Elderly Snakes, Care and Unique Health Issues

[taharial]

Hey Kat, just wondering how your girl is doing. Our girl developed a similar kink after giving birth to her last two still borns, right at her cloaca...

[jaleely]

These are good questions. I hope they all get answered!

And Kat i think it's good advice to soak the old ones. aww, i know i'm fairly young but i have all kinds of issues and warmth helps.

No pre-chewed food for snakes, please LOL

I only have experience with older snakes with a ball python, and he is slow and sleeps a lot, and may be older than i thought originally.

How old is "old" for a garter, good question!

[ConcinusMan]

No pre-chewed food for snakes, please LOL

What's the problem? It's not hard. You just take a night crawler and...

[d_virginiana]

My oldest snake is 12 years old, and has some of the same issues. He has a couple arthritis lumps on his spine, but they don't seem to bother him. He's actually more active than my younger snakes. I guess he's calmed down a LITTLE though. He used to be so energetic it was hard to hold onto him.

How common are vision problems in older snakes? Houdini went blind over the span of about a year between 10-11 years old. At this point can't even detect light/dark. He eats normal food again now, but when I was teaching him how to eat blind, he did get geriatric garter mush He could smell mashed pinkies much better, and I would lay his head in the dish and let him go nuts. No we have a system where I can tap any whole food item on his side and he just opens his mouth and lets me put it in there.

One major thing I've noticed is that it's difficult to keep his weight up. To keep him at a good weight I have to feed him two or three full meals a week. If I wait a week between big feedings for him, he starts to lose weight and his skin gets extremely dry and loose very quickly.

[guidofatherof5]

Sounds like some pretty typical aged snake or just aged issues.
The weight issue is a huge concern. I've seen it happen many times on elderly snakes. At some point no amount of food could keep the weight up. I certainly hope it's different for you. In any event all you can do is keep shoveling the food into the old furnace, so to speak.
Love to see some photos of the old codger.

[d_virginiana]

This is his most recent glamour shot Actually a good one for showing his cataracts too; this is the reason I'm so paranoid about retained eyecaps on him. The red on the edge of his eye isn't actually there, that's the flash interacting with my frog's red-light.
018.jpg
So far I'm not too worried about his weight. Right now, it's more like he's extra sensitive to not being fed than not being able to keep his weight up.

[guidofatherof5]

Looking good. Any chance you can post an under tail shot, I'm curious.

[d_virginiana]

I'm curious.

About what?

001.jpg002.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

Looking at the photo in post #16 I thought I saw some female characteristics in the head.
Any chance to get a couple photos more focused with the tail hanging down? Please.

[d_virginiana]

My camera died while uploading those last ones, but I can get them up by tomorrow.
I think it may be that he has some loose skin in his neck area that was getting flattened out pressing against my hand. His overall behavior and size point to male though; he's right at 23 inches, and constantly moving. Plus he goes nuts every spring (or whenever he gets to have a play date with Harley). Last time he ended up trying to court his own tail after she crawled away.

This is one I uploaded with the others earlier with his head held more naturally.
003.jpg

Of course, I'm pretty horrible at sexing reptiles. Houdini wouldn't be the first one I've gotten confused