My wild experience..wild garter!

[jaleely]

Well I don't know why it's taken me so long to post, other than i work like a maniac, and have school, tons of animals....oh yeah i'm crazy busy! LOL But i've been wanting to post so that counts, right? : )

This is Olive. Or, Oliver, since i haven't had the heart to probe and find out (She had a prolapse, which has since healed). We say she, though. Olive is a mid-eastern Oregon garter, found in the dirt road while camping over by Baker City Oregon, up in the Wallowa-Whitman forest area. Healthy, no mites. Ate fresh caught perch eagerly then shed, so i took her home. She's the only snake in my collection i've done burmation for, because she went crazy this winter, so i did what any unprepared person would do....and just put her cage outside *lol* she's used to 4 feet of snow, so i know i should have maybe handled it differently but she seemed happy enough. Went into her hide box and stayed still for a few weeks. Now, it only got to maybe 45 at night here, and upper 60's during the day but the moment it warmed up i brought her back in the house and she's doing fine. Activity was normal for a garter as i could tell, and she started trying to get out when winter hit, and now that we've done our "burmation" she's acting normal again. Begging for food, etc.
I still think she has some intestinal parasites, but when i was able to get some de-wormer and find the right dosage, she wouldn't eat because she wanted to burmate. Since coming out now i've given her a few meals and was going to try the medicine again soon. So for the meantime she's housed downstairs alone and away from my other snakes. (I did see what looked like eggs of some kind in her poop, when i looked under a microscope.)

Anyway...now the fun stuff!! Scientific names, anyone? I have some video of her "fishing" and can get some better close up photos, i just usually don't disturb her.

[jaleely]

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[Stefan-A]

T. elegans vagrans, and that's one hell of a way to brumate a snake.

[guidofatherof5]

I agree with Stefan on the I.D. T. elegans vagrans not T. sirtalis.
I too think you dodged a bullet on the brumation.
Brumation is a tricky situation to say the least and a snake wouldn't have brumated itself that way.

Parasites are very likely in a wild caught snake and getting the dose right is very important. What are you planning on treating with (only after a positive I.D. on the parasite/s) ?
Looks like minnow in that bowl. Best to get her off them if you want to stay away from parasites and thiaminase issues.

Nice to see you back.

Garter Snake Forum - Garter Caresheet

[jaleely]

That was a minnow, but a rosey red, which i've read can be fed in limited supplies. All About Thiaminase - Gartersnake.info
But, I truly usually don't feed them very often at all to any of my critters. We breed mollies, and guppies, and feed frozen thawed, except for the other garters which readily and happily take slugs and trout.
I don't feed worms because the ones in my area are those weird red ones and i worried they were the wrong kind. I honestly never got into the worms also because i think the other diet of stuff is more nutritious.

And yeah, i realize that "burmation" seemed a bit crass..! I talk to my parents often, and when there was snow on the ground up there, that's when she stopped eating here. I took away the UTH and let her go with the general temp downstairs in the house, waited a few weeks, then put her whole thing outside, since i don't have a mini fridge or anything. The consistancy isn't as bad as it seems since Ventura stays about the same temps being near the ocean. It didn't get as cold as she was used to, but she seemed happy enough as i monitored her. She was in her hide "tupperware" actually, with cloth and dark sides.
I wasn't going to burmate her at all since i don't do that for anyone here, but she was pretty insistant and i did feel bad or her since it was her natural cycle. So it wasn't ideal...but she is thankfully a tough one and did the best with what i could provide her.
When it warmed up and she started coming out and sunning herself on her rocks (the rest had been in shade and like i said, dark) i brought her back in and then after a week put the uth back under. She warmed up some more then started the normal "begging" behavior. Overall it hink the whole process was about 4 months long. Probably the shortest one she's ever had.
Since getting her i've realized i may need to do it yearly for her, and if i ever want to breed my critters i'd better take a more active role and pay attention!

I hope it wasn't too much of a bullet-dodge.... i kind of figured she seemed happy enough and i thought the danger in burmation was if they got too cold, not the whole process itself. : (
i'm getting the impression i was pretty lucky she didn't die...? : (

[jaleely]

Oh yeah! and i had breifly thought about T. elegans vagrans, but wasn't sure since she's so green and dark. But, also adult and kind of scarred up so yeah, i figured go to the experts : )
Cool! My other wanderings are from indiana i think, lol

[jaleely]

and, i forgot, was trying fenbendazole for parasites. one quarter microgram granual stuffed into a mouse's mouth. she only had one dose before going off of food. what do you guys think?

[guidofatherof5]

Panacur (fenbendazole) is good as long as the identified parasite/s are within its range of coverage. Dosing as prescribed by a vet.

Fenbendazole - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ConcinusMan]

What you're doing with the temperatures and "brumation" sound like recipe for disaster or at the very least, a respiratory infection. If you can't keep her at more or less a constant 50 F, then don't brumate it's pretty simple. Just follow regular husbandry guidelines/temperatures.

The last thing you need to worry about at this early stage, is administering medications.

[jaleely]

Do you guys use a mini fridge to keep them at a steady temp? She's seemed fine now, so i'm really glad she's hearty....

i forget what parasite we determined it could be. It was between two kinds, and both could be treated by fen. so that's what we started. The recommendation was that dosage for her size, but she probably weighs a little more now. Like i said i haven't started again because i wanted to settle.
Concinnus i know we talked ages ago about how you treated wild caught garters. What do you do?