Snake died within a few hours of this post. Kids sad. Me feeling bad. The snake was brought back from the lake a few weeks ago. It was discovered while my brother in law was cutting wood. Took a hit from piece of wood and had a little dent in his abdomen. We got an amphibian cage and seemed to be doing everything right. The snake was fine for about two weeks. Normal even. The pet store suggested crickets for a diet. The garter didn't want anything to do with eating crickets BTW. Seemed to be not bothered by the injury. I'm guessing disease or possibly the worm that it was fed. Just a pink earthworm from the garden. I'm not sure what a red wiggler looks like. Anyway it's all past tense at this point. It looked to be a miserable death. It went from apparently healthy to dead in a matter of hours. Ugggh. Thx. for the replies though. The back of the head of the garter seemed to be swelling toward the end if that means anything.