Feeling sad and dissapointed

[slinky]

My hubby said that if I do decide to get GALS that if they were to become sick we wouldnt take them to the vets because we cant afford it. I am really upset now, cause I dont think it would be fair to get them now

[tsrebel]

I've never heard of a vet who knew anything about snails. Unfortunately, there is usually no help in taking snails to the vet. So you really don't need to worry.

[morningcoffee]

Jun 15, 2013 0:42:09 GMT slinky said:

My hubby said that if I do decide to get GALS that if they were to become sick we wouldnt take them to the vets because we cant afford it. I am really upset now, cause I dont think it would be fair to get them now

Unless you were very, very lucky and able to find a vet who had some experience with snails, there wouldn't be much point taking snails to the vet anyway. Even if you found a vet who knew much about snails, there's not likely to be very much they can do for the snails that you couldn't do yourself at home. I suppose they might be able to do things like X-ray or ultrasound them but that would probably be a fairly pointless expense.

If you're worried about a snail or one seems ill, the best thing to do would be to read the problems section of the care guide here: www.petsnails.co.uk/problems/index.html and post here on the forum to ask for further help/advice. Many of us here have far more experience in caring for snails than the average vet will.

[Sarah]

Going with the majority - most vets don't train with invertebrates, and invertebrate medicine and healthcare is severely lacking. I have vets contacting me asking about snail care - If I can't help I usually direct them to the link morningcoffee has posted as it's probably one of the most concise guides about.

[muddydragon]

As the others say most of us on here have better knowledge of solving snail problems than the average vet. There's no medication or anything developed that can be given to snails so there's very little vets can do anyway except give you the same care advice we can for the given situation. On the whole given the right conditions they're very healthy i've had very few problems with my snails over the years and the most you can do for them you can do easily at home.

The forum is always active and it's very likely that someone can answer your problem quickly and you will very likely find it has happened before by looking in the problem pages.

I doubt anyone on here has ever taken a snail to the vet. maybe one or two lucky ones. but the vast majority of people on here never take snails to the vet as there's no call to and if there is a problem it's highly unlikely a vet can do anything you cant. They're not like vertebrate pets they're just not as well studied and very few vets have anything to do with them.

[slinky]

That sounds promising!
The only concern I have is on the disease front. I have a beautiful little boy and 2 gorgeours house bunnies!
My concern is about any of them getting meningitis or salmonela?
I do suffer with OCD and I fear I 'may' obsess over this?

[morningcoffee]

Jun 15, 2013 12:54:13 GMT slinky said:

That sounds promising!
The only concern I have is on the disease front. I have a beautiful little boy and 2 gorgeours house bunnies!
My concern is about any of them getting meningitis or salmonela?
I do suffer with OCD and I fear I 'may' obsess over this?

If hands are washed thoroughly with soap after touching the snails or anything in their tank, and you never put the snails on or near your mouth/lips, you will be fine.

[tsrebel]

The chance of captive bred snails causing salmonella or meningitis is very, very small (wild caught ones have a higher risk). To be completely safe one should always wash hands after handling snails (and before, with only water, to protect the snails from substances they don't tolerate).

[muddydragon]

Simply yes you are worrying too much

They are absolutely not going to catch meningitis from a snail unless it's wild caught or been fed wild rat poo (which no sane person does!). They cannot carry the meningitis parasite if they have not eaten the young larval forms of the meningitis parastie from rat (or similar creatures) poo, they can't even catch it from other snails the parasite MUST go via a different host first. The parasite is rare in this country and difficult to catch yest still he would have more chance of catching it outdoors than via a captive bred snail (and the chances of that are very very small). They have a much much greater chance of catching bacterial meningitis from the outdoors than parasitic meningitis from a captive bred snail and even greater chance of viral meningitis (the most common and mildest form) just from encountering people. (basically meningitis from a captive bred snail: pretty much impossible they're more likely to get hit by lightning.)

I should point out at this point i'm making the point captive bred snails can only carry the parasite under some very very wierd and highly unlikely conditions i.e. it's virtually impossible so please don't panic when i say that he's more likely to catch meningitis from many other sources than the snail he's also unlikely to get it from those sources either.

I've not heard of anyone getting salmonela from snails on here, I never have, I doubt that many snails actually carry it and especially are unlikely to carry it in high enough concentrations to affect people, in order to be infected you have to ingest a huge amount of bacteria, short of eating the snail raw i doubt even licking it would do it (but i would not advise that). I presume you'll supervise your boy when playing with the snails if he's too young to realise not to put it in his mouth (and if he's older tell him not to).

I do think you are worrying too much he's much more likely to catch something from the rabbits with them having free reign of the house or by being outdoors than from a snail. However as with all animals good hygiene should be observed and make sure hands are washed after handling (you're going to want to anyway they leave bits of substrate all over you!)

Hope this helped alleviate your fears somewhat

edit: i should add this wasn't meant to sound like i was implying your rabbits carried anything just encountering any animal including humans runs the risk of catching something and it's higher in a loose animal (especially if they get to go outside) than a contained one and mammals are more likely to carry diseases and pests which can affect us than non-mammals (excluding things that have been going round biting other infected mammals or their droppings then biting us). I'm much more likely to catch something from my dog (especially considering some of the things he eats!!) than my snails

[slinky]

Thankyou guys!
I am just worried that I might get them and then regret it for worrying which wouldnt be fair on them
I do really want them!

[pinkunicorn]

The snailio vet question made me think... snails, like many inverts starting from insects, have opioid receptors which not only means that they can feel pain but also that their pain could possibly safely be helped with human medicine, namely morphine (and possibly some morphine derivatives that are metabolised into morphine in the body, but unsure which ones snails could metabolise). Morphine is just exogenous endorphine ("endogenous morphine"). Dosage is a whole other can of worms, morphine being a CNS depressor that can slow breathing when overdosed. But it's a plausible idea for snail medication.