Please Help-Snail Illness?

[bertramlove]

Hi, I’ve had my Snail Bertram for a year now, and for his birthday I Brought him a fish tank to live in. I previously had him in a storage container. I went to my local garden centre and (knowing that snails shouldn’t have fertilise in their soil). They told me that top soil would be my best bet. I also put in a big branch with multiple leaves that I thought was safe (He has had a couple of those leaves in his container since he was little). Yesterday, the day after I put him in it, he was on the side of the tank and I noticed some neon green/yellow liquid around the bottom of his shell. I thought this might be due to the new environment, he wasn’t used to it, he was a little stressed etc. today, I woke up to see holes in the leaves , and he was lying on his shell, with a large amount of the liquid all around him, bubbling and retracted into his shell. He seems to still be alive (moves a little when I touch him) but I’m scared he’s not going to live much longer. Does anyone know what could have caused this and what I could do to try help?

[snaileyhammy]

Hello! I’m very sorry to hear about this . Could you try and get some photos? That may help.

It may be the leaves or the soil. For the soil I recommend either coconut fiber, or substrate from outside that has been baked in the oven. I also would recommend sterilizing anything you put in the tank, including leaves and logs. You can sterilize the branches by baking them (I’m sure you can find a video on this). This is a fire hazard so, you could also buy branches at a pet store instead. For leaves just get a plate and put your (dead) collected leaves and places them on the plate with a wet paper towel. After you do that, put another plate on top and put it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Try possibly giving him a green tea bath and that may help him. I’ll try and see what is going on with him, I hope this all helps!

[snaileyhammy]

What have you been feeding him?

[bertramlove]

I’m not sure how to add a photo - I gave him a lukewarm bath (just water) about 30 mins ago and he has come about halfway out of his shell, stopped moving but his eyes are not out. He stopped foaming for a while but has just started again.

He eats my home grown lettuce most of the time, but a couple of days ago I decided to try broaden his diet and gave him a pea and a mushroom. He didn’t eat them though.

How do I give him a green tea bath?

[snaileyhammy]

Hmm, strange. Have you taken the leaves he ate out? As for the bath, all you have to do is get your bag of green tea and put in a cup of warm water for less then a minute. Poor it in a small dish for him to crawl around in for a bit.


Basically just post pictures on different platform and post the link here. petsnails.proboards.com/thread/5529/posting-pictures

[snaileyhammy]

I’m thinking it’s either the leaves he ate, his diet, or a reaction to the substrate or something. Maybe try and change his food up and the substrate.

[bertramlove]

He has just passed away

[snaileyhammy]

what? Oh my goodness i'm so sorry! I feel so bad there was nothing I could do to help you. I am terribly sorry once again.

[daniele]

Hi, I'm so sorry to be late, I just found out something that may be usefull.. Pls change everything in the terrarium in order to avoid risks for your other snails, and if it happens to other maybe an antibiotic treatment against these "Pseudomonas" could be tried. It's always dangerous give drugs to snails, but since the situation is desperate an attempt could be appropriate...

Of course I have no idea if this may be the case, but, it can be usefull to be aware of this too..

Yellow Fluorescence
This disease has been recorded by Baum and Rawls (1972) and Yates and
Rawls (1972) in Anguispira kochi (Pfeiffer) (Discidae), by Rawls et al.
(1973) in C. aspersus, by Meynadier et al. (1964, 1977) in C. aspersus and H. pomatia, and by Raut and Panigrahi (1989) in A. fulica, Macrochlamys indica Godwin-Austen (Ariophantidae) and Opeas gracile (Hutton) (Subulinidae).

The disease is associated with the copious release of yellow
fluid and mucoid materials from the body surfaces, which generally
results in death of the infected animal within a few days. The rate of
survival and recovery of infected animals is poor, especially when the
disease occurs in aestivating individuals.
The pigment-forming bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas Migula (Pseudomonaceae) are generally the causative agents of this disease (Meynadier et al., 1964, 1977; Meynadier,1979; Chevallier, 1979). These bacteria live in the mucus on the body surface, and disease is associated with bacterial invasion of the epidermal mucus cells, the haemolymph and the reproductive tract (Yates and Rawls, 1972).
Muma (1954) observed a similar condition in Drymaeus dormani (Binney) (Bulimulidae) in Florida in which infected animals took on a greenish coloration before death.

Yellow fluorescence disease is evidently responsible for epizootics
that periodically cause massive mortality in farmed helicids in France
(Meynadier et al., 1964, 1977; Kodjo et al., 1997). Runham (1989) and
Kodjo et al. (1997) found an association of the mesophilic aeromonad A.
hydrophila with an epizootic of a disease not unlike yellow fluorescence
disease, indicating further research is required to clarify the aetiology.

[wolf]

Hi daniele,

thank you very much for this interesting hint.

Btw: perhaps it is better to give a link to the source you have used rather than to copy several paragraphs literally out of a book and to insert them in a post without mentioning the author.

As far as I can see the author is Srimanta K. Rout in: Barker, G.M. (Ed.): Natural enemies of terrestrial molluscs; Chapter 15, and so on, and so on.......... .

Have a nice time, kind regards: wolf

[Love snails and slugs]

The dirt as likely the reason he die,sinces you used the leaves before and he get sick before eating them,i mostly focus on the dirt.year ago i wanted to buy dirt for my candy,but i understood its a dangerous choose and know candy is good with his old and also with some dirt from pot