The Story of Old Blind Melan

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
Porter
Posts: 2418
Joined: March 19th, 2011, 7:43 pm

The Story of Old Blind Melan

Post by Porter »

This snake was found crossing a dirt road one scorching hot evening in the middle of July, 2014. California was going through a severe drought and fungal disease had been reported as being observed on several gartersnakes. Including Thamnophis gigas. Also, causing the death of many water fowl. Because for the first time, they were now cooling off and feeding in Low levels of mud which normally the birds were never exposed to.

He was taken home and put in a high humidity holding tank. Which was full of soft peat moss, a branch with easy access to rub against, and sprayed down regularly to keep moist. It also contained two large water bowls to crawl through and soak in. Mineral oil was lathered onto the snake to loosen and remove as much old dry skin as possible. As it was stuck like tape to the entire body of the snake. The eye caps were badly damaged and resembled a baby bottle’s nipple. With the pupils extending out into the center of the sun-dried eye caps.

Many thought the snake would not recover. I held high hopes and even doubted that fungal disease was the cause of the snakes condition. It seemed to me that the snake was suffering from severe dehydration and in desperate search of water. The wounds on the face looked to me like self-inflicted sores, caused from rubbing against areas the snake normally would, to loosen its own skin in starting a routine shedding process (tip of the nose, bottom jaw lip, and back of the jawbones). However, the damage to the tip of the tail didn’t support that idea entirely.

The snake was very weak and did not have enough strength to feed itself or to even hold a fish in its mouth without dropping it. A method was suggested of blending fish up into a liquid to feed the snake through a plastic feeding syringe. I even drove out to a member’s house in Manteca California, to pick up a syringe and to learn how to do so. I instead hand fed the snake small pet store feeder fish (dead at first... then alive & whole) daily until he was able to catch Fish (and earthworms) on his own. Within a few weeks he was clumsily feeding himself.

After the first successful shed, the eye caps returned to it’s normal shape. Although the pupils also returned to a normal shape, the eyes looked shedding-phase-grey and glossed over. If not totally blind, the snake definitely seemed to have limited eyesight. As shown in the video of him searching for his feeding bowl.

Once the snake had made a full recovery and was healthy enough to be maintained as a normal pet… I took it to the Effie Yeow Nature Center. A place I had been a few times in my youth and was known for keeping and caring for hurt reptiles and other wildlife. An employee who worked there offered to take the snake to continue further necessary care.

This is only one of two melonistic valley gartersnakes ever found in California (as far as I know). Possibly the rarest snake I have found to date.

Special Thanks to members of the Field Herp Forum for knowledge and insight on how to care for this animal! Without your help, the snake surely would have perished. :beer:

Post Reply