Injured Garter Snake

Question
Hi Kevin,
I'll give you a little background information before I ask my question.  I found a baby garter snake (about 7 inches long)injured on my sidewalk. He has a wound and also possibly broken ribs, or a broken spine, just below the lungs/gullet. (It almost looks like something tried to break him in half, but it is definately not a "crush" injury.) I brought him inside and put him in a glass aquarium with paper towels on the bottom of the tank. I also put in a low dish of water. I've been applying peroxide to the wound with an eyedropper and then drying him off and putting on antibiotic cream. (I read that was the best way to handle a wound on a snake, but I don't know if that's the right thing to do.)  He can move his body below the injury, so I'm hoping he might be able to recover.  My question is: should I put a heat light on part of his cage, or would it be better to "hibernate" him?  Since it's November it's fairly cold at night here in Virginia (although we haven't hit the freezing mark yet.) The daytime temperature is anywhere between 50 and 70 degrees.  I have tried offering him earthworms, but he has no interest in eating.  He doesn't move around too much, so the water dish is more decorative at this point.  I have been putting a drop of water on his mouth with an eyedropper and in a few minutes, he will swallow the water.  I do this several times a day; each time I will keep putting drops of water until he quits swallowing, then I dry off any excess water.  With my limited knowledge, I would assume he would have hibernated if he was healthy and living outside.  Maybe I'll do more harm than good by warming him up.  I've read that you can set the temperature on a refrigerator to the warmest setting and put the snake, cage and all, in there to stimulate hibernation.  I've wondered if he won't eat because his metabolism is slowed, preparing for hibernation, or maybe he's not eating because he's so hurt.  I want to do what's best for him and give him every chance to heal, but maybe, at some point, the kindest thing would be to put him out of his misery.  Can you make any recommendations?

Answer
Wow, this is a tough one. I would leave the heat lamp out and just make the snake as comfortable as possible. It sounds like the snake is not going to recover due to the lack of movement. Keep cleaning the wound and give him a chance. You have already done more than 99.999% of people would do, so thank you for being a good citizen and a caring herper.