Eternal arousal or prolapse?

[etana]

One of my lovely young Arianta just reached sexual maturity, and his first mate was nobody else but the strange, rough, who knows how old Rudolf. Their size difference was pretty significant. They mated yesterday morning on a vertical wall of a hiding place, with Rudolf on top and the young one pressed between him and the ground. All kinds of wrong but it's snaily world, lol.

Anyhow, Rudolf burrowed to sleep but the young one was left wandering around with his love parts completely out. Not swollen or abnormal shaped, he just looks ready to mate all he time. He does eat etc, but it looks uncomfortable when he's all that way!

Is this a result of rough mating? And more importantly, can/should I help him?

[Zorst]

Ahh this isn't one that I have come across before sorry Etana. How is the young snail today? Has he managed to sort himself out yet? The main thing is that he's eating etc still.

Zorst

[muddydragon]

i think they can prolapse and i don't think it's necessarily from rough mating, it's not that much of a problem except you dont want to risk any infection getting in. With GALS if they prolapse you can gently wash it then push it back in with a moist cotton bud apparently. (it's possible some warm water may encourage him to pull it in by himself)

[moon]

It's happened to my asperses before. Luckily they eventually went back in on their own.

I always thought they were sexually frustrated, searching around until they could mate and relieve the frustration!

[etana]

Thanks for the replies everyone

I took a look around the tank today, and I see no young Arianta with his love bits hanging out. I think he's managed to pull the stuff in by himself. I'm only glad, I was prepared to give him a good bathing but pushing a tiny little love organ back into a small snail sounded difficult.

Lol Moon, that'd be sad if all that rough mating with Rudolf left the young one all frustrated!

[Zorst]

Glad to hear your snail seems to have sorted himself out.

Zorst

[etana]

Unfortunately this isn't resolved yet after all. I don't know if he was just hiding or if the love parts popped out again (he has 10-ish nearly identical siblings in the tank so it's hard to say) but there they are again, hanging in full view.

I bathed him, but only more stuff popped out, which he pulled back in.

I took a q-tip, dipped it in water, and gently pushed at the parts. They went almost fully in, but the poor snail squirmed and wiggled and *pop* everything's back out. He moves around, but stops to pull his eyes in, makes faces and squirms, then moves again. Either the pushing hurt him or the condition does (or both).

I think I'll make sure he at least eats still.

Poor little snail

ETA: I put him on food, he freaked out and ran off it, and then almost managed to pull his stuff in by himself. Unfortunately it popped out again. I took him on my hand again with some food, he took a bite and then retracted with lots of squirming and weird expressions, and he's been in a strange position inside his shell since (maybe an hour now). I think it looks like he's using his shell to keep the organs in their place. If I'm right, what a clever little guy he is. I hope he'll be okay.

[muddydragon]

poor fella, i'm sorry to hear this. but if he's still eating now and then then things will probably be ok. maybe he'll sort himself out since he keeps trying maybe he'll build up the musle to help keep them in?

Anyway wishing him luck

[etana]

Thanks.

I stared at him for so long yesterday that I may have learned which one of the many young ones he is, and if I'm right, he's attached to the ceiling right now, tightly inside his shell. Hopefully he's healing in there!

[muddydragon]

any news on how he's getting on?

[etana]

Thanks for asking. It would be easier to answer if he didn't have the 10-ish nearly identical brothers and sisters, but at least none of the active ones have their love parts hanging out. He's also not where I last saw him retract. Either he's snailed off to hide and is healing still, or he's all better now. I'll try to look around more carefully when I clean the wild caughts' tank this weekend.

(Maybe I should invest in the non-toxic nail polish for kids. Then again the young Arianta are so pretty with their unicolor shells, I'd rather not touch them!)

Some snail who was definitely not this one was having a naughty dream I think, he was sleeping and his bits popped out, lol. I poked at him and he pulled everything right back in.

[muddydragon]

that's great news. Yeh i would leave them with their naturally beautiful shells

Awww you're mean spoiling his nice dream.