Help on swollen mantle: cannot understand the cause at all
Sept 13, 2021 16:19:59 GMT
snaileyhammy likes this
Post by francesco on Sept 13, 2021 16:19:59 GMT
Hi all,
I apologize in advance if I'm asking something already covered in another thread: I'm new to the forum.
I would be grateful if you can help me understand what's happening to a snail I've been living with: I found here in the salad last April.
Since mid-August, she started showing a swelling of the mantle, and and also being less active. I thought at the beginning it was due to the hot climate (I've never had a snail before, and I'm ignorant on this topic: plus I'm in Italy and indeed it was quite hot). So my answer was to keep her in a cooler environment, put a humidifier tool just on the side of her box, and giving her a lot of fresh salad.
The swelling improved just a bit, but she definitely became more active; every evening she has been waking up, eating and taking little baths.
But in the last three days the swelling appears to be much worse, and she's also much less active..
So I'm trying to understand the cause of the mantle swelling, in order to effectively help her. These are the facts I can tell:
1) I checked for pests and mites, but I could not find any
2) she hasn't met any other snail since April, so I rule out reproduction-related issues
3) in terms of diet, I gave her in the last weeks quite a lot of tempeh (fermented soybeans), which she apparently enjoyed very much, I stopped giving it to her regularly one week ago (before the worsening of symptoms). But she always have also fresh green salad in the box too, and a cuttlefish bone.
4) I keep the humidifier always on, but it was left off for a few days last week because I wasn't there
5) when awake, she often folds in on itself, as she wanted to bite the mantle itself
In brief, I'm puzzled about why she's like that, and how I can help here...any suggestion is super highly appreciated!
Here I post some photos through drive, in order: