Updated: Oranges, Too Acidic

[sonicsnail]

The other day I cut up a juicy orange, put it in a dish and gave it to the snails. The next day, I found that the juice out of the cut orange pieces had collected in a corner of the dish. There was quite a lot of orange juice that came from the orange segments. To my horror, I found one of my small fulica was sitting right in the middle of the juice from the orange segments. I removed him immediately. Then came the second shock, it looked as if he had drowned in the collected orange juice, at the corner of the dish! He didn't move or do anything. Thank God, he was alive! He began to come out of his shell about a day later. He was active, moving around etc. I though, phew, panic over, nothing has gone wrong or he hasn't died. This was not true...

I later noticed that there was bumps, or blisters on the side of his body and his foot. I gave him a bath, thinking that it was the orange juice he had been sitting in that could have caused this. However, now this has got worse. The sides of his body are turning black and more blistered. There appear to be "cut" marks on his sides, which look very similar to scars you see on wild snails. It seems that it is the acid in the juice from the oranges that he had been sitting in that has caused this, despite giving him several baths, it continues to get worse.

I have two theories:

Firstly, it was the acid in the orange juice has caused this, almost as if it is burning the sides of his body.

Secondly, he must have suffered from lack of oxygen when partly submerged in the orange juice. Could the cells in his foot and sides be dying or dead? This could explain why that part is going black, almost looking like it is rotting away.

Please someone help!

[eric2]

i have fed my snails oranges often but have never saw them have any reaction it could be that he absorbed the acid through its skin and had taken too much in?

[sonicsnail]

I'm not sure, that could be possible eric. But whatever it is he needs help and fast. I don't know how to help him, I have tried bathing him, but that doesn't work. I just don't know what to do.

[eric2]

have you tried putting him in water and just leaving him there it may help dilute the acid

[Moracai]

I feed mine oranges every now and then as a treat and have never seen a reaction either.
I guess all you can do is as eric has suggested and leave him to sit in water for a while to see if it cools the burns.
What about something like an aloe vera gel? it's made from a plant and is soothing for burns, could this be safe for snails?

[sonicsnail]

But the thing is that I don't know for sure if it was the acid in the orange juice that caused this. Like I said, maybe being submerged in the orange juice starved the cells of any oxygen, causing them to die and that could be why he is turning black.

Thanks very much for everyone's help so far. I might try that eric, see what happens.

[sonicsnail]

Oh and also, I have never found any problems with orange before, but a snail hasn't been sitting in the orange juice that had collected in the dish.

[gabi]

I think, that Eric could be right and it is worth to try it. But dead cells are dead cells and possibly the water won´t work at all. But give it a try. You cannot do anything else, than hope that the water "thins the acid in the body of the snail our" or it is going on the "osmotic way" out of the snail. (Hope this makes sense, I have no better explaination in English)

[copigeon]

As doubtful as it is that citric acid could be that damaging, if youre going to soak him in water.... If you have any precipitated chalk, chalk dust, calcium carbonate powder handy, pop that in the water with it. Up the level of alkaline/hardness.

[sezzy5889]

I buy the least strongest tasting oranges for my snails, and also with the smaller snails i squeeze them first a bit then give it to them, the bigger margies and tigers seem to like the juice

[Val]

Hmmm, thanks for telling us about this sonic, the only oranges that I have given my snails were satsumas, very tiny segments and not a lot of jiuce.

Val

[sezzy5889]

yes mine have satsumas often, they seem dryer

[sonicsnail]

There's two problems. One, that he almost drowned in the juice from the oranges. He's alive so that's good. Two, the current state that he is in now. I will try what you said eric, I don't seem to have any precipitated chalk, chalk dust, calcium carbonate powder handy though. Hopefully the water will do the trick. I'm sorry I couldn't get pics, but I think you know what I mean...

[Paul]

Cuttlefish powder will raise the pH.

Are the black patches quite big or tiny pin-pricks? I know blistering can be caused by Aeromonas bacteria. It sounds like large areas so that rules that out but I thought it was worth a mention.

I've never seen any problems with oranges personally but I've never seen one sitting in juice. It is possible that the snail has absorbed some of the juice and that is causing the problems but you'd think he'd have been hurt when you found him. I think the baths are a good idea, even if it seems they are not working, you probably can't undo the damage that has been done and it could well be that what you are seeing is the equivalent of a bruise for us, and by that I mean, the blackness is the healing process. Perhaps the old skin or whatever will be sloughed off.

How is he doing now? You didn't mention that he was suddenly inactive or anything so if he just looks the worse for wear but is acting normal I can't think of anything else to do and it sounds like it's a matter of time. Lucky you found him when you did.

[sonicsnail]

The black patches a relatively big and on his sides. There are "cuts", white marks appearing too, like you see on some wild caught snails Brixton. It certainly is lucky that I found him then, he could have drowned.

[Val]

Just thought I would mention, that in a real emergency Rennies are calcium carbonate, don't know if that would help.

Val

[sonicsnail]

Good news, he seems to be getting better. The black patches are going and so are the white marks. It's good to see he's, well, sort of back to normal.

[sezzy5889]

awww, yay ;D

[snailywaily]

Sounds like you probably wont be feeding oranges again then?!!!

[Moracai]

Glad that he seems to be on the mend.

[Val]

Hey sonic, REALLY pleased to hear that

Val

[apple]

Oranges in my opinion are fine: if you put a piece of orange on the forest floor some hours later ( if the weather is wet) slugs and snails will feast on it.
But when they stay too much time on orange juice they can have some problems, so that´s why in the wild they eat only what they need and don´t eat too much of it, or don´t sit on orange juice... But once you had a bad experience is up to you... Good luck

[sonicsnail]

Here's some pics of what he looks like now. However, these pics don't show how bad he was. He is the runt of the litter so to speak and has only just started to get some new growth, not much but a little bit. Even though he eats plenty of cuttle fish and has a healthy diet, he still seems to not grow like the others do. Lets hope he keeps up the good work of repairing the damage done and the growth.



See the black patches and white scar like mark. This can be seen on both sides of his body.

[section8angel]

Omg poor lil guy

Glad he's getting better though.

I gave all mine some orange a while back, it was the bits mum didn't want to eat. None of mine had any problems but I don't think it gave off much juice. I will be wary with it from now on though!

[sezzy5889]

aww bless him