Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734
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Post by Zorst on Dec 22, 2014 1:23:47 GMT
Ok this may sound weird but it worked with one of my snails. Just bare with me whilst I explain this. Its quite common with horses that are unshod that have splits n damage to the hoof wall, this hoof wall like a snails shell has a growing edge that is naturally worn down over time. If this gets damaged and say a split appears in it the farrier often has to do some remedial work to the hoof wall to stop it getting worse whilst this grows out.
So what we try to do with the farrier is try n slightly level off the growing edge of the hoof where a split or problem is, an keep it level so that it grows down level from the point of damage. This is where a good farrier with a rasp can be a god send in the fact that he rasps back some of the growing edge of the hoof to level off with the split where it joins. This encourages the hoof walls either side of the split to grow level n together and with time close n heal over.
I had a similar problem on Gary the original Zorst's friend and I very gently with a small nail file n some sand paper leveled off the growing edge of the shell where the damage was. This actually worked and the shell did grow down better, because it was now growing level. It naturally healed over and didn't become brittle and grew level from that point. The knack is if you do this kinda work to only file down a very small bit of shell very gently and don't do to much to the growing edge. And don't take all of that growing edge off.
I've since done this on one of the margies shells because he managed to break a pretty big chip out and it had quite a big crack running up from it. With him it took a little longer as I also had to stabilize the crack which I did with some micro pour tape and I had to level up the growing edge of the shell about 3 times over 3 months. The shell grew back perfectly normally and you can hardly see where I had to do the work. If I had a camera that actually worked I'd take a picture to post.
Hope that's of use to someone at some point.
Zorst
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Post by etana on Dec 22, 2014 7:39:48 GMT
Thanks Zorst, that does make sense. I'll have to think about this if it doesn't improve on its own.
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Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734
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Post by Zorst on Dec 22, 2014 10:49:10 GMT
Agreed, I didn't go int doing this lightly, it was kinda a last resort option but in both cases it worked.
Keep us posted on how his shell grows.
Zorst
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Post by etana on Dec 23, 2014 21:30:50 GMT
He's moving his mouth over the damaged area right now, maybe only examining it, I can't hear if he's rasping. I really hope he'll do the leveling & smoothing job himself.
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Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734
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Post by Zorst on Dec 23, 2014 22:35:12 GMT
It'd be great if he did, so fingers crossed that's his plan.
Zorst
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Post by etana on Dec 25, 2014 22:13:39 GMT
Seems that it is! He has rasped at it quite a bit, and also pulled his mantle down so that it doesn't make such a sharp curve anymore, but instead is almost straight. Hooray!
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Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734
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Post by Zorst on Dec 25, 2014 23:47:41 GMT
Ahh great, I'm real glad he's done that.
Zorst
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Post by etana on Dec 31, 2014 20:57:57 GMT
His repair is nearly finished now, I'll post a picture in a few days. I'm so glad I didn't have to touch the shell.
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Post by etana on Jan 3, 2015 6:55:57 GMT
Here's Ewert this morning. He's a little mucky, but despite that I think you can see very well how hard he's worked on his shell. Most importantly, he has his mantle edge almost straight now instead of that crazy curve in my previous pictures! ' I also think his next whorl just might cover up this whole unfortunate area. I'll clean him up and take an even better picture when he's completely finished.
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Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734
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Post by Zorst on Jan 3, 2015 9:09:48 GMT
Thats looking a good repair alright, main thing is like you sauy he did it himself.
Zorst
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Post by etana on Jan 4, 2015 6:08:14 GMT
Yes, I'm so proud of the little guy. For a while I thought he didn't care, when the damage just kept getting worse! Then again he started the repair after I fixed the temp issue in my tank. I don't know if it's just a coincidence. Hmmm. There isn't quite enough research about snaily behaviour out there.
