How do I know if an injured garter snake is okay to release back to the wild?

[RedSidedSPR]

Yeah, kudo's for caring.

[ConcinusMan]

Hi, all--thanks so much for your interest and encouragement!

I took the snake to the Great Lakes Zoological Society Discovery Center yesterday where John the curator had a look at her. I think it may have been a borderline case, since he took his time looking at the injuries and "hmmming." He eventually decided that there was probably a bit of infection going on and it would be best to get her some antibiotics from the veterinarian and keep her in captivity over the winter. He generously offered to do this for her, for which I proffered a generous donation to the organization. So this is one snake in the fortunate 50% this year! John said I could stop back by and check on her progress whenever I wanted, which I also thought was nice.

The snake was a lovely temporary addition to my home; she was no trouble and was fascinating to watch (the 10% of the time she was actually doing anything other than hiding). I wish snakes didn't have dietary requirements like chopped-up earthworms and thawed baby mice; otherwise I would have looked after her myself till spring.

This is a great forum, by the way, I have learned a lot here. Thanks!
Lisa H.

Well that couldn't have gone any better. I don't see any signs of infection. Just pretty much healed up wounds. The plan to treat and skip brumation sure couldn't hurt though.

[kueluck]

Lisa, thanks for tending to the girl who needed you at that moment. And now that you found this site, and have seen a small glimpse of the amazing garters I suspect you may be a future keeper of the garter yourself. Don't let the idea of chopping up pinkies or worms turn you away since you only need to cut them up for the little ones, and after a few times it gets easy to do since you are doing it for the health of your snake. Garter are amazing friends to have.