Male Garter looks disoriented - HELP!

[drache]

Rusty, we're not in good shape here
from what I understand the care at Manhattan's newish exotic pet veterinarians leaves much to be desired - so much in fact that I would not put a garter through the stress of bringing her there. I'm in Brooklyn though. You could call them and ask specifically whether they can give your snake a B1 shot.
My local herp vet here is pretty okay for anything short of surgery. Her name is Dr Jill Caruso and she's at Pet Haven, Corner of McDonald Ave and Caton Ave, close to the F train @ Ft Hamilton Pkwy, phone 718-435-6900
if either does not work for you, your best bet is a friendly neighbourhood vet who's main purpose in live is to help critters and who's willing to give your snake a vitamin B1 shot.
If you do have a car, Sean (animal rescue guy) tells me there's a good herp vet in New Jersey. I can find out where.

[guidofatherof5]

Rusty,
Please keep us posted about your situation.

[rusty119]

Hi everyone, thank you very much for all your responses. Looks like we need to change up the complete setup of Rusty's snake tank. Since the last post, we have been leaving the heat lamp on for longer intervals, much longer. Now he's moving around the tank and very active and even lifts his head up when anyone comes next to the tank. I am going to stop by petland right now and buy a thermometer, as well as some feeding guppies and a pinky.

Thank you Rhea very much for the location of a vet. Actually a vet in New Jersey may be better because we live closer to the GWB. We may be able to take a bus ride there, rather than bringing him on the train. I will give the vet in Brooklyn a call today, I can try to get access to a car, but it may not be available until after the new year.

Someone said that getting the injection is better than orally, but is there a way that I can atleast get some to him orally in the meantime? It's the holiday weekend, so I'm sure that I won't get anyone until Monday and I can't stand to see him like this! Atleast it seems like he's getting better.

Thank you!

[ConcinusMan]

Hi everyone, thank you very much for all your responses. Looks like we need to change up the complete setup of Rusty's snake tank. Since the last post, we have been leaving the heat lamp on for longer intervals, much longer. Now he's moving around the tank and very active and even lifts his head up when anyone comes next to the tank. I am going to stop by petland right now and buy a thermometer, as well as some feeding guppies and a pinky.

Thank you Rhea very much for the location of a vet. Actually a vet in New Jersey may be better because we live closer to the GWB. We may be able to take a bus ride there, rather than bringing him on the train. I will give the vet in Brooklyn a call today, I can try to get access to a car, but it may not be available until after the new year.

Someone said that getting the injection is better than orally, but is there a way that I can atleast get some to him orally in the meantime? It's the holiday weekend, so I'm sure that I won't get anyone until Monday and I can't stand to see him like this! Atleast it seems like he's getting better.

Thank you!

A vet is needed to determine if it is indeed B1 deficiency, and the dosage has to me measured carefully. Otherwise, you could OD him on B1 and that wouldn't be pretty. If it's B1 deficiency caused by the wrong fish (containing the enzyme thiaminase) then any B1 given orally will be destroyed by the enzyme still in his body and that is what caused (if that is the case) the deficiency in the first place.

Remember, we don't know if he even has B1 deficiency yet. If you can't manage to get him to a vet, then do what you're doing, keeping him warm so he's active, and switch his food to safe fish and/or pinkies and hope for the best.

I don't know why you would only give him heat at 15 minute intervals. Give him 14 hours a day, and if you can, put the lights/heat on a timer. Night should be at the same time every night and should be no more than 10 hours and get no colder than 65 degrees. During the day he should have a warm spot from 80-88 degrees and a cooler area in the 70's.

[rusty119]

Its 6:25 in the morning and we have just found our lil guy has met his end Very sad right now. I'm not sure we could have done anything to help him, no matter what we did, he remained very weak and unable to eat. We would have sought help today, but with the 10 inches+ snow, it was inevitable that we would not be able to help him in time. Thank you all very much for your help. I am going to remain a member of this forum, as we are planning to get another snake. Nobody can replace Rusty, but we would like to give it a shot again and this time do everything the correct way from the beginning. I'm very happy to have found this forum so that this doesn't happen again. Thanks again and I will keep you all up to date.

[guidofatherof5]

I'm very sorry to hear about Rusty's passing.
I hope you will get another snake under better circumstances.
Thank you for trying to help Rusty.

[gregmonsta]

You did everything you could and you definately cared for the little one. Hope to see you on here again soon with a fresh start . Remember you have our support and a lot of members here will have have you spoilt with choice come baby season

[drache]

sorry to hear

[ConcinusMan]

Sorry to hear it. I'm glad this didn't kill your interest in keeping another garter. It's quite rewarding. Might want to take a look at the for sale/trade/adoption section of the forum and see if there's any available that suit your fancy.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I was just browsing through but did I read that correctly? You were told he could go without food for 3 months, and you were feeding fishes only once per month?! oh my gosh.... that is the most horrible advice i have ever heard given out! you poor people! That poor snake! I am actually shocked that no one else said this, but it sounds to me like plain old starvation/malnutrition. His head was probably wobbling due to gradual weakening from slow starvation. He is definitely disoriented, and with good reason. I have seen the dreaded head wobble on rescue snakes... they are too weak to hold their own head steady and often are at the point of no return. It's not the same as any sort of convulsion/spasm... I would say maybe, if it was a pinky once a month the snake would have been thin, but still hanging in there... but fish are used up so quickly...

All you need to do to see what happened here... is to stand back and look at the big picture: I wasn't everyone who has garter experience to think about what a steady diet of a few empty feeder fish once a month would do to an adult garter snake if that regimen were continued for an extended period of time (especially a snake that is provided with any sort of heat and therefore has an increased metabolic rate). I say empty feeders because we need to remember that once feeder fish reach the pet store, their health declines rapidly, because they are no longer fed and have not been for weeks. They are just empty sacks of meat and bones, void of any real nutritional value. This snake was probably not only deficient in thiamine, but every other vitamin there is!

Rusty, please note that none of this is directed at you, as you clearly were given very bad information and did not know any better, and I understand that! Everyone has gone all textbook here about the whole thiaminase thing... and while thiaminase was probably a part of the problem, it was more than likely one small part of a much larger picture.