Sick snail, string coming out of breathing hole

[jembolina]

I found my Snail today curled around toward his breathing hole and it looked like he was chewing on himself. I took him out of the tank to see what he was doing and saw a long white string coming out of his breathing hole that he'd apparently been chewing on. I thought it was snail sperm stuck on him so i gently pulled the string but it seemed stuck inside him. It also didn't feel like a sperm string - it was floppy and soft.

I put him back in the tank and he went on the wall and kind of flopped his face around with his eye stalks pressed down across his face. His body was looking strange too - fatter than usual and strangely shaped.

After reading that it's sometimes a good idea to bathe sick snails I took him out again and put him under some warm water, which he didn't seem to like.

He was then sliming around his tank with the string trailing behind him and has now gone to sleep on the ceiling with the string dangling from him.

For the past few days the flesh around his mantle (or is it his mantle?) has been looking exceptionally puffy and actually engulfs part of the lip of his shell.

Two nights ago he was mating with his girlfriend on the ceiling of the tank. I went in to check on them and saw that his girlfriend had fallen off the roof but was still attached to The Snail via their genitals - she was just dangling from him. She was also dangling right above the edge of their water bowl so if she fell her shell would definitely have smashed. I removed them from the lid and put them on some lettuce and they continued mating for at least another hour (then I went to bed). The next morning they were apart and both sleeping. The Snail didn't bother to remove the love dart from his side until this afternoon either, but other than not seeing them moving around and eating I couldn't tell if anything was wrong. I mention all of this just in case it could have something to do with why he seems sick now.

Any idea what could be the matter with him?? He's my original snail who I've had since he was a baby and I couldn't bear it if something happened to him.

[malacophile]

I fear that your poor little snail could be infected by the parasitic nematode, Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita. The swelling sounds like a sure sign. Has he been eating normally? Do you have a picture of the string he was chewing, or of the snail himself?

Here's some information on this parasite.

www.biocontrol.entomology.cornell.edu/pathogens/phasmarhabditis.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasmarhabditis_hermaphrodita#Life_cycle

I have no idea if a snail can recover from that. The nematode itself triggers a bacterial infection, which is what causes the swelling.

I'd be interested to know, should one be able to get hold of some sort of antibiotic, if a tiny dab near the snail's pneumostome and/or on his food would clear it up, followed by a feeding of antiparasitic foods.

[jembolina]

This is what he looked like sleeping on the ceiling with the string hanging from him (note that it looks like it comes from his other side but it was just stuck across his shell).

I touched the string after a while and it was beginning to dry and harden and just snapped when I was removing it from Snail's shell.

The first link you provided said it can't infect adult helix aspersas, and Snail is an adult. I hope this means it's not phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita.

Etienne, my biggest snail who is also a helix aspersa, has had a big puffy mantle for about a week but I didn't think anything of it. He's mated and has been eating since I noticed it was especially swollen.

[jembolina]

I haven't seen the string again and he seems to be looking and acting more or less normal again though nobody has been very active or have been eating a lot. The house sometimes warms up a bit as it's already getting to mid-high thirties outside (celsius) and I know snails are less active in the heat. The ones outside will all be aestivating till it cools down again next year.

One thing I noticed today was that the edges and the whole tail end of his foot have developed a yellowy tinge. Is this something I should be worried about? His favourite food for the past few weeks has been carrot so could it just be due to that? It isn't an orangey yellow though, closer to green than orange.

[malacophile]

I'm glad to hear that the string is gone. If it just dried up like that, I doubt it was a parasite, but I would love to know what else it could have been. Has the swelling gone down at all?

I'd hazard a guess that the color is from sitting on the carrot. I just noticed recently that my slugs' feet have been turning a tea-stained brown color from their normal gray. I figured out that it was due to them sitting on and sliming over the dry leaves I have in their tub. Even their eggs are being stained by the leaves.