Possible Injury. Edit: More help required. Please, read.

[counterbalance]

Hi!

First of all, I'd like to apologise for my English as I'm not a native speaker (I just like this forum, so I decided to write here) and fully explain my situation (sorry for the long post, too). I've never owned snails in my life, but a couple of weeks ago I bought some grapes and found two small white snails in it when I got home. One of them was dead and dry. The other one I gave a warm bath and saw it emerging out of its shell a bit. I decided that if it had survived a long way from a hot country to my colder one (not to mention possible traces of pesticides in the grapes), it deserved a chance, so I made an enclosure and read everything I could find about keeping a snail at home. It appears to be a white Italian snail or some similar type, judging by the pictures that I found online.

From the beginning, the snail hasn't been moving around much and rarely emerged from its shell fully. It prefers to chill out upside down on the lid of it's enclosure no matter what substrate I try (it's just not interested in being upright) and sometimes I have to take the lid off and put the food and calcium in front of the snail, because it doesn't appear to be very eager to go to the bottom of the enclosure for food, even though it does eat.

Yesterday I decided to change the enclosure from smaller glass one to a larger plastic one. I took everything outside. Unfortunately, I share my tiny garden with a family that lives in a house next to mine, where a small kid wasn't taught that you don't touch other people's things, let alone grab animals. The snail was likely sleeping, it was fully hidden in its shell, attached to the glass lid. I was just coming back with a spray bottle and wet hands to carefully pick it off and put it in the new enclosure when I saw the kid grabbing the snail and pulling it off its place. I took the snail from him and chased him away. The shell seemed okay and the snail was still fully inside, however, I saw a round small ring of something white on the place from which the damn kid tore it off. It quickly dried and became hard, so I had trouble scrapping it away. I was sure it was a chunk of the snail's body, even though it was small, but then the snail was still inside, so I'm not sure. The base of the shell doesn't seem damaged, so it couldn't be it. Could it be the membrane that closes the shell when the snail is deep inside? Or a part of that membrane? If so, can it survive this trauma? Could it be just the mucus and no actual injury occurred?

It took a long time for the snail to come out after that. I put it on a piece of a cucumber and thought it was dead, because it wouldn't come out. Then it did, but only partially. It had trouble staying upright, but it ate some cucumber and calcium. After that it crawled up on the lid and stayed there all day in its shell. Only now I'm seeing it crawling and collecting moisture from the walls of the enclosure and it doesn't seem hurt, but I still want to make sure.

Thanks in advance for any info!

[friendofsnails]

I dearly hope your snail is okay! I hope someone can answer your question!

By the way, your English is much better than most people who write on the internet for whom it is their first language!

[morningcoffee]

Hi and welcome to the forum - your English is perfect

Sleeping on the lid or ceiling of the tank is totally normal, many species of snail prefer to go up high to sleep or hide as they feel safer (a snail sleeping on the ground in the wild is a lot more likely to be found by a predator).
Most snails will sleep during the day and be active at night, but sometimes they don't move or wake for days at a time.

The "ring" that was left behind when your snail was picked up was most likely mucus/slime membrane that he was using to hold himself in place and shouldn't be anything to worry about - it is very unlikely to be part of the body or shell.

[counterbalance]

friendofsnails, this is very kind of you, thank you.

morningcoffee, thank you! And thank you so much for the information!
I did notice that the snail doesn't seem to hold as fast as before when it's upside down on the lid and deep in its shell (it even fell once when I opened the container; thankfully, the bottom is soft enough to cushion any fall), but that's probably because the new enclosure is made of soft plastic and it also preserves moisture better. In the old one, which was made of glass, the snail would hold in place almost like a strong suction cup. But, despite everything, it still sleeps upside down, so, hopefully, it feels secure enough.

[counterbalance]

Okay, I have an update with an unexpected twist, in case anyone's interested.

In my first post I wrote that there was a snail no.2, but it was dead when I found it in the grapes. Well, turns out it wasn't as dead as I thought it was. It had been hiding very deep in its shell and corked up with a very dry, very cracked membrane (which I originally thought was the snail's body, since the membrane is of the same white colour as the snail itself). And what I thought was some dry internal organs in the shell, turned out to be dry... poop. So, when I thought it was dead, I put the small shell in a jar, where I keep pretty stones and sea shells. It had been there for weeks, lying on the same spot with no moisture. Yesterday in the morning, to my great surprise, I noticed that the shell was on the wall of the jar. I couldn't believe my eyes. Apparently, the snail realised that it couldn't survive if it stayed motionless in its shell for much longer. I immediately gave the poor thing a bath where it happily soaked for at least an hour and then a lot of fresh food and calcium. After that, I put it into the same container with the snail no.1.

