Sudden onset neurological problem

[d_virginiana]

I always wonder why people get so upset over anyone mentioning Thiaminase deficiency... I'll be the first to say that feeding unsafe foods doesn't necessarily cause this problem. My adult ate SOLELY baitstore minnows for over a decade until I learned better, and is still healthier than a lot of snakes I see that are half his age. Doesn't mean I will get the same result if I start another snake on that same diet.
In four years of taking neuroscience courses, I never came across a neurological phenomenon in any species that couldn't vary so much in onset-age, severity, and recovery rate that two cases could look like completely different disorders.

Garters are incredibly common, and not of very high interest ecologically or in the pet trade, so we'll likely NEVER get solid data on the effect of thiaminase on this species.

True, but the condition that caused it, and the behavior/reaction could also only be temporary and might pass. Simple gas pains can cause the symptoms/behavior described.

I could understand thinking the cause might be something non-neurological if the symptoms only included the 'death rolling'. But how often does simple gas pain cause a snake to have seizures (yes, I know we can't diagnose whether or not it is truly a seizure, especially without video), lie belly up, or have difficulty controlling its muscle movements? I'm no expert by any means, but I have studied neuroscience, and everything I've read sounds a heck of a lot more like a neurological issue than simple gas pains. That's a possibility, yes, but it just seems like a much less probable one.

That very well could be, but who's to say that the symptoms wouldn't have passed without the injections? Also, over-supplementing when it's not necessary can can be as disastrous as the deficiency itself.

Yes, the cause could have been something other than thiaminase. But when you have two ribbons being fed exclusively rosy reds, both develop seizures, and vitamin injections stop the seizures and save one, IMO it is more logical to assume that thiaminase was the issue than to assume that two snakes being fed high amounts of thiaminase both randomly developed severe neurological conditions, and one improved randomly with no relation to receiving medical treatment known to combat thiaminase poisoning.

Personally, if the snake didn't begin to improve within a day or two or if its symptoms started worsening rapidly, I'd look into getting the injection if it were my pet. I realize that can be just as fatal as the deficiency (kind of like antibiotics in very small snakes). But there's probably a point of no return in situations like this, and when it got bad enough for me to think it wasn't likely to resolve itself, I'd probably be willing to take that risk even if I couldn't be sure what was causing it or if it would help.