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Post by muddydragon on Jan 4, 2015 13:52:21 GMT
i wouldn't be suprised if it was linked to the fixing of the tank temp. i know if too cold they can grown badly and/or slowly so i wouldn't be suprised if he went "neh too cold no point"
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Post by pilsburypie on Jan 9, 2015 10:46:31 GMT
Now, I am far from an expert and have no authority on what I'm about to say! But, I don't think that "v" shaped missing bit is actually damage. I think it is where he is growing his shell and it is the last place to close up. The reason I think this is my Tiger snail had the same thing. I pondered over this for some time and concluded that it never looked jagged or sharp like a broken shell would and over the successive days a film like stickiness solidified up and closed the "V". If you look at the whole edge of the shell there is hardly any lip which suggests to me the shell is growing fast. When my snail had filled this gap a bigger smoother lip was there, almost like taking a break from the growth spurt. Look at my pics in this thread and you can see what I mean about the covering up of the "V" petsnails.proboards.com/thread/14478/snail-close-ups
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Post by etana on Jan 9, 2015 17:10:44 GMT
Pilsburypie, thanks for the input I too think now that it's not damage from bumping into something or falling, it's just bad, uneven growth that the snail didn't care to fix before things were better in the tank. My snail had to work on the shell edge, by rasping at it a lot, before he could grow it shut, and judging from all the marks that have appeared even after my last photo of him, it wasn't easy. It's all good now though. Edit: Photo. No I did not photoshop him over a root background, he is snailing on it for real. I don't know how he manages to look so fake. Something else from this photoshoot is going in the funny situations thread in a bit, lol.
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Post by etana on Jan 18, 2015 5:21:51 GMT
Damn. His shell edge was so good already, now it's growing wrong again. I hope and trust he'll continue working on it himself, but I wonder why this is not going away and what I could do except touch it (yet). Some cuttlebones in the tank had gotten undesirably wet, I changed them into new ones yesterday. May be something to that too, if he wasn't having enough calcium.
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Post by etana on Jan 24, 2015 6:42:25 GMT
Could bad shell growth be linked to a stomach problem, or is it just a coincidence?
Ewert's definitely been eating and pooping, but the poops have been kind of small and sparse. I didn't think much of it because he was eating and pooping in the first place. Yesterday I wrote in the funny thread about how Ewert really really enjoyed a bath (the bath tub is right next to the heat mat so it was a warm bath too) and then crashed in a pile of moss next to it, also right against the heat mat. And now there's the biggest poop I've ever seen come out of a snail his size in the moss.
I'm very glad he got his gut working by himself again. Yet another piece of evidence of warm baths & warm sleeping places being good for snails with digestive trouble.
He's still working hard to get his shell right, and I really hope he'll succeed this time. The damaged area is getting pretty long.
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Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734
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Post by Zorst on Jan 24, 2015 7:10:12 GMT
I haven't found any difference or stomach problems connected with shell repair except extra eating of cuttle fish.
Zorst
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Post by etana on Jan 24, 2015 21:57:20 GMT
Okay. It was a coincidence then. He's on the cuttlefish bone right now, rasping slowly with his eye stalks down. His shell edge is nearly straight again so he's definitely been fixing it. I hope the bad growth ends soon.
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Post by etana on Feb 6, 2015 19:45:32 GMT
I think it's finally safe to say Ewert's shell is good again. Sorry about the mucky glass, this was taken in the morning before I cleaned up the snail trails and poop after their party night. He sure worked hard to fix it. It went back to bad growth after he already had it sorted out once. Lots of rasping of his own shell and the cuttlefish bones has been going on. Now he has almost a cm of almost flawless growth after the bad part, so I believe it's over and he can continue growing normally.
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Zorst
Achatina tincta
Posts: 734
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Post by Zorst on Feb 6, 2015 20:24:46 GMT
That looks really good and fingers crossed it wont bother him again.
Zorst
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Post by Liguus on Feb 7, 2015 0:36:46 GMT
yeah, wow, that's a nice improvement!
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