Post by natrat84 on Aug 27, 2005 21:06:31 GMT
Broken Shell Care
Please note this is just a guide and my experience. All shell repairs must be undertaken at your own risk.
Quite often a snail suffers a break to its shell. Be it from falling from the tank lid, during transit to you, or from ill treatment before you owned it. A lot of these breaks, especially those at the edge of the shell, will heal themselves with plenty of cuttlefish. But some further down the shell, or when the tip gets broken off may need repairing. I advise you only do this if you can see into the shell and you think the snail is at risk of infection.
Here is the way I have repaired breaks my snails have suffered.
Equipment you will need:
Clean soft baby's toothbrush
Cooled boiled water
Plaster of paris
Cotton buds
Gauze
Clean tissue/wipes
Clear quick dry nail varnish
1. Choose a time when your snail is very sleepy, have everything you need in front of you and get your snail out of his tank. First you need to clean all around the area of the break and inside the hole gently with the toothbrush, without poking into it. Keep rinsing with the cooled boiled water.
2. Once you are satisfied with it being clean enough you can get ready to fill it. The plaster of paris needs to be made with cooled boiled water and mixed extremely thickly. So its almost a dough but not powdery. This is so that it doesn't run inside the shell to the snails organs.
a) If the break is particularly deep, lay a piece of gauze over the hole, just dipping a mm inside, and going onto the shell edge of the break. Paste the plaster of paris over the gauze and just onto the shell edge. You can smooth is out very gently, you don't need that much.
b) If the break isn't so deep (where just below is another shell layer but distance in between) you can just fill the hole with the plaster of paris and smooth it over very gently.
3. Now you have to wait for the plaster to dry, if you made it right it shouldn't run at all. If snail is awake now it might be an idea to give them a rest and a snack, away from other snails that might get at the plaster of paris.
4. Once dry, approximatley 1 hour. You can begin applying nail varnish over the plaster of paris. This protects the plaster of paris for being chipped or rasped away. Quick dry nail varnish makes this job far easier as you will need to do a few coats. I did 6 with each of mine and thats still untouched.
5. Make extra sure the nail varnish is dry before putting your snail down, and back with others. Apart from checking the nail varnish every so often in case its wearing away your snail should now be 'as good as new'.
Well, there's my first draft. Any opinions welcome. Thank you
Please note this is just a guide and my experience. All shell repairs must be undertaken at your own risk.
Quite often a snail suffers a break to its shell. Be it from falling from the tank lid, during transit to you, or from ill treatment before you owned it. A lot of these breaks, especially those at the edge of the shell, will heal themselves with plenty of cuttlefish. But some further down the shell, or when the tip gets broken off may need repairing. I advise you only do this if you can see into the shell and you think the snail is at risk of infection.
Here is the way I have repaired breaks my snails have suffered.
Equipment you will need:
Clean soft baby's toothbrush
Cooled boiled water
Plaster of paris
Cotton buds
Gauze
Clean tissue/wipes
Clear quick dry nail varnish
1. Choose a time when your snail is very sleepy, have everything you need in front of you and get your snail out of his tank. First you need to clean all around the area of the break and inside the hole gently with the toothbrush, without poking into it. Keep rinsing with the cooled boiled water.
2. Once you are satisfied with it being clean enough you can get ready to fill it. The plaster of paris needs to be made with cooled boiled water and mixed extremely thickly. So its almost a dough but not powdery. This is so that it doesn't run inside the shell to the snails organs.
a) If the break is particularly deep, lay a piece of gauze over the hole, just dipping a mm inside, and going onto the shell edge of the break. Paste the plaster of paris over the gauze and just onto the shell edge. You can smooth is out very gently, you don't need that much.
b) If the break isn't so deep (where just below is another shell layer but distance in between) you can just fill the hole with the plaster of paris and smooth it over very gently.
3. Now you have to wait for the plaster to dry, if you made it right it shouldn't run at all. If snail is awake now it might be an idea to give them a rest and a snack, away from other snails that might get at the plaster of paris.
4. Once dry, approximatley 1 hour. You can begin applying nail varnish over the plaster of paris. This protects the plaster of paris for being chipped or rasped away. Quick dry nail varnish makes this job far easier as you will need to do a few coats. I did 6 with each of mine and thats still untouched.
5. Make extra sure the nail varnish is dry before putting your snail down, and back with others. Apart from checking the nail varnish every so often in case its wearing away your snail should now be 'as good as new'.
Well, there's my first draft. Any opinions welcome. Thank you
