Hi all,
We have had a garter snake for about a year and noted the other day that he wasn't eating. I had just had surgery, so was in the hospital for 10 days and didn't get to see him for that time, but my hubby was feeding him. He didn't notice anything wrong with him.

Anyway, he has this lump about 1/3 of the way back, more toward his spine than his abdomen and the lump is hard and somewhat crunchy (?) when touched. The snake seems to not be able to move below the lump and is not even able to coil.

It looks almost like his back is fractured, but I don't know how this could have happened, because he hasn't been out of his aquarium for the last three weeks or so. He was eating up until last week.

Also, he shed in early August and it was a complete shed.

Anybody have any ideas or should we have the poor guy put down? There are no herp vets around here. I feel so sorry for him!