian

[ClosedCasket88]

thanx evryone , im better at panicing than saving a snakes life but i did it , thank god .
and yes cazador , your right... shes also been out well over a week or two , i use a couple days to slowly warm her up . and shes been eating well and evrything .
i dont think it would be any diseases or anything seriously internaly wrong . she seems ok but never judge a book by its cover .
im starting ot think she has a small upper resperatory infection . i cant tell if its still water in her lungs he keeps coughin from still or if shes a little sick, i usualy keep a very good eye on my snakes luckily she was literaly 3 feet away from me in my bedroom while i was on the computer, i was actualy on here about to post more new pictures of her and her mate. i turned all my music off and gave it a minute or two to listen and she gives it a little cough here n there. i get this problem from time to time but never had a snake drop from it . in the winter its real cold at night and nice n warm in the daytime still around here, im simply gonna give her a heat pad at night , and do the same i do with any other of my snakes that appeared to be getting sick in the past years . i will also throw a warmer bulb , probly an amber bulb , or a infrared red heat bulb , these work awesome with snakes with small colds, u just have to get to em b4 it gets worst , ive never had any problems this bad in the past . i wil keep you all updated, as of now she appears healthy and is now as we speak enjoying her little hammock of trees n vines in her tank ( lot of the easterns i catch over here in PA hang in trees?odd).
once again time will tell if anything wrong with her, i have a vet that specialized in reptiles literaly 2 streets over from me . so perhaps ill take a stroll and bring her on over just to see if the doc can take a quick look incase theres anything noticably wrong with her .
i dont normaly name my snakes but i think this girl deserves a name after all shes been through . any suggestions?

[GarterGuy]

I'm glad to hear your little one made it, but like Rick (Cazador) was saying, it's more likely there's something else wrong here. I noticed you said this is one you feed fish too.....what kind of fish? A lot of what happened to her sounds like some of the affects of possible thiaminase problems. Sounds very similar to what my T.s.parietalis went through towards the end.....would just kind of turn upside down and turn limp, loose a lot of muscular control, gaping, that sort of stuff. Sometimes she'd be fine then too, but eventually it was too much for her. If you are feeding her fish pieces, I would definitely supplement it and make sure it's not a fish that has thiaminase in it's tissues....if it's whole fish, make sure you're not using goldfish or any other fish that may contain thiaminase. The problem may have been slowed down during brumation, when she really wasn't doing much, but now out of her brumation, it may really be affecting her. I wish you the best with her and hope the above helps out some.
Roy

[Odie]

I am CPR certified 20 yrs but I've never heard of/about snake CPR. Way to go mon!!!

[drache]

Ryan
Congrats on saving your snake - hope whatever's still going on with her will work its way out.

[ClosedCasket88]

thanx guys ,i forgot about this post. shes actualy doing well and eating like a champ whatever it could have been is long gone, i tihnk she just had a lil upper respiratory infection from bringing her out of hibernation .
iill actualy take a pic of her soon n post

[adamanteus]

Glad to hear all is well now.