I have a 4 or 5 month old female albino checkered garter snake. The past 2 1/2 weeks she's been refusing any food. I've been offering her a variety of food every 3 or 4 days (pinky parts, earthworm chunks, and talapia pieces) but she wont eat. Advice from this site has lead me to believe these feeding changes were a response to seasonal changes.

Tonight I came home and found her out and about in her viv. It isn't uncommon for her to climb around and explore. She pressed herself against the glass and I noticed the underside of her neck looked strange. I found that several scales under her neck appear to have separated and exposed some pink fleshy skin. I had kept her on black aspen before so there was a little bit of black aspen dust in these wounds. I removed her and gave her a bath to help clean some of the aspen out of the wounds. I replaced her substrate with newspaper and checked to make sure there wasn't anything sticky in the tank like glue or tape that could have damaged her scales. The only new addition to her tank was a bit of slightly damp sphagnum moss I placed under one hide because I suspect she would have been shedding soon. I was sure that this moss was safe to use with reptiles. It doesn't have any addition chemicals and is %100 organic sphagnum moss. I'm at a loss as to what could be wrong and I feel very distressed...

I took some photos but the only camera I have is on my iphone and isn't great, but I could always text them to anyone who is interested in seeing them. I can't manage to email them to myself and my attempt at posting them on here failed. Other than this mysterious injury and her hunger strike she seems healthy... She is alert and active, she also doesn't seem dehydrated at all. I'm not sure if I should try to find a good local vet or just see how she does.I think I will apply some non-medicated antibacterial ointment as well (i know this is good for corn snakes, is it okay for garters?)

Any help would really be appreciated. My heart just broke when I saw this. I would be crushed if I lost her.... I will do anything I can to help her. I don't have a huge amount of money but I will sacrifice other things in order to bring her to the vet if that's necessarily.

many thanks...