sudden death?

[CrazyHedgehog]

I went to change water tonight, and one of my Santa Cruz didn't "run and hide" like he usually does, I picked him up, lots of tongue flicking, but no attempt to flee and very lethargic?

I checked him over visually, seemed ok, but 'weak', I put him in a smaller container with water and some damp kitchen towel in case he was dehydrated, checked half an hour later and he was dead with his mouth open.

The others all seem fine?

This was the tank that I thought may have eaten a red wiggler the other week, but seemed ok afterwards.
The last two feeds have been ok, but the third feed back (a trout feed) and one of these three regurgitated. Again, I checked at the time and they all seemed fine.

I really thought it was the male because it was tiny compared to the other two (2 females and 1 male) but looking closely at the tail, I am pretty sure it was actually a female so has obviously had a growth issue.

I feed a mix of trout and pinkies, alternating both with worms less often at present as its so damn cold! And Dillies (smelt) when I can get it..(but not for a few months) Although he/she was small, she was definitely eating.

Anyway, the tank seems clean, the others seem healthy, shedding fine, very hungry,

Could the lob worms ( that were actually red wigglers I bought from the bait shop) have caused this several weeks later or is it likely to be something else? If something else, I would like to prevent it from happening again? or is it likely it was just a runt that got weaker and weaker?

[guidofatherof5]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss.
I doubt the red worms had anything to do with this death unless it added to an already bad health situation.
Usually runts have other internal/developmental issues going on.
Just my opinion.

[chris-uk]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Unfortunately this may go down as an unexplained death without a necropsy and tests to determine the cause of death. If there are no external signs and it was rapid I'd put it down to a runt that had development problems. Your husbandry always sounds fine so I doubt there was anything you could have done to avoid th8s.

[thamneil]

Everything you do seems fine. As I'm sure you know, garter snakes have the tendency to be very fragile and unpredictable, especially at a young age. There are a million things that could have caused this. Chances are that you will never know what happened. Sorry to hear that though.

[d_virginiana]

Sounds like a developmental issue or something like that. No reason to think it's anything you did.
Sorry for your loss

[Invisible Snake]

Sorry for your loss

[gregmonsta]

Sorry for your loss. It's always tough when you don't have a definite answer.

[Stefan-A]

Sorry to hear it.

[ProXimuS]

I'm sorry to hear about this

[ConcinusMan]

Well **** happens. Probably not your fault. If the snake had stunted growth he probably had congenital issues like Steve said.

I highly doubt a red worm or two a while back could cause this. If they're poisoned by red worms then vomiting and/or sudden death happens immediately or within hours of consuming the worms. Before I knew better a few of my very young snakes ate a red worm or two with no apparent ill effect other than some of them throwing it up.