Garter snake sick from giving birth?

[d_virginiana]

I got the mixture from here, and substituted the other thing for Ferret Fx. Anyways, I seen this post after I did it for the first time, and She actually is a lot more active than she was before, but she definitely still has an R.I. I'm going to call the closest vet and ask if they take reptiles, as they are a dog vet. I'll keep you all posted.

Those remedies can alleviate the symptoms of an RI, but like you said will not cure it. Kind of like a human with pneumonia can use vapo-rub to make themselves feel better for a short while, but not cure the underlying infection.

Hopefully the vet will be able to do something.

[Bothriechis schlegelii]

I do the same thing with my snakes, Jordan, skip to 3:48 for the part involving the nebulization technique I was telling you about. It may be a bit hard for you to acquire the F10 SC, but that's personally what I use. Good luck.

Yeah, I really do wish I could do this, but like I said before, I'm on a budget. If I'm going to spend about $100 on supplies, I'd rather take that cash to a vet, because I'm pretty sure Medusa is in a late phase of an R.I. She's sluggish, her eyes are...just weird; they're "sleepy" looking, and her mouth is pretty much hanging open and her tongue is sticking out a bit.

When I put her in that "plan" thing I described earlier, I checked up on her a few hours later, and she was a LOT more active (still not as much as she was before), and I checked her mouth and it closed up quite a bit! Not completely, but definitely noticeable.

I'm going to do this again for her tomorrow, as d_virginiana said it can't harm her. Therefore, since it can't harm her, I'm not worried about it hurting her or making it worse... and she definitely benefited from it.

All of this aside, I am calling the vet tomorrow and asking if they take snakes (it's a dog/cat/etc. vet).

[chris-uk]

See if the vet will see you and discuss the case with a herp vet if they aren't specialist themselves. I'm sure there are vets that would take a call from a fellow professional to help confirm diagnosis and treatment. If it's an RI the bottom line is you need someone to prescribe antibiotics, they should be able to find the prescription guidelines, the thing that they may be uncomfortable with is diagnosing the RI.

[ConcinusMan]

I'm going to do this again for her tomorrow, as d_virginiana said it can't harm her. Therefore, since it can't harm her, I'm not worried about it hurting her or making it worse... and she definitely benefited from it.

DON'T. It most certainly can hurt. Plain water can do that just as well which is why said to keep humidity up. The humidity loosens up the mucus. Jordan, I'm going to quite frank with you. There's still a chance the snake will die even if you take it to a vet and it definitely won't do any good if you don't have the needed basic equipment for housing and heating her properly. All of this is going to cost quite a bit and could have been prevented if you had just spent a fraction of that on the equipment that I told you was needed a month or two ago. If you don't get her on antibiotics immediately and correct the environment by getting the equipment needed she's going to die. It might already be too late and she could die anyway.

Next time you want to keep a snake, be prepared. Have everything you need and setup already. If you don't then when someone advises you that there a certain things you need for just basic proper husbandry, then release the snake if you can't get the things. I wasn't kidding about what is needed. Those things are needed for proper husbandry. The need these things. They aren't just luxuries for the snake. You can't just skip them and hope to get by. Without proper husbandry/environment and nutrition snakes just get ill and die. Sticking her in a plastic tub with nothing done about heat/gradient for a day or two is one thing, but long term like that kills them. You simply cannot keep reptiles like that because they are ectotherms. They must have heat (and a thermal gradient) in order to regulate their body temperature. No heat, no regulation and they cannot fight infection or even digest properly so they get ill and eventually die just like you would if your body temperature was not under control.

I already know that the likelihood you'll get her to a vet, the antibiotics and the equipment in time is pretty slim. She's just going to suffer until she dies so you might consider euthanizing her. They aren't very expensive to provide for but it isn't free either. The initial setup/equipment is the biggest expense but doesn't cost as much as a vet and treatment for an RI. The plastic tub will do fine but not without any heat/gradient. About $40 CAN for a hydrofarm seedling heat mat added under 1/4- of the tub could have prevented this and it will heat 2 tubs and last many years.

If you want to try keeping garters again then be prepared next time. I think you'll have a completely different and more rewarding experience and the money spent will keep your snake healthy instead of spending it on a vet.

[d_virginiana]

I'm going to do this again for her tomorrow, as d_virginiana said it can't harm her. Therefore, since it can't harm her, I'm not worried about it hurting her or making it worse... and she definitely benefited from it.

WOAH. I didn't say this can't harm her. Not sure where you got that... I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that ferret stuff didn't have antibiotics in it, because the way you were talking about mixing it would have almost certainly been dangerous if it did.

What I said was that the procedures you are trying are not going to solve the root of the problem and that you need to go see a vet.