Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had found a small garter snake in a parking lot newly built in late September early October...I drove over him..I did not run over him. I went on ahead and grabed him, intent on releasing him, but found he had lots of scars, and so decided to seek advice...some people advised I keep him in a small enclosure till he completely healed up, and so I tried to feed him fish, but he did not want them, so I got him crickets, those dissapeared, and he stayed doing good...on second week he shed his skin after a bit of a fast...continued to eat crickets, and then about two and a half weeks ago was not as active.,...not climbing his mini tree branches as much or trying to escape as often. I talked to some people at the pet store to see if I should be concerned at his lack of moving around..they were curious if he had a heating pad, I said yes, and we just assumed in spite of it that he may be sort of trying to hybernate, and to let him do his thing for a few more weeks instead of taking him to a vet. He was active, just not that active...and a bit thin, but he was always thin, so hard to tell how thin. Well...this past Wednesday morning he was dead...I was very sad. I had planned to keep him over the winter as a service, and then let him go in the spring when he would have good weather to find a new place to live, as his home had once been the parking lot he was in(it was newly built). I went on ahead and examined him and found he had a lump in his body, about the size of a tic tac...also, directly under this lump on his belly, his skin was sorta green..I had noticed this a few days before, but just thought he had gotten a stain from somewhere. I opened him up, and that lump seemed to be a spleen or gall baldder..it was full and oval, and the size of a tic tac, and full of green liquid and green itself...I have had reptiles before, and had a pet snake before....I find a lot of injured animals...all reptiles so far have died..I tried to treat a turtle who had been run over, he died..even with vetrinary care..tried to treat lizards by giving them a safe place to recover, they died...I am very sad that a snake, who by all apparences was simply displaced and scarred up, and who did so well for over two months, then died. I have talked to people and asked if the crickets I bought killed him, they said no. They think he was just injured though not visibly at first. What do you guys think? If it wern't for the fact it is winter, I woud have taken him to the vet due to his slowing down, but I did think it was logical that he may have been trying to hybernate due to the seasons, and so decided to let him do his thing. I also have Autism, and do not have a lot of money. If I ever find anotehr critter, can rescue groups help in evaluating them or even housiog them so they will recover well? I live just north of Houston.

The green lunp was probably his gall bladder and the green staining was the bile released after he died. Reptiles are very "tough" and it can take them a long time to succumb to illness. Your garter may very well have had some kind of infection or internal trauma. What species was he?

-Alice

Well, I live in NW Houston...it is the type you see on TV...the one that is dark green/black with yellow stripes down it's back(about three I believe)...it was about 20 inches long..some people wonder if it was old, but I thought they were supposed to get longer than 20 inches. It was a very friendly snake..it bit me when I first caught it, but other than that, it was pretty calm...I remember talking to the people at Petco, where I got the fish and then later the crickets when it never ate the fish, and they said that they don't like the garter snakes cause they always skunk you..I said this snake never did that,.,.,though he did poop on me once after I had held him for a long time..but he just needed to poop.

You know, if I asw a pic of it I could tell you what type it was....but it is sold in pet stores...so perhaps a common type? I know I have seen the same kind of garter snake on animal planet and other nature shows, when they come out in swarms to breed after having hybernated. I never knew there were so many pretty kinds till comming onto this site.