Please help. Sudden injury to scales on my snake's neck!

[xStatic]

I have a 4 or 5 month old female albino checkered garter snake. The past 2 1/2 weeks she's been refusing any food. I've been offering her a variety of food every 3 or 4 days (pinky parts, earthworm chunks, and talapia pieces) but she wont eat. Advice from this site has lead me to believe these feeding changes were a response to seasonal changes.

Tonight I came home and found her out and about in her viv. It isn't uncommon for her to climb around and explore. She pressed herself against the glass and I noticed the underside of her neck looked strange. I found that several scales under her neck appear to have separated and exposed some pink fleshy skin. I had kept her on black aspen before so there was a little bit of black aspen dust in these wounds. I removed her and gave her a bath to help clean some of the aspen out of the wounds. I replaced her substrate with newspaper and checked to make sure there wasn't anything sticky in the tank like glue or tape that could have damaged her scales. The only new addition to her tank was a bit of slightly damp sphagnum moss I placed under one hide because I suspect she would have been shedding soon. I was sure that this moss was safe to use with reptiles. It doesn't have any addition chemicals and is %100 organic sphagnum moss. I'm at a loss as to what could be wrong and I feel very distressed...

I took some photos but the only camera I have is on my iphone and isn't great, but I could always text them to anyone who is interested in seeing them. I can't manage to email them to myself and my attempt at posting them on here failed. Other than this mysterious injury and her hunger strike she seems healthy... She is alert and active, she also doesn't seem dehydrated at all. I'm not sure if I should try to find a good local vet or just see how she does.I think I will apply some non-medicated antibacterial ointment as well (i know this is good for corn snakes, is it okay for garters?)

Any help would really be appreciated. My heart just broke when I saw this. I would be crushed if I lost her.... I will do anything I can to help her. I don't have a huge amount of money but I will sacrifice other things in order to bring her to the vet if that's necessarily.

many thanks...

[d_virginiana]

Sorry to hear that.. Can you feel any puffiness or swelling in the area? Pictures would be helpful if you can get them up. Is it just exposed pink skin between the scales or like an actual open wound? Neosporin is good. I like to use the pain-killer free kind just to be safe, since the painkillers are harmful to some animals, but I don't think they would hurt garters.

I really have no clue what this could be, but there are a couple general things you can do for situations like that. If you think dust from the bedding is aggravating the place on her neck, you can always replace it with paper towels for the time being. Also, raising the temperature boosts their immune systems and speeds the healing process.

You said she was about to shed, right? If it's just a scale injury or something there's a chance it'll get better after she sheds.

[guidofatherof5]

Sorry to hear about the troubles your having with you're snake.
Not sure you've got as serious a situation as you think.
Sounds like scale problem and a seasonal food issue.
The treatment you suggested seems sound. A Vet. visit would be helpful.
Keep us posted on this issue, please.

[xStatic]

I'm probably overreacting to the situation. I just feel nervous since she's not to the 6 month point and she hasn't been eating and now she has this injury. The scales on her neck are slightly raised and bent looking. You can see the pink flesh between each scale and some aspen dust is firmly stuck inside of the wound. This injury has to have happened in the past 2 nights as I tried to feed her a couple days ago. I already took all the aspen out. I don't have any paper towels right now but I have a lot of newspapers that I use to line the bottom of all my snake vivs. She's on newspaper and has been out climbing around quite a bit tonight.

Does anyone have any information on sphagnum moss? Is this moss indeed safe for reptiles or did I make a bad mistake?

I haven't actually noticed her eyes cloud over but it's getting close to the time that she usually sheds each month. She's fairly regular in her shedding habits. I've also been able to predict every singe time both my albino garter and albino corn snake were about to shed. Their eyes always turn violet. I actually have a harder time telling when my normal rosy boa is going to shed. So I'm not sure if she will shed soon or not, but I can't really imagine the skin being able to come off of these injured scales very well.

Neosporin with painkillers is indeed harmful to snakes, or at least corn snakes. I made that mistake once with my snow corn and ended up scarring some of his scales (they fell off after being treated with it).

I'm going to try and get some pictures up in the next few minutes. I contacted the breeder to see if she's ever experienced this and ask her advice. My aunt is a small animal vet and some of her coworkers work with exotics. I'm going to email her tomorrow with pictures before I dish out $60 to my local vet which has a very minimal knowledge of exotic animals.

I raised her basking area to 90 and I'm letting it drop to 78 at night. Hopefully this will encourage healing and prompt her to eat as well. She wouldn't accept any mice, worms, or fish today as well.

Thanks for all of your concern and input!

[xStatic]

These were the best images I could get with my cell phone. It's hard to see but you can notice the discoloration (the dark color is caused by the aspen dust) and the gaps between scales. She also had an injury to her eye when I first received her but she seemed to have gotten over that within a week or so.

[d_virginiana]

If it's not swollen up or anything, then I wouldn't worry about it unless she starts acting funny or if it keeps looking bad after she sheds. Had a similar scare with one of mine this last summer. He developed a couple small blister-like places on his stomach, but they went away after one shed.

Hm.. I can't think of why sphagnum moss would be harmful to snakes. It's not good for a lot of reptiles as it can cause impaction if ingested, but I don't think a garter is likely to eat it, especially if you just have a little in one part of the cage like you said.

Yikes! I didn't know painkiller neosporin would do that to them 8X

[xStatic]

Okay thank you! She seems pretty normal beside the no eating thing. I'm going to keep an eye on it and hope she sheds it out alright.. She's my tough little girl!

Yes, I feed in separate bins so I doubt she would have injested any substrate. Also does anyone know if garters can get impacted by the dirt inside on night crawlers? I always rinse them off but she had a tiny poop today and it was pretty much all dirt and urates.

and the painkillers are terrible ): it didnt help that he already had a scale injury in that area and then the medication just irritated it enough that the scales scabbed up and came off with his shed a week or so later. not a fun experience since i had just gotten him as well ):

[Spankenstyne]

A weak Betadine bath I have found very helpful for any skin conditions I've encountered.
You'll want it to look like weak tea, be lukewarm/room temp (not hot) and let it soak for a good 15-20 mins once daily for a couple of weeks. Make sure it's enough water to just cover the snakes back but can easily keep it's head up & out of the water while resting. You might get a bit of minor puffing & huffing afterwards which is fine, the betadine sometimes annoys them a bit. If you see it improving then great, if it starts getting noticeably worse then get it to a vet.

[chris-uk]

Does anyone have any information on sphagnum moss? Is this moss indeed safe for reptiles or did I make a bad mistake?

I'm not aware of any problems with sphagnum moss. We have it in each viv in the cold hide to provide a moister area in a hide.

[EasternGirl]

When my Eastern Garter, Selena, had a slight mouth infection last year...a friend of mine on here recommended cleaning the area with Hibiclens antiseptic cleanser and water...just put a couple of drops of the hibiclens (you can buy it at any drugstore) in a cup of water and put it on a cotton swab and apply to the area a couple of times a day. It worked very well for Selena's mouth. The Betadine bath sounds good too. And keeping the snake on paper towels and away from any substrate that could get into the wound while it heals is important. As far as your substrate goes, I prefer Boxo and Carefresh to Aspen because there is less of a chance of the snake ingesting it. I think it is more expensive than Aspen though.