hole in top of shell

[joanna94a]

hi just joined this site few mins ago as have 4 snails and my large adult snail fell off roof of tank and chipped the top of her shell off.i cover it with a plaster as she dries out but after a while it falls off as she gets wet when i spray her.when i wash her the water runs straight through her.any ideas on how i can mend her shell please.been like it for a while now.

[kanin]

Hi, a picture would help alot to deside what to do, also to know what species it is to visualize how big part of the shell it really is thats broken off. But I have some advice based on your description. As I understand the top of the shell or the "apex" has broken off and I'll guess it's an adult african species- A.fulica perhaps? If it is a fulica or ono of the other more "pointy" shelled species the tip of the shell is relativley small and can perhaps be mended by the snail itself given time. What I need to know is the size of the damaged area and if any organs are visible aswell if the snail seem affected by the damage?

My advice in the meanwhile as the plaster repairs dont work would be to cover the hole with a bandaid to stop it from drying out and to stop substrate and other stuff to get stuck in there and start an infection. Snails have amazing powers to repair their own shells and in many cases a bandaid is all the help that is necessary during the time the snail heals it's damage.

Other things you can do is to suply a steady source of calcium perhaps even multiple sources and make extra sure that the tank is at a high humidity. If the tank has many potential dangers like climbing branches, plants, rocks, dirty substrate etc that could damage the new repairs or get stuck in the hole another thing you could do is to move the snail to a nursing tank with bare moss untill the damage has been repaired.

If the damage would be too extensive for the snail to heal by itself it could be necessary to apply plastic or metal plates over the hole and seal with plaster or perhaps even plastic padding if the plaster keeps faling off. plastic padding is very toxic before it sets and can harm the snail if it come in contact with it during that time so it should only be used if theres no other alternative.

I hope i've been of any help and as I mentioned before try post a picture and a more detailed description of the snails medical state and I'll see what i can do.

emil.

[joanna94a]

hi ok will try and put a photo on later ok.just joined site so will figure it out.thanks for replying anyway and i will get back to you.

[coyote]

Hi Joanna, best of luck with your snail! Let us know how shoe does.

[siobhanc54]

I've not had to try this on any of my land snails but on one of my apple snails I had to repair the shell a fall during mating (I assume left a large hole in the side of the shell so looked on the internet for advice I found that the common repair technique is using egg shell or other suitable shell pieces and glueing them over the hole recommended medical superglue, though normal superglue is fine as long as it doesn't come into contact with tissue have to make sure it's waterproof glue I did this by creating a piece of egg shell that was oversized for hole drying my snail applying super glue to the edge of the egg shell and wait for it to dry, it is also said that it is toxic til it dries, don't know if this will be any use but have done it on an apple snail so could be adapted to land snails, hope I never need to find out if it works on my own snails but if I have a similar problem I would definately try it