Don't Give Up!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Today, I had quite the experience. I had a female stripeless eastern give birth to 26 babies. I believe she had them yesterday and that they were about 24 hours old when I found them. I pulled out 25 live healthy babies and one that I thought was dead. I literally had to peel him off the newspaper pellet, he had been flattened out from being crawled on by mom and the other babies. I had him in my hand, about to feed the body to one of my centipedes, only to notice that the snake was ever so slightly attempting to right it's head. I could not believe it but he was alive! But barely and I thought for sure it was far too late. The snake was as follows:

-Entirely limp, wet noodle status. It could not move at all.
- eyes sunken into the head, pupils fixated, they had retracted into little pinpoints that did not respond to light
-extremely dehydrated. you could see the skeleton and the backbone, skin flaps were hanging
- NOT breathing!!! I think it was literally minutes from death. I studied for a good 5 minutes and it did not take a single breath
-would not drink when placed into water. this is a really bad sign, usually.

So anyways, long story short, I decided to go against my instinct and try to save this snake. I put it in a little dish in a very tiny amount of water and I left it in there for 10 minutes. It did not move once, not even a tongue flick and that's around the time I noticed it wasn't even breathing. As a last ditch effort i picked the lifeless snake up and forced my fingernail into its mouth. I opened it's mouth and I could feel the snake lightly fight back, trying to close its mouth.

In the process, it took a huge breath. I laid it down and it started gasping for air and took about 6 breaths. Then it got a little taste of water and spazzed, I could tell it was desperate and it started to open mouth gulp the water. It drank until it's neck swelled with water and then it stopped. Then... it stopped breathing again and started going downhill once more... so I picked him up again and opened him mouth, causing him once again to gasp for air. I again put the snake into the water where it once again took another vicious drink before becoming too tired. Stopped breathing again so one more time I opened it's mouth and finally, the snake was able to regain enough conciousness, I guess from having taken in some oxygen, that it started breathing on it's own and regularly.

For hours it was very weak and I thought it could still drop dead at any moment. It could not lift it's own head or move really... I rubbed water down it's back and removed the skin that the poor little guy failed to shed upon being born (this is what doomed the snake in the first place, the skin dried and restricted breathing) Any time I would reach in there and rub it a little it would once again realize it was in water and start drinking. after a few hours of this, he lifted up his little head for the first time and even flicked his tongue once. I was like... OH MY GOD!!!! At this point I had to go to work, I was worried so I took him along. i continued to encourage the snake to drink every so often while at work and he did. After many hours of TLC.... I now have a rehydrated, wiggly, normal looking, active and alert baby! It's amazing! I was amazed at the strength of this little snake. I feel like if I had found this snake 5 minutes later, it would have died. here are pictures of what I was up against...

Yes, this snake is actually alive in this photo, but you can see why I thought it was dead:



the first time he lifted his head:


and at work today, after hours of me working with him, he was actually being all cute, peeking out at me and stuff:





and here he is tonight! Look at the transformation!


I think i am going to have to keep this one, if only as a pet

[katach]

What an amazing story! That little guy is very lucky to have you!

[d_virginiana]

Wow, he really does look dead in that first picture. That's such an amazing transformation! You seem to be having a lot of miracle garter babies this year, first the extra-tiny premature one and now this one.

[annulataarethebest]

that's crazy, good thing you know what you're doing, now the little snake gets another chance at life.

[Boots]

From the first picture, I would not have thought he was alive. It is incredible and always nice to hear a story with a happy ending. Of course, you will have to keep us posted now.

Jason

[brain]

Great job. At a glance one would have thought DOA. A mothers love I guess

[PINJOHN]

a truly heartwarming story, an example of what you can get, logging on to this great site, and a salutary caution on giving up to soon on our little charge's

[drache]

amazing
and such a cutie too

[guidofatherof5]

Way to go Shannon. Nice save.

[RedSidedSPR]

Wow!!! He looks great now!!!

That's really awesome, good save!