Swollen mouth and reproductive organs (maybe gut extrusion)

[fendo]

Hello all!

I live in the Czech Republic. I have an african snail (most likely “achatina reticulata”) who's been looking strange for a while now. I'm mostly worried about three things:

1. What I assume to be its reproductive organs, are exposed pretty much at all times. It's been like that for weeks now. At the beginning I didn't think much of it, and it was only exposed sometimes. However, now it's pretty much non-stop. It's an enlarged white bump at the right side of its head. I don't think it gets bigger than 1 cm, but it tends to be smaller at times. On touch it felt stiff, and did not retract.
   
2. Its mouth appears somewhat swollen when it rests. That is, the lower part of its face (below the lower set of antennae) looks stretched pretty long; might be approximately 1 cm. The end of it is white and appears to have small teeth on it; I suppose that is the radula? When the snail is moving around (fully awake), it typically pulls its mouth back and everything appears in order. I have ordered some castor oil, as that seems to have helped the author of this thread.
   
3. I worry the snail may have suffered gut extrusion (craw prolapse). Only recently I've read that the previous point can be a symptom leading up to that. One morning I looked at it and saw a large white (possibly translucent) bubble in front of its face. Before I got myself to act, it had disappeared. I didn't get a very detailed look, so I'm not 100% sure whether that really was a prolapse, but it's my guess, and if it was, then the snail had managed to pull it back by itself, apparently. I have since read up much more on the topic, and should it reappear, I'll get ready with a sterilized needle, sterilized spoon, kalium permanganicum (in a weak solution to purify), and camomile tea to bathe it in. (However, I'm not sure what surface should I eventually place it on. Should it be dry or have some water? Is plastic okay, or do I need porcelain? Any knowledge on that?)

I should add that the snail doesn't fully retract to its shell for sleep. It often sleeps partly attached to the wall of the terrarium; for several hours during the day, sometimes hiding its head, but often it'll just leave it outside. Sometimes it leaves an eye or two (both) open (out). I'm not sure whether I should attribute this to some weakness, or a personal preference. It's over 8 years old now, which I understand is fairly long for a snail, so age might play some role in this. It's also fairly hot now, since it's Summer.

Despite these issues, it seems to function fairly well. It's mostly active from evening until morning, so I don't get to see it much while I sleep at night. However, it seems to move around normally, and I haven't seen any problems with eating come up. After the perceived prolapse, I gave it some cucumber and cooked (unsalted) carrot, both of which it ate. A day after that, mashed cucumbers and sweet potato, both of which have been had, again. I observe no problems with food processing.

It becomes attentive when I spray the walls with water, and sometimes it will go around the terrarium then. I'm not sure whether it's thirsty or just enjoys moving on the waterdrops. I spray the terrarium daily, often several times. I do that because I don't want it to lack water, but then again only slightly, because I don't want the place to get too humid for it. It does have a small ceramic bowl with water, which it sometimes visits.

Any sort of feedback on this would be much appreciated. Please let me know if you have any tips for the aforementioned issues, or otherwise. I'd also like to know if I'm clearly doing something wrong. Our long time together was nice so far, and I wouldn't want it to end prematurely, or for the snail to suffer from illness much. Therefore, I'll be all ears. Thank you!

[morningcoffee]

Hi fendo, welcome to the forum.

I think that given the age of your snail, it's doing remarkably well!
It sounds like it may have a mild genital prolapse if the reproductive organs are constantly sticking out slightly. I've heard of this a few times, it seems to be survivable if the prolapse is only slight, some snails with more severe prolapses have died. I am not sure if it's related to gut/oral prolapse.
If your snail is eating normally and active, then for the moment I wouldn't worry too much about the issues you've described, which seem to be fairly mild. If you see any further signs of gut extrusion or oral prolapse, then etana's advice is a very good thing to follow.
In any elderly animal, health problems are more likely, but it sounds like he's doing pretty OK for an old fellow, so your care of him must be excellent. Keep a close eye on him, as I'm sure you're doing, and let us know if anything changes.

[fendo]

The snail is now lying at the small bowl with water, and the water has been coloured blue. Any idea what's happening and whether I should be worried? I tried looking this up, and apparently african snails do contain some blue liquid, but I have no idea what it is, how they emit it, and most importantly, if they're supposed to emit it at all. Any experience with this, anyone?

[morningcoffee]

Snail blood is light blue when oxygenated so I'm afraid this may be a bad sign.

[fendo]

I almost forgot, but thank you for your welcome and (most improtantly) your comments on the topic, morningcoffee! I appreciate your thoughts on this a lot. Since then, no alarming events have occured. This thread mentions similar liquid in the prolapsed craw, which gave me the idea that it may possibly have removed some extra liquid from where it doesn't belong; but I have no idea if that is—or really can be—the case. Last things I gave it to eat were: courgette (solid), cucumber (both solid and mashed), and apple (both solid and mashed). It only seemed to eat mashed apple and cucumber, and some solid cucumber, too.