The new snail's body is approximately the same size as the snail's no.1, but the shell is way smaller, especially since no.1 had had a good diet for weeks, whereas no.2 had had nothing.

So, yes, I have two of them now, and I have to say no.2 is much more active and entertaining to watch. I thought they should behave the same, but they are very different. No.2 likes to explore a lot. It doesn't seem to be afraid of me. It's way more sociable than its shy and skittish mate, who immediately hides in it's shell at any sudden movement. Snail no.2 doesn't seem to be deterred and seeks its company anyway without being too persistent (most of the time anyway). The very same day I put them together, I saw no.2 attaching itself to its mate's shell. At first I was alarmed, thinking that no.2 decided to use the other snail's shell as a source of calcium, even though they have more than enough in their enclosure, but then I realised that it was cleaning the shell, and it didn't stop till the shell was squeaky clean from all sides, shiny and perfectly white, except for natural markings. It's probably hard to believe to those who have darker coloured snails how much dirt collects in the sutures of a shell and umbilicus, even when the snail gets cleaned on a regular basis. No.2 had no trouble cleaning every single nook and cranny. Unfortunately, no.1 has yet to return the favour. It would be great if they cleaned each other, because they are still small and too delicate for me to use any sort of brush to clean out all those creases.

I hope the new snail (or should I say old, since they were found in the same grapes and, very likely, interacted before?) isn't too much for its grumpy, unsociable mate. I still think it's a good thing that there are two of them now, especially as I've seen snails in the wild hanging out together in groups.

[friendofsnails]

Counterbalance, you're very welcome, and I love the great news you've shared! Hopefully number 2 will influence number 1 to be less skittish!

[nar]

Aug 5, 2019 18:53:25 GMT counterbalance said:

Okay, I have an update with an unexpected twist, in case anyone's interested.

In my first post I wrote that there was a snail no.2, but it was dead when I found it in the grapes. Well, turns out it wasn't as dead as I thought it was. It had been hiding very deep in its shell and corked up with a very dry, very cracked membrane (which I originally thought was the snail's body, since the membrane is of the same white colour as the snail itself). And what I thought was some dry internal organs in the shell, turned out to be dry... poop. So, when I thought it was dead, I put the small shell in a jar, where I keep pretty stones and sea shells. It had been there for weeks, lying on the same spot with no moisture. Yesterday in the morning, to my great surprise, I noticed that the shell was on the wall of the jar. I couldn't believe my eyes. Apparently, the snail realised that it couldn't survive if it stayed motionless in its shell for much longer. I immediately gave the poor thing a bath where it happily soaked for at least an hour and then a lot of fresh food and calcium. After that, I put it into the same container with the snail no.1.

The new snail's body is approximately the same size as the snail's no.1, but the shell is way smaller, especially since no.1 had had a good diet for weeks, whereas no.2 had had nothing.

So, yes, I have two of them now, and I have to say no.2 is much more active and entertaining to watch. I thought they should behave the same, but they are very different. No.2 likes to explore a lot. It doesn't seem to be afraid of me. It's way more sociable than its shy and skittish mate, who immediately hides in it's shell at any sudden movement. Snail no.2 doesn't seem to be deterred and seeks its company anyway without being too persistent (most of the time anyway). The very same day I put them together, I saw no.2 attaching itself to its mate's shell. At first I was alarmed, thinking that no.2 decided to use the other snail's shell as a source of calcium, even though they have more than enough in their enclosure, but then I realised that it was cleaning the shell, and it didn't stop till the shell was squeaky clean from all sides, shiny and perfectly white, except for natural markings. It's probably hard to believe to those who have darker coloured snails how much dirt collects in the sutures of a shell and umbilicus, even when the snail gets cleaned on a regular basis. No.2 had no trouble cleaning every single nook and cranny. Unfortunately, no.1 has yet to return the favour. It would be great if they cleaned each other, because they are still small and too delicate for me to use any sort of brush to clean out all those creases.

