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Post by snailkeeper42 on Dec 6, 2019 14:07:25 GMT
Hi, i have some achatinas, one of them ate a hole in shell of other one (despite having source of minerals in form of sepia bone). It was not a big problem, healed and everything, but he did another hole, closer to the vital organs. Injured snail actualy used this hole to get out of his shell, but there is something extra hanging out(also i saw something that looked like breathing hole. It is already second day, he stil lives, climbs upside down (but is not very active). Do you think snail can survive it by creating new shell around this internal or is he just slowly dying (and should i euthanize him by cold?) Any advices welcomed. I put him into container with higher humidity, sepia bone, some food and water. Thx everyone.
EDIT: he died. If you came for help read this: If this situation with wrong exit hole happened again, i would:
Immidiately try to push snail back in carefuly (there is bigger chance if you do it early, before more of snail gets out and gets swollen. Use fat chinese chopstick or something similar(with smooth surface without sharp edges), make sure to somehow desinfect the sticks (boiling water probably, dont forget to let it cool)). If you get him in, cover the hole(attach something bigger than hole over hole, make sure the material does not hurt snail(probly plastic, maybe boiled egg shells)
If you can't push him back inside, super-carefuly make the hole bigger (obviously on the side furthest away from vital organs) and continue to do so until you can get the snail in. Try to create oval hole which you will be able to cover well to prevent reemergence. After some time, snail will create his normal shell under this protection easily. (Sadly I did not get the idea about hole enlargement when i needed it). Find which snail is doing the holes, isolate him, feed him extra nutrients and watch if he does another holes. If yes, keep him solo or get rid of him humanely. It is not worth it having others injured and he won't stop doing it whatever you do.
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Post by snailkeeper42 on Dec 6, 2019 15:34:09 GMT
I hope it is some retractive muscle and that he can build new shell around it. The tissue does not seem to be damaged, there is no bleeding or visible surface damage. Do you think it has chance to live? (the snail seems to be pretty persistent, so if no infection gets there and shell grows i think he might pull through). What would you do with a specimen chomping on shells of others despite enough of sepia bones ? EDIT: I just saw a breathing hole between snail body and the apendage... poor guy. Stil Eating and crawling upside down tho
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Post by morningcoffee on Dec 10, 2019 9:25:29 GMT
Hi, i have some achatinas, one of them ate a hole in shell of other one (despite having source of minerals in form of sepia bone). It was not a big problem, healed and everything, but he did another hole, closer to the vital organs. Injured snail actualy used this hole to get out of his shell, but there is something extra hanging out(also i saw something that looked like breathing hole. It is already second day, he stil lives, climbs upside down (but is not very active). Do you think snail can survive it by creating new shell around this internal or is he just slowly dying (and should i euthanize him by cold?) Any advices welcomed. I put him into container with higher humidity, sepia bone, some food and water. Thx everyone. Can't see the picture unfortunately, you will need to upload it to an image sharing site like Imgur or Imgbb and share the link here. I haven't heard of a snail being able to eat its way right through another live snail's shell unless the shell was very weak for some reason. Make sure they have a balanced diet with a good mix of leaves, vegetables, fruit, and an occasional protein source. What type of Achatina are they? I remember that many years ago, some people keeping Achatina immaculata found that they had a tendency to bite each other if not given an animal protein source regularly. Also snails often don't like to eat cuttle/sepia when it gets wet or damp, so make sure that the cuttle is dry, clean, and doesn't smell. If they're not eating it or you're having trouble keeping it dry, you can change to a different calcium source.
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Post by snailkeeper42 on Dec 10, 2019 14:27:01 GMT
I dont think its immaculata, but i dont know specific species either. I resulted to removing all shell after the hole and he does better. When he sleeps, he sleeps normally extended (as he has nowhere to retract to). He is very passive these days, but the "internals" are getting covered by shell. I actualy turned sepia bone into powder and applied it on it(i presumed snail can absorb some of it. I dont know if it helped but it does not seem to do anything wrong). Thanks for advices about keeping sepia bones dry thou. Btw. do you think its good to give snail bath or two per day to help him absorb some extra water? Thx
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Post by snerdahmik on Dec 10, 2019 17:18:48 GMT
I dont think its immaculata, but i dont know specific species either. I resulted to removing all shell after the hole and he does better. When he sleeps, he sleeps normally extended (as he has nowhere to retract to). He is very passive these days, but the "internals" are getting covered by shell. I actualy turned sepia bone into powder and applied it on it(i presumed snail can absorb some of it. I dont know if it helped but it does not seem to do anything wrong). Thanks for advices about keeping sepia bones dry thou. Btw. do you think its good to give snail bath or two per day to help him absorb some extra water? Thx I think letting the snail soak up water like that is fine, yeah! It's important to make sure the organs don't dry out. That's how my snail survived when almost the entirety of his shell was broken.
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Post by snerdahmik on Dec 10, 2019 17:19:34 GMT
Just be VERY careful not to cause any further damage to the shell, and don't put too much water in its bath.
