Garter is having seizures, help/advice needed!

[Invisible Snake]

Hey everyone, my garter is 4 months old and has had multiple seizures in the past 24 hours. I'm afraid he is too far gone for a vet, but I will still consider it an option. Should I consider euthanizing him? As with all my garters, he is my beloved pet and I will not nor can I not euthanize him by way of smashing his head as I've read in old posts. I've read that this method will cause instantaneous death, therefore minimal to no pain is felt, but I simply can not force myself to do it. What are some other options I can use to euthanize him?

At the moment he is currently and has always been in (3 months) quarantine wile under my care because he was a picky/stubborn eater for me. He appears lethargic and the seizures for the moment have stopped. He also has weird tilt to his head.

Should I euthanize him or is there a chance he will recover on his own? I don't want to give up on him

[guidofatherof5]

This is obviosely a touchy situation and there is some disagreement as to what method of euthanasia is best. With that being said I would suggest purchasing a piece of dry ice, placing it and the snake in a small container for a few hours. Make sure the snake can't come in contact with the ice.
Best of luck with this bad time.

[ConcinusMan]

What's he been eating?

Hey everyone, my garter is 4 months old and has had multiple seizures in the past 24 hours. I'm afraid he is too far gone for a vet, but I will still consider it an option. Should I consider euthanizing him? As with all my garters, he is my beloved pet and I will not nor can I not euthanize him by way of smashing his head as I've read in old posts. I've read that this method will cause instantaneous death, therefore minimal to no pain is felt, but I simply can not force myself to do it. What are some other options I can use to euthanize him?

At the moment he is currently and has always been in (3 months) quarantine wile under my care because he was a picky/stubborn eater for me. He appears lethargic and the seizures for the moment have stopped. He also has weird tilt to his head.

Should I euthanize him or is there a chance he will recover on his own? I don't want to give up on him

[Invisible Snake]

What's he been eating?

I have been feeding him mostly rosys and sometimes guppies. He would only eat live food. I have tried scenting tilapia and pinky parts, but he would not eat them. I have visited (2) bait stores in my area for canadian nightcrawlers and decided not to purchase the nightcrawlers from those stores because when I asked where they were harvested from they gave me sketchy responses, also these businesses just started last year.

Before buying live fish I always inspected them for any ick and other illnesses visible to the naked eye. I am well aware of the thiaminase in rosys, but chose to ignore it because he was such a picky eater and only eating about 2-3 times a week, plus guppies were getting harder and harder to find in pet stores.

My plan was to only feed him rosys until the outside temps dropped close to 50-55 degrees F., so that I could purchase nightcrawlers in bulk online.

[Stefan-A]

There are no nice ways to kill a snake.

- Smashing the skull.
- Freezing.
- Shooting.
- CO2, CO, He, N, H2O.
- Injection of some toxic substance.

Lost a snake a week ago. I chose not to euthanize it when I realized its situation was hopeless, because I didn't want to do anything that might make the necropsy more difficult. That excluded all the means I had at my disposal.

[katach]

Sad situation, sounds like euthanasia would be the kindest thing you could do for him. My thoughts are with you.

[ConcinusMan]

There are no nice ways to kill a snake.

This is true. When it comes to babies suffering a slow agonizing death and I need to euthanize out of mercy, I just bite the bullet and use the quickest method. Firmly and quickly, head between thumb and finger...

It seems to be the fastest method. Death is instant.

If you can't bring yourself to do it, freezing is the least involved method, (put 'em in and forget it) however, in a household freezer it takes about 20-30 minutes. Snakes probably do not lose conciousness at cold temps like mammals would so the likely suffer as their cells begin to burst from ice crystals forming. It probably hurts like hell.

Unless of course you happen to have access to liquid nitrogen. That would freeze them instantly.

[EasternGirl]

I am suspecting that the thiaminese (sorry about spelling) enzyme in the guppies and rosies could be causing a B1 deficiency and explain the seizures. I know he is a picky eater...but if he makes it through this...I would recommend starting to feed him store bought tilapia or rainbow trout or silversides, or worms, or pinkies. The reason for not feeding fish with lots of thiaminese in them is that it can cause this deficiency and I have heard of members who had snakes that developed seizures from it. If you decide that it is hopeless, I would probably try to make him comfortable as possible until he passes or go with the dry ice that Steve suggested. Do you have a vet?

[RedSidedSPR]

first thing i thought as well, minnows often result in sudden seizure-like death.

[Kantar]

are you absolutely sure? seems like the talk of euthanization came pretty quick...

did it shed recently? is there a piece of shed stuck to its head? my snake did the same thing because it had a piece of loose shed stuck to its head