help sick snake

[mashelley]

k my albino garter snake is rolling over and flipping back and forth throwing him self all over the cage and some times acting like his muscles are tensing making him move weird not sure if its poison need to know what to do at home for him

[Stefan-A]

Sounds like a textbook example of B1 deficiency, although it could be caused by something else. You better take him to a vet or put him down, it won't get better by itself.

[Mommy2many]

Sorry to hear about your snake

[Snakers]

do you feed your snake goldfish?

[guidofatherof5]

I agree with Stefan. A Vet. visit is called for if it's not too late, sorry.
If it is a B1 problem the unfortunate thing is it has probably reach a critic stage and can't be reversed.
What did you feed it last?
A brighter note, I've had a few snakes go into seizers after eating fish and they survived. I never fed that fish again(store bought frozen Tilapia from Walmart-Produce of China)

Can you give us some history on your snake. When you have time.
Best of luck.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, sometimes I've had litters of babies and some of them did that occasionally and lived just fine so it's not always a fatal condition but it's certainly not a good sign and needs to be taken seriously. Overheating, or warming small ones up to quickly can trigger seizures as well. Check those temps with several different thermometers, stay away from using bright lights and never expose albinos to UV radiation. Better to use a ceramic heat emitter or undertank heater. (heat without light)

[drache]

not a good sign - I agree
the vet asap

[mashelley]

k history sorry i didnt put it in sooner .this started about 3 days ago. i had feed it some minnows i had got from a bait shop they were bluegill minnows. i had 2 goldfish in the same tank as the minnows. minnows started dieing wasnt to worryed happens alot. keep feeding snake minnows about 2 days later my goldfish got sick with what looked like real bad bruiseing. they died 2 days later.all minnows died about 2days after having them. this all took about 1week altogether.around 2 days later snake quit eating and now we are here. guess maybe minnows had something wrong with them.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

k history sorry i didnt put it in sooner .this started about 3 days ago. i had feed it some minnows i had got from a bait shop they were bluegill minnows. i had 2 goldfish in the same tank as the minnows. minnows started dieing wasnt to worryed happens alot. keep feeding snake minnows about 2 days later my goldfish got sick with what looked like real bad bruiseing. they died 2 days later.all minnows died about 2days after having them. this all took about 1week altogether.around 2 days later snake quit eating and now we are here. guess maybe minnows had something wrong with them.

the fish probably sickened from an overload of ammonia due to too many fish being added at once. A tank, especially a feeder tank that's going to hold a lot more fish than it would normally, needs to be established slowly in order to allow the beneficial bacteria to properly root themselves in your water. They are what does the filtration, a mechanical filter only does a small percentage of it. My feeder tank has been up for a long time.... it's a ten gallon tank with a 50 gallon filter on it. It will hold 100 or so guppies easily... but that's only because the tank is well established with almost 4" of gravel bed and enough bacteria to keep the cycling going. Ammonia is the killer of the majority of feeder fish, or any fish for any matter. If there are no beneficial bacteria to break down the ammonia, it just sits there and burns into the skin of the poor fish, it fries their gills and causes irreversible damage. It also can make them very sick, and the bruising you have described sounds like a blister disease or septicemia. Having said that, it's highly unlikely that eating a few sick fish caused this in the snake. BUT... it's really not a good idea to feed a snake unhealthy or dying feeders, whether they be fish or rodents... you are what you eat after all! I am sure you would not want to eat a steak from a sick and dying cow. If you must buy live feeders, buy HEALTHY live feeders and put them straight into the freezer. Allowing them to deteriorate to near death before feeding can not be healthy for the snake. If you establish a proper feeder tank, however, and buy healthy feeders, your minnows will not die. B1 deficiency could be the problem, but there are SO many other problems that can cause seizure. One thing you do need to worry about when feeding already sick fish is the parasite load they are probably carrying. If their immune system is compromised by a bacterial or fungal infection, parasites will also flourish, and some of those may or may not be transmissible to your snake. Sorry for the bit of a fish rant, but I am a pretty avid fish keeper.... almost as much as the snakes!

[ConcinusMan]

Could be bad food, not out of the realm of reality. Let's just hope this passes and that he'll be OK. Most garters that eat minnows or bluegill will also eat trout meat from the supermarket, or frozen thawed silversides from the pet store. That would be much safer than bait. Opinions may differ but I would never feed my snakes a whole bluegill unless I cut off the spiny fins first. Snakes will sometimes act as you described when they are simply in pain. One of those spines swallowed could be the cause. Those things can be like sewing needles and if you get stuck it hurts like heck and gets infected nearly instantly.