No clue, but I guess my pet is dying... :'(

[michel]

Well, first off; excellent useful and informative website/forum. I already read several posts as of yesterday...!

I only recently started with my two snails (mid-October). The first one I bought is a Achatina fulica white jade (Slakkie). And 2 weeks later I also bought an Archachatina marginata ovum albino body (Ovi). Ovi is the shy one, but great eater. And Slakkie is the more active one, however from time to time a bad eater. He does eat snailsticks, about 2 or 3 at a time, but only when I hold them partially. He loves cucumber, but I stopped with that because they aren't very nutritious. Instead I give them zucchini which is Ovi's favourite and Slakkie only eats it sometimes (but he eats it).

Slakkie also loves to give "kisses" as I call it. It might sound silly, but...
Anyways, Wednesday I noticed Slakkie was acting a bit differently, more scared than normally. But I didn't give it much attention, after all it's animal. From there it went kinda downhill. After Wednesday he didn't came out his house anymore at all. He was inside is house all the time. Even when I rubbed him gently (normally he would always come out his house if I did that)...

At that moment I thought; maybe he isn't feeling well, could be, we humans also have a few bad days. However on Friday it got even worse. He was fully retracted into his house, not as bad as now, but still very retracted (more than normally). Now (Sunday) it's not much anymore. He looks kinda dried up, small, but is still alive... I don't know if this is humane or not, but I willing to fight for every single second. Maybe it's silly or stupid. But I don't want him to be in pain. I just looked now again into his shell and you really have to look very good inside to see him...

A few minutes before that, you could see his "foot" (I don't know the English word for it). Shaped in a 'V' and when I touched it (gently ofcourse) he retracted himself. Obviously with a lot of squishy sounds. Maybe I am crazy, but I think I also some white goo here in there and other goo stuff.

In the meantime I already had discovered this wonderful site and forum and I started to read about the "Deep Retraction Syndrome". I guess Slakkie has this, well, I am pretty sure now. As Slakkie is also an "Achatina"-species.

Also I just smelled Slakkie and he really have a bad smell on him. I have read you can smell them when they are dead... Though he smells really bad, I still think he is "alive"...

What should I do now...? I am spraying a little water every time and gave him a nice place between the moss. I am pretty sure he will die in the next few hours (hopefully sooner for him). I just don't want him to be in pain (anymore).

I am really sad, because though I only had Slakkie for a few months now, I was really fond of him. Especially because he was so active and always giving "kisses". Man I now really feel weird, because typing this makes me drop a tear. And I am 37 year old adult...

I also noticed something off with Slakkie, almost from the first week I bought him. He was, how we called it, kinda stupid. Not every day, but some days he was upside down in his house, I cannot explain better, but it looked nowhere near normal. But, since I don't have a lot of snail experience, I thought that it might be normal, though Ovi doesn't have this at all. Also sometimes it was looking like he was pushing his head under his house; at least it doesn't look natural. Like he was "stupid" (yeah not correct word)...

Looking back at some pictures. Like one from the 4th of November. I am looking at his house, but the size is almost identical to his house now. IMHO I don't think he grew much, unlike Ovi, you can clearly see that her shell has grown quite a lot.

Slakkie still is very retracted, but his "foot" is patially out (sorry if I cannot be any clearer on this). On several occasions I thought he died already, because he really does smell at the moment (as mentioned before), but still reacts when I touch him. After that he goes even further in his shell...
I do spray a little water on him... No clue if it helps at all, but it does ease my mind...

Note: sorry if my post seems kinda messy. Wrote this a few hours back, but my account was not approved. Also I thought Slakkie had died on me, but apparently is not (read last paragraph) and another reason is that English is not my native language... It seems so weird, a few days ago he was fine and now.... this...

/small update

Here are two pictures of Slakkie. Fair warning; it doesn't look nice...

First picture is how is in his shell/house after some "rest" time, here (http://imgur.com/a/K6eZF)
And the 2nd picture is when gently touch him, he retracts. So, after all this time, he is still "alive" (http://imgur.com/a/GCgL2)

[etana]

Hello Michel, welcome to the forum.

I'm very sorry to hear about Slakkie. It could be that he was genetically weak all along. The White Jades are quite inbred, and some individuals don't have the chance to live long. Some of them pass away pretty much the way you describe here before they turn sexually mature. Before the worse symptoms come, they will stop growing and turn weird, uncomfortable looking positions in their shells, and they'll also be upside down on the soil (not to be confused with normal clumsiness of snails, healthy ones who have fallen or something will correct themselves soon). Then they will shrink away and be gone within a matter of days, and no one has come up with a way to really stop it - some snails will come back and live a couple more months, but not longer.

A snail pushing the edge of his shell with his face is pretty normal, if I understand you correctly. They seem to do that before they eat a big meal. I don't know why.

Also we know how these little creatures really get to your heart, we won't ever tell you it's "just a snail". I think I also know the snaily kisses. Some snails really do kiss and pat you gently.

How is Ovi doing? She might need some extra attention from you now, as snails sometimes take it pretty hard when they lose a tank mate. Hold her on your (well washed) hands and give her some new foods to try, there's a great thread here called "What To Feed and Not Feed Your Snails" where you will find a lot of ideas.