I hope the new snail (or should I say old, since they were found in the same grapes and, very likely, interacted before?) isn't too much for its grumpy, unsociable mate. I still think it's a good thing that there are two of them now, especially as I've seen snails in the wild hanging out together in groups.

I always see my snails cleaning their own shells, but I’ve never seen them clean each others’ shells! It sounds adorable, and I hope to see it one day.

[counterbalance]

This forum has been extremely helpful and I've found plenty of useful information as a new friend of snails, but now I need help again. I decided not to create a new topic and continue here. I hope that's alright.

I have three more snails now, in addition to those two that I wrote about initially. Two of the new ones are of the same species as my very first ones (Italian white, I think, but I can't be certain), and I even found them in the same place where I'd bought the grapes the first time.

Problem is, one of them has a crack and a little hole in its shell. I found it like that and I think it had been injured during transportation or when it was already in the supermarket. I have read some other helpful topics on this website, and, from what I understood, my snail has a good chance of recovering its shell. It gets plenty of calcium and good food (though it's been eating more calcium than food so far), it's pretty active; it crawls all over the tank and interacts with the other four snails. It must be a good sign, right?

But there's something that bothers me very much: there's thin liquid seeping out of that little hole. The hole and the small crack, connected to that hole are very close to the snail's umbilicus, in case it's of any importance. I've tried pressing a white cotton ball against the hole, just to see if the liquid is clear. Turned out, it wasn't perfectly clear, it was very slightly brownish. I'm afraid that there may be some internal damage or even organ damage and bleeding, but I'm not sure, considering the snail being so active. If it was constantly bleeding, it wouldn't have behaved so normal, right?
Is there a possibility that the liquid is just something that snails normally have underneath their shells as shock absorbers and to avoid getting dry when they retreat and seal the opening? Do they have that kind of thing? Sort of like us, mammals, have liquid between our brain and skull (I've read that before MRI was invented, when there were suspicions of brain damage of any kind, doctors used X-Ray machines after pumping the aforementioned liquid out, because scans were impossible to do otherwise, and, as far as I understand, the liquid accumulated back on its own after some time)? If I'm correct in my assumption, does it mean there's a risk of the snail's organs getting dried out if it retreats into its shell and stays in there for a while? Is there any flesh surrounding the organs or they are just inside the shell, exposed if there's shell damage and no liquid surrounding them? I can's really see anything through the hole to tell what's in there.
I keep the tank extra moisturised, just in case, more than usual, and there's a shallow dish of water, in case it needs a bit more. I guess I'll have to do it till the shell heals completely (that is if the snail survives that long). I'm worried what that liquid is and how dangerous the loss of it is for the little creature. It must have lost quite a bit of it, since it's likely been going on for at least couple of days.

[morningcoffee]

Snail blood is light blue in colour.

The advice for a shell break is to keep the snail moist and reasonably clean and provide plenty of calcium and good food, which it sounds like you're already doing. You could attempt a shell repair but on a small snail this is likely to be pretty much impossible or even cause further damage. Just keep caring for the snail appropriately and hope for the best.

[counterbalance]

Thank you, morningcoffee. Sorry for not replying sooner; I didn't really have anything new to write.

Unfortunately, things have changed for the worse within the past two days. Before that, the snail seemed okay; I could even tell that it's shell had been healing. The crack had healed seemingly and the hole seemed smaller, too. But two days ago things had started to change. At first the snail stopped being as active as it used to be, and it started to fall off the walls of the tank a lot, especially in its sleep (all of my snails either sleep on the walls or on the lid and they manage to hold fast the whole time, except for a few isolated incidents). I'd made sure everything was clean and soft long before that by removing the substrate and placing some soft and sterilised sponge-like material to make sure no dirt got into the injured snail's shell, and I didn't want to isolate it from the others, because they seemed so nice with each other. So I wasn't worried, because when it fell it always landed on something soft and clean. But now the snail stopped getting up. It just lies motionless and a small portion of its body is sticking out of the opening of its shell. When I touch it with a q-tip, the body moves very slightly, but it neither hides, nor does it get out. I don't see its head either, because it's always inside. The snail seems very drowsy. I'm very afraid that this is the end, but I don't know why, since things have been going so well and I was sure it was healing. I feel as if I failed the little, innocent creature somehow. I have a small hope that it's just very sleepy for some reason, but none of my other snails have ever behaved this way. I wish I knew if it's in pain and dying or if I should give it a chance and it's just a temporary situation.