Please Help, lawnmower injury

[0TG]

Mow slow!! I think you could post pics now...your posts are coming straight into the forum now, rather than into the "moderation queue".

OK the pics are now in my gallery. Hope you enjoy them.

As for my little patient, it's hard not to check in on him constantly but I've been being good. Right now he's sitting over on the heated side of the tank. I'm going to check the temp in a few minutes and add a rheostat if necessary.

[stonyloam]

Heck that don't look so bad to me. I found one this spring that had a much nastier wound that had just about finished healing. My opinion, keep him warm dry gooped up with a little neosporin and offer him a worm every now and then and he will be fine. This is coming from someone that knows nothing about snake care, but knows how incredibly tough wild creatures can be. OH! Raise your lawnmower blade a couple of notches.

[0TG]

lol, I already have it raised up to the second highest setting!!

[Josh]

it must have benn a worry to behead him....

[Josh]

astroturf my friend

[0TG]

it must have benn a worry to behead him....

Oh it was horrible. But it needed to be done. His guts were coming out and he was squirming and trying to get away in what I'm guessing was a lethal combination of fear and pain. Horrible stuff. I hate to see things suffering.

[ssssnakeluvr]

that does look like a nasty wound....as long as it doesn't really interfere with his movement, for example injury to the spinal cord, he should do fine...it will take a number of sheds to completely heal over...will leave a nasty scar. As for feeding, get some feeder fish, guppies, minnows. worms are fine, but aren't overly nutritional....you would need to dust a couple with vitamin powder every other week or so...also, worms are mostly water, so they will mess up the cage real fast!!! good luck and keep us posted!!!

[Gijs & Sabine]

I understand you feel horrible about this, but didn't do it on purpose. It's great you wanna take care of the juvenile garter.
Although the wound does look very nasty, I think he has a good change surviving it. I once had a garter with a bad wound from badly bitten by an other garter and I thought he wouldn't survive. But after cleaning it and put him in a clean tank, it actually did heal after a few weeks
I think it's important to save him from a lot of stress, so the towel is a very good idea! And to keep the wound as dry as possible, ofcourse it's good to clean it, but keep it dry after that.
It's suprising how garters can heal from a bad injury. Of course this is no quarantee, but only speaking from our own experience.

Good luck with the young garter.

And btw, welcome to this forum

[drache]

welcome to the forum, Nick
very nice to meet you
and I think also that the little guy has an excellent chance of recovery with your care

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, Nick
I also think that the little guy has an excellent chance of recovery