Helix Aspersa - Broken Shell

[Katie]

Hiya guys!
I noticed this little fella on the side of the pavement a couple of days ago whilst out walking my dog, but didn't really think much of it. Couple of days later, I take the same route, and notice that the snail is still there. Today, I went back again, and sure enough snail was still in the same spot, so i picked him up to move him into the bushes, only to find that quite abit of his shell has broken off

He's very very retracted, and the broken edges are quite jagged. Is he going to be able to grow it back? And, if i can get him to come out of his shell, will the jagged edges cause an issue to his ability to move around? I took some photos, but unfortunately theyre not the best of quality.









He's now living in a small pot in my warm room, with lots of cuttlefish and some cucumber. Is their anything else I could do for him, aside from the daily misting, fresh food and cuttle? Is it worth crushing some cuttle and sprinkling it on his food, to make sure he gets as much calcium as possible?

Thanks in advance!

[pinkunicorn]

I've an adopted aspy whose shell had broken pretty much like that at some point. She healed it somewhat in the wild and is left with a chunk missing and huge scarring. But she's doing well enough to have just laid eggs.

This kind of breakage is relatively easy to fix as the internal organs are safe under undamaged shell. You are doing the right things by the sound of it. It's a good idea to crush some cuttle to ensure he gets as much calcium as possible. Also give him a varied diet of many sort of veggies, maybe some wild plants as well since he's a new adoptee. And fish flakes to perk him up with extra nourishment!

He should make, if the damage is as limited as it appears.

[pinkunicorn]

Oh I noticed you didn't mention if he has come out yet at all? If he hasn't and there's definitely someone in there, put him under running warm tap until he starts coming out. Then put him on some food.

Not hot water but comfortably warm.

[Katie]

Thanks for the replies!
He's definitely in there, and I gave him a shower under a warm running tap to see if I could wake him up, and to rinse off any nasties when I first bought him in yesterday, but he didn't really move much.

His foot has moved slightly forward over night though, so I'll give him another shower later to see if I can entice out some eye stalks. None of the cucumber has been eaten, but then I dont think he's fully come out of his shell yet. I'll crush up some cuttle, try the fishflakes and see if I can find any dandelion leaves in the garden.

[pinkunicorn]

Yeah, best to try to get him come out and eating asap. He might have been there for some time and is probably very weak. It'd be shame if he died inside now that he's got the best possible chances of survival. I've had that happen to a cepaea, whose shell was admittedly broken in more places. The little guy was there but didn't come out and died.

[Katie]

Thats what worries me- that he wont have the strength to come out and eat. His body, although he's moved forward now, seems very skinny and looks strange to me. I'll try and get photos later.
I suppose if he's been out in the recent cold we've had here, it'll take more than a day of warmth to wake him up, so i'll just have to wait and see.

Sorry to hear about the capaea Just out of curiosity, did the Aspersa you mentioned earlier manage to grow back her shell properly?

[pinkunicorn]

She had repaired the damage in the wild so it's not aesthetically pleasing fix but functional. Really bad scarring remains, along with remains of the missing shell. Here you can see how it turned out. The broken bit is like in your snail, and it never healed completely.



I also got a baby with badly broken shell now. I accidentally broke it picking him up... its pretty bad. I taped half of it already, waiting for BF to get home and help me fix the worse part. The front part and lip got loosened and the bit protecting his organs is in pieces. I think by taping it all over with this medical tape I have will fix it, as this tape actually attaches to the shell. But I'm quite afraid I may have killed him. Hoping not, though.

[Katie]

Aah yes I see, they're very clever being able to repair damage like that! She can move around okay with some of the shell still missing then?
Unfortunately, I checked on the snail this morning to find him dead But thankyou for your help.

Hows the little Capaea holding up?

[shaydeesnail]

Awh, that's unfortunate.
At least he was warm and comfortable, not out on that cold sidewalk! X

[pinkunicorn]

Sorry that this guy didn't make.

My little baby is still not eating but he's pooping lots of what looks like cuttle poop so I think he's eating the calcium. The shell has solidified, the bits that were broken off have attached to the mantle underneath again. I'm not removing the tape yet though, just in case. And I'm keeping him separated in his kitchen paper lined little box for at least a week more. He needs to eat food before he goes back to the main tank.

He was not able or willing to retract into his shell for days but yesterday I saw him mostly retracted. I think that is a good sign.

He's such a trooper, it was bad damage he had. The shell was in several pieces where his heart is and the biggest whorl was off where it joins the shell... when I taped him together the mantle underneath the shell was swelling and pushing the shell pieces outwards, making them stick out. But they have grown back, only sticking out ever so little now.

The tape I used is Opsite Flexifix, a medical fixing film that's like kitchen plastic foil in softness. It's the only tape I've found attaches on snail shell, and basically forms a layer like the plastic foil would when wrapped on shell, only this comes with the adhesive of tape. It's water resistant too so gently spraying the patient won't remove the tape, although I would advise against spraying on top of the plaster just in case. It also takes a bit of training to get it attached right as it can't be moved once it's stuck on the shell without doing great damage to the snail... you have to get it right on the first try, or keep adding a few more layers of tape but can't remove the old ones without removing the pieces of shell you want to keep. I needed a total of three strips of tape to get my baby patient's shell put back together, applied next to each other overlapping.

This works especially to prevent lung collapse as you can literally keep the shell bits where they belong until the snail heals from the inside.

[jembolina]

I wish I knew it was possible to tape a shell together when I had my first little snaily and his shell was crushed

[pinkunicorn]

It's not possible with all tapes. I've tried several and have lost snails as I couldn't patch them up. But this Flexifix stuff is miraculous. You really can tape a badly smashed snaily patient back together with it, so that lung collapse and other killers are possibly prevented.

Although I can't emphasise practicing on a non-living target first because it's really easy to get this stuff wrong due to its super thin structure, plus the aid paper and grid film on each sides of the tape itself which need to be removed in the right order. I found it handier, in fact, to use the backing paper as a support tool when applying the tape and then instead of removing the last piece of paper when the tape is in place just cut the tape so that the paper is removed instead of pulling the paper off. It can be difficult to pull the support paper off without damaging the shell yet more once it's been attached. If that doesn't make sense now it will when you handle the tape!

[jembolina]

I'll have a look at the chemist next time I'm there, thank you! That's where I'd find it, right?

I have a helix aspersa that I rescued from a supermarket recently whose shell had been previously very damaged. It's healed a lot but still not completely. I'll post some pictures soon. It looks like she lost about as much as Katie's and Pinkunicorn's snails.

Edit: Here are the pictures. The first two show the side that hasn't completely healed yet and the third shows where new shell has grown past where it previously broke off. It looks like it just grew underneath as the cracked shell still sits on top of the new shell. The last image isn't very good and you might have to look closely to see the jagged edge of the original shell. She might have had her shell broken a second time (where it hasn't healed yet), I'm not sure because I rescued her when she was already like this, thought I think it has healed some more since she's been with me and has been eating lots of calcium.




PS the snail she is sitting on top of is Claude, the guy who had a worm stuck inside him before.