You can also hold Slakkie, if it feels right to you.
Again, I'm sorry for your loss.

*Edit: I see you added pics and Slakkie is still reacting to touch. I know it's mixed feelings now, you don't want him to go but you don't want him to suffer. 

[michel]

Hi etana,

I appreciate your kind words. Slakkie passed away yesterday evening (around 23:00) . I put Slakkie in a smaller curver box in my original tank. So Ovi could "say" her goodbyes, but I already think she done that the day before (she was laying next to Slakkie). I did leave the curver box open for some air, don't know why though. This morning I checked again and even used a cotton swab with water to see if Slakkie responded to it, but nothing. So I am pretty sure he passed away.

I still cannot understand it all. He was really doing fine, eating was a bit of an issue, as he wasn't a big eater and not every day (unlike Ovi), but when I feed him snailsticks, he would always eat. Got a great timelapse him eating a snailstick. It went all downhill Wednesday all of the sudden. I didn't know at the time, because I thought he was just having one his moments. It only made sense Thursday (or Friday) evening when he was really deeply retracted (well not as deep as he was when he died).

I can take some comfort in your explanation though. I certainly hope that was the issue, because I really would like to think I made his life better and it wasn't caused by me. As you said and I quote "uncomfortable looking positions in their shells". This happened to Slakkie a lot of times. Ovi never had this behaviour. My GF said maybe he is just kinda weird, but I told her that it didn't look normal or natural. Also you said they will stop growing. I must admit; I thought his body actually did grow, but his shell (after looking back on some earlier pictures) had hardly grown in the past few months since I had him. Where Ovi's shell clearly grew when comparing shell "drawings". I didn't give it much thought then. Slakkie seemed happy though.

I still think and I quote "A snail pushing the edge of his shell with his face is pretty normal, if I understand you correctly." wasn't normal, but then again I could also be mistaken of (more probably) my explanation was a bit off. When Slakkie did this, is also didn't look natural. Ovi never does this and it's really hard to explain. I will give it one try more again; Slakkie would push his "foot" outside and it would look like it was bending and then after some pushing his head would come from underneath his shell. It just looked off, it didn't happen much, but still it happened sometimes, same with his really weird positions. When he was in a weird (and very unatural) position) it took him some time to get normal again (in the end he always got normal again).

He died not completely shrinken, but I think his organs, heart or whatever just stopped. He died as he was in the state in the first picture I posted (http://imgur.com/a/K6eZF). I still cannot comprehend that he went downhill so fast... It saddens me even more that I only could enjoy him for less than 4 months. He was so sweet...

Once again thank you etana, for your kind words and explanation. I really take comfort out of it!

Here was my last picture (2nd of February) of Slakkie (bottom) together with Ovi: imgur.com/4w2hT35
Here is one more cute one (mid-Janaury) of Slakkie (left side): imgur.com/QipfJVI

And this is my new background, which is one of my favourites (Slakkie in the fron), when I just cleaned and redid their tank (7th of January): imgur.com/a/a6pEa

(the image links are not working as it should; instead of clicking on it, copy and paste the links into your browser...)


I will do a forum search on how to clean the house of Slakkie, so I put something inside it (to fortify his shell a bit more) and place it bank in the tank as a reminder. Don't know if that sounds silly though...

Thanks again.

Regards,
Michel

[michel]

Well I do have a new snail now, the same as Slakkie was though he is NO replacement. Slakkie was special, just lik the new fellow, which is called Ollie.
I hope he will live quite a bit longer.

I still have no clue on what happened to Slakkie, but I did want to post a few more pictures about his "state".
The picture links below were taken a day before he passed away.

Warning though; the pictures are a bit nast imho.

Picture 1: imgur.com/a/uL4dg
Or direct link (if it works): picture 1

Picture 2: imgur.com/a/z35GQ
Or direct link (if it works): picture 2

Picture 3: imgur.com/a/88Lc2
Or direct link (if it works): picture 3

Picture 4: imgur.com/a/DFOxs
Or direct link (if it works): picture 4

As you can see on the pictures it was a lot of slime / goo in general...

I really do hope someone can explain what happened to my beloved Slakkie. It's killing me that I don't have a clue what went wrong, or <gasps> that I may have done something wrong.... I certainly hope not.

On a sidenote; I am going to clean his shell (no clue how yet) and fill it with something so his shell won't break or anything and keep it somewhere special or put it in the tank also...

Thank you for your replies and kind answers....

Regards,
Michel

[agrif01]

Meanwhile, I apologize if I write bad English is not my mother tongue. It's been a long time since the death of your snail but I will answer you the same. diseases in the snails are still partly unknown:(
Lately I'm documenting a lot to try and find out more. your snail did end up like several other slugs, from the photos seem a bacterial infection (unknown bacteria) that you could see with the microscope thanks to the vision of the body of the snail, (In these cases is to do, you can discover so many things)
symptoms of infection are; weight loss, appearance of unpleasant smell, deep retraction, appearance of yellow liquid, white spots on the body and weight loss. the drugs are useless to try up when you are not sure of the cause. infections typically affect the most vulnerable, even genetically. don't worry it wasn't your fault:(

I hope this message is understandable!