Should nothing unusual happen, I'm just going to change the water and give it new food—most likely sweet potato and hemp seed paste based on this page—all the while observing it more closely. I'm also going to try applying a bit of the castor oil I just got today, if everything else goes well. I'll be posting any changes or new observations on here.

[fendo]

So it's been almost two weeks, and everything was going fairly well until yesterday. The snail was acting normally, moving, eating, and digesting without apparent issues. I was giving it cucumber, lettuce, sweet potato, and watermelon. I also gave it hemp seed paste once. After getting the castor oil, I was smearing it on the snail's “neck” and “leg” every other day, which didn't seem to have much effect. The snail didn't seem to mind it much, only looking and “walking” around more after the process—presumably due to having been distrubed from whatever it was doing. None of the usual symptoms have gone away, though. Genital prolapse was constant, and the long face wouldn't disappear.

Yesterday, as I checked on it, I noticed it had suffered another gut extursion. Once again there was a bubble at its mouth. I went to prepare the necessary tools during a while, but the bubble wouldn't disappear this time around; rather, it appeared to grow even larger, much like in the photos I've seen. The process went smooth, though. I picked the snail up and placed it on a clean plate, sprinkled with water; then I pierced the bubble with a sterile needle. Liquid spurted out and the bubble got smaller quite a bit. The snail has immediately retracted its head, and stayed like that for several minutes. Later it came out again, and looked alright. I have later washed the plate with water and put the snail back on it along with lukewarm camomile tea. Then I placed it back into the terrarium with no food for the night.

It's still alive and I don't observe any unusual behaviour, nor much improvement to the usual symptoms. Right now it still looks like it may have a long face and genital prolapse. I'll try giving it some food and possibly some camomile later today. I'll be reporting back, along with the little visual documentation I made. At least it's still alive, and it feels like we're able to cooperate fairly well in the case of an emergency.

[fendo]

So, shortly after my last report, I fell ill myself, and now when I'm starting to feel alright again, my snail had the bubble (extrusion) again yesterday. I prepared everything to put things in order, but as I placed it on the plate again, it has swallowed the bubble back up. Not sure if I should see that as a good thing, or if it would have been better for me to pierce the bubble first. The organ did appear to have some substrate on it, so hopefully that won't be trouble. I have since placed the snail back into its terrarium, and it has been acting as usual.

For now, here's the promised visual documentation that might help others either help me or help themselves:

• A gallery of five (unordered) photos, showing the snail before treatment (with the bubble) and afterwards (without the bubble).
  
• A video showing the piercing, the follow-up inactivity, and the shallow camomile bath.
  

The images expire on 25th June of 2019, while the video should stay indefinitely. I have some more photos and footage, but I think I have uploaded everything that's representative. Once again, any comments, insight, advice, tips, or other kinds of feedback are very welcome!

Legal note: I hereby release all of the above-mentioned materials under terms of the “Free Art License 1.3”. This is to ensure they can always be freely distributed on solid legal grounds. (It's also okay with me if you won't care much for that; their primary purpose is to be helpful and illustrative.)

[GailTheSnail]

Wow nice job! You're like an amateur surgeon! Lol your snail does look amazing, the before and after pics show you did an awesome job and your snail looks completely healed from the mouth prolapse. Keep us updated

[vlady]

Hello, I'm really happy for your snail! Unfortunately, I have absolutely the same problem with my snail - he has a blue big balloon under his head exactly like on your photos. I managed to remove it yesterday as described, but this morning the balloon was back again and even bigger Something's wrong... Interesting in my case is that none of the other signs are observable, just the balloon.

[fendo]

It's been over a year and it's time for a short update… for a while after the last update, the snail had lived normally, until it became less active, dug a (not too deep of a) hole into the substrate, and completely retracted itself. I did not note the exact date down, but it could have been 9 months before now or so. During that time I did not touch the snail, as I figured it was hibernating, and didn't want to disturb it. Later on I became convinced that it had left this world and probably wouldn't come back out.

However, today, I noticed the membrane they seal themselves in with had fallen, so I sprinkled fresh water into the terrarium, and to my surprise, it came out alive! It's looking pretty normal; I gave it some lettuce, cucumber and watermelon, as well as fresh water in a bowl. I will also give it a new piece of cuttlebone and keep you informed on future development!

EDIT: I'm sorry to read you had similar worries with your snail, vlady. How did it go from there? As for the other symptoms, I think they may have different causes, so it's possible your snail had only one of several possibly described problems. (Which, I hope, did not turn out fatal.)