Half of Foot Missing!

[ihatejacknjills]

The other day, when I looked in my snail tank, I noticed that one of my snails was in a bit of a state. Half of his foot seems to have disappeared, and where it used to be there is a large white sore - it looks like a really nasty mouth ulcer! To make matters worse a baby snail seemed to be eating his flesh from the open sore!

I seperated him, and he is now living alone in a plastic container. Today I put him back briefly but the baby snail started eating him again, so I realised that he was likely to need to be seperated for a while, and put some soil in the plastic container and made his temporary home a bit more comfortable.

Two questions:

1. What could have caused this? Was it just plain cannibalism or more likely a disease?

2. What should I do? Should I euthenise him? Will he be ok? Will it heal?

All of my snails are Helix Aspersas, and I have a single grove snail too.

Thanks!

[crossless]

You could offer time to time some protein food for snails. I have heard it's good for snail get some protein they need it to make slime or produce something else... So fish food if good to try offer. Pellets soaked till mush or flakes sprayed with water. Some fresh beans and peas nice protein source too.

I don't think it's illness they do it wild too. I think it would be best let wound heal probably and then start to give some protein with food. Some snails get really interested partners wounds after they in some accident opens skin. I usually give my snails fish food once week they enjoy it a lot.

[aerliss]

Poor little guy. Perhaps he got an injury that became infected? Given time and care he should be able to heal up just fine. One of my boys has a big V missing from the front of his foot where I er... *cough* well I didn't see him sticking his head through the door hinge. He barely even seemed to notice the damage was there after a few days.

I'd suggest removing the substrate from his quarantine tank as it may impede healing or even infect it all over again. Try using a damp towel as bedding.

He probably won't let you, but you could try cleaning it. Tea tree oil is an excellent, natural antibacterial and antiviral treatment. Make sure it's well diluted as it's also an irritant (the reason it's so good at killing micro bugs).

Other than that; wet, warm and plenty of food. As crossless said; lots of high energy, high protein foods. Apparently green tea is good for injured and sick snails (and people XD ).

Here's hoping he gets well soon.

[ihatejacknjills]

He hasn't eaten anything since I put him in the seperate container - he has retracted into his shell the whole time. When I put him back into the main tank he came out for a while, but then when I put him back on his own he retracted again.

This morning when I came downstairs he was in exactly the same spot as before so I know he hasn't moved.

Should I wake him up or should I let him rest? Do you think he could be too cold?

When he next wakes I will give him some fish flakes...

[Bumblebee]

You should just let him stay in the nursery tank, I dont think that moving him back and forth between the tanks are so good, it might be stressfull.

I would say just let him rest, since it might help him heal up a bit better if he is left alone as much as possible, and put both a hygrometer and a thermometer in his tank so you can see if the conditions are okay. It could be that he is inactive since it might be a bit cold.

You could prepare a meal for him and let it stay in the tank a day, or at least over the night, and place him on the food to perhaps tempt him a bit more to eat.

Hope it turns out well with him

[coyote]

Sorry about your snail's foot. I had read about a subspecies of GALS eating other live GALS, but I have not heard of aspersas doing this.

There is some good advice here given by others. Aspersas do not need the kind of warmth GALS do, so cooler temps are not going to be a problem. But do keep the humidity up, keep some of his favorite food and some cuttle nearby, try the dilute green tea and / or the tea tree oil on the wound. (Be aware that tea tree oil has a very pungent odor.)

Give fish flakes not only to him but to the others as well, so they have a non-tankmate source of protein. And keep an eye on the other snails to make sure none of the others develop this same problem.

Good luck, and let us know how your snail is doing!

[erminea]

I think the baby snail might have been eating dead tissue from the wound. I doubt he was just dining on his tankmate, I've heard some snail species occasionally might do that but never heard that aspersas would, and certainly not baby snails.

I hope your snails foot will heal. It does sound pretty bad though, and I wonder what might have caused it.

About protein, I sometimes give minced meat to my snails, it's made of elk so it's low in fat. I don't like giving fish flakes, because I have no idea what they put into those flakes when they make them, but that's just me. A lot of people do feed them to snails, so it's probably OK.

[crossless]

I just bought some Finnish brand fish food seems to be ok. It has some fish, shrimp and beas in it. I think after this can of pellets I give just peas, beans, nettle and some fish for them sometimes. Fish food is so expensive when all my snails grow up and need more food.

[aerliss]

Getting a bit off topic; I only offer fish food to healthy snails once a week (more often when someone's injured). High protein/fat foods make my snails very sleepy... and create EPIC poop.

[coyote]

You can also offer soaked pieces of dry cat food (dog food is lower in protein than cat food).

[ihatejacknjills]

Thanks for your help guys, but unfortunately my injured snail died. I opened the little container where I was keeping him yesterday, as I hadn't seen him move for a long time. I picked him up and his body had turned to mush, and he had begun to smell a bit.

I did try feeding some fish flakes to my other snails and they seemed to love it! One of them was eating the flakes out of my hand - I could see his tongue scraping them into his mouth.

[aerliss]

Oh, I'm sorry he passed away. RIP little slimer.

[coyote]

I am so sorry for your loss.

[ter153]

aww im sorry about your snail,how sad