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Post by morningcoffee on Dec 13, 2019 13:49:29 GMT
It's not that easy to see from the small picture but it looks like that's a very large hole to have been made by another snail "chewing" the shell and I can't see how that happened, unless the snail has major shell issues or had already broken the shell. If you're 100% sure that the hole was caused by another snail, I would isolate that snail in a separate tank immediately and see if you can work out what's causing that behaviour - change the calcium source, provide animal protein more frequently, ensure the diet is varied and balanced etc.
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Post by snailkeeper42 on Dec 23, 2019 14:28:21 GMT
So the injured snail died after several days(probably of infection or exhaustion) with a piece of salad in his mouth. Large piece of new shell was already forming, but was stil soft. I hope he did not feel much pain in the end.
I did not find anything about this on the internet, so I'll summarize the case to at least inform anyone what to expect if they find a hole(or almost hole) on theil snail's shell : First i found that his shell was chewed on (it was very thin at one place and almost a hole was there) so I added extra calcium source. Few days nothing happened then this really huge hole appeared on different place of shell, much closer to the tip. The unlucky snail used the hole to exit his shell and couldn't retract back (probably bcs the hole was too far, in a place where things he can not retract reside). The hole itself was cca 0,8cm in diameter = HUGE. It seems bigger but the hole was kind of chokepoint) I left him like this for some time, thinking he might eventually get in but more and more innards was getting out and it seemed to bloat as well. I tried to carefully push him inside spiral so he would exit the normal way and i could cover the hole with something, but it was not possible without pressure that would surely hurt him. I saw no other option than to get rid of shell after the hole, so i carefully broke it away piece by piece (I left some extra shell near the connections to minimize risk of cracking /splitting connected parts of shell). The snail got much better after this, but could not actually retract. At part of his back, the shell started to recreate. I added some powdered sepia bones in hope of skin absorbtion. Maybe it helped, it did not seem to hurt him and next day normal shell stripes appeared on that place. He was fine for 4-5 days after that but then he became very inactive over 3-4 days. Last day, his leg swelled on bottom side but he did not seem to notice. He started to eat salat(as much as hungry normal snail would) and swelling has gone away. I thought he might make it but next time i saw him his head was held up, chewing on salad but not moving. After some time in this pose i concluded he died and disposed of the body. He was my favorite snail and it sucks it had to be him.
-I had three snails and at first, hole appeared only on this one. I try to give them every nutrient they need. I think they are inbreds, most likely resultrs of several generations of inbreeding. We got them for free from kindergarten snails who surprisingly had offsprings after they reached maturity -_- . - my smallest snail is now missing little pieces of shell and i see similar pre-hole on his shell. My biggest snail is very fat, healthy and has nice shell that seems unchomped on. After a while i saw him trying to eat his buddys shell and put him far away, he just goes around until he finds the small snail and starts chomping(He is eating food and supplements normally). It seems like he is some kind of snail-psycho bent on making holes into other snails. Since there are no holes on his shell, it seems like others dont do this. (There were some reports of snails doing this in big numbers on acidic and calcium-deprived soils in nature and it seems like acid rains can actually very much disrupt shells too)
-I very much believe, that at some point ancestors of those snails were kept without enough calcium source. If there were any that did not hesitate to chew on other shells, they probably survived much more likely and this way shell canibalist genes propagated rapidly. So inbred offsprings of those shell-eating survivalist might once in while (rougly between 1:4 and 1:100) create a bastard that eats shells just for fun, even if he does not need to. Eating shells of live snails for fun might even prove as evolutionary advantage if resources are scarce or too many snails hatched - other snails in area would die/be hindered in developement by holes and more food (+dead snails itself) would be left for those who survive, thus increasing chance of reaching maturity and having offsprings.
If this situation with wrong exit hole happened again, i would: Immidiately try to push snail back in carefuly (there is bigger chance if you do it early, before more of snail gets out and gets swollen. Use fat chinese chopstick or something similar(with smooth surface without sharp edges), make sure to somehow desinfect the sticks (boiling water probably, dont forget to let it cool)). If you get him in, cover the hole(attach something bigger than hole over hole, make sure the material does not hurt snail(probly plastic, maybe boiled egg shells) If you can't push him back inside, super-carefuly make the hole bigger (obviously on the side furthest away from vital organs) and continue to do so until you can get the snail in. Try to create oval hole which you will be able to cover well to prevent reemergence. After some time, snail will create his normal shell under this protection easily. (Sadly I did not get the idea about hole enlargement when i needed it). Find which snail is doing the holes, isolate him, feed him extra nutrients and watch if he does another holes. If yes, keep him solo or get rid of him humanely. It is not worth it having others injured and he won't stop doing it whatever you do.
Now comes the BIG QUESTION : -Do you think it's possible to glue something unchompable(small pebles, superthin pieces of metal or plastics, whatever works) onto small snail's shell without dmg to small snail? I would really like to have them in one container, as I don't plan to get second normally big container and have solo snail in each
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Post by Love snails and slugs on Jan 4, 2020 22:02:25 GMT
I want cry
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