Gut extrusion

[souffle]

As this seems to quite a rare condition I have taken some pics of what our poor snail George suffered in the hope it may help another snail be helped to the bridge sooner than our boy went.
It appears once this happens the snail cannot be saved.
I have no idea why it happened to him but for the past few months George has not been eating at all. We would bathe him awake and he would come out briefly only to reseal before eating anything at all. We offered him all sorts of things. We did think he was perking up as he had started to climb around however I get the impression that once he tried to eat the lack of food in his gut had left it unable to cope with food and it prolapsed out.

George as he was


Gut extrusion

[vicki]

This is so sad to see and has really upset me, you must be going through hell rite now, plenty of my friends would think i was weird and strange to be sad over the loss of ''just a snail'' but all of us on this forum feel for you!!! I send all my love and hugs at this sad time!

I must thank you though, for posting up these pictures in hope of helping someone in the future, it must be so hard for you to see your beloved George like that.

R.I.P Gorgeous boy!!!!!!!

Take care xxxxx

[coyote]

Thank you for posting this; I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for you. But information like this will help other snail owners.

I'm so sorry about George. Rest in peace, beautiful snailie.

[lizzie97444]

omg
I wish ppl has skillz to do snail sugery!
I mean y not? It'll be useful. But its sad that alot of ppl do not have interest ing snails
R.I.P

[coyote]

I'm making this a sticky due to the pics clearly illustrating what gut extrusion looks like.

[mbanica]

Jun 1, 2009 10:11:42 GMT lizzie97444 said:

omg
I wish ppl has skillz to do snail sugery!
I mean y not? It'll be useful. But its sad that alot of ppl do not have interest ing snails
R.I.P

hey, if it helps, i'm hopefully going to graduate vet school in about four years and i certainly have an interest in snails i'll see what i'll be able to do then

[coyote]

I would love it if a veterinary specialist would be able to chime in now and then with some insight into some of the more troubling snail illnesses and health problems. Study hard!

[lizzie97444]

omg! that'll bee soooo great!
all snail owners will like travel to that country whenever there's problems. lol!
or like we can post them to u
kool!

[batman]

I think this is happening to my snail, he has been poorly not eating. He is out of his shell but has this white sac coming out of his mouth, is this the same? He is still alive and i dont want to put him through the pain if there isn't anything i can do to help him.

[coyote]

Hi batman, see my reply in your other thread.

[aerliss]

*hugs* RIP George.

I know that geese and snails are COMPLETELY different animals but... a friend of mine owns a small gaggle of geese and when one suffered a prolapse after laying a particularly large egg, she put the goose into an ice bath. The combination of shock and cold pushed/pulled the prolapsed muscles etc. back inside the animal.

Is it possible that something similar could be done with a snail suffering this condition when it is first noticed? I'm just throwing thoughts around.

[coyote]

It's an interesting theory. But I have a feeling that the physiological conditions that cause gut extrusion are going to be different from the muscular issues that cause a prolapse. It's something that would be well worth studying, though.

[cookilicious]

Hi haven't been on here for ages! I put up a post about my boy Brian who looked like he had swollen mouth which came and went, i tried gren tea and it seemed to help at the time but now he is still finding it difficult to eat (i have been scraping cucumber for him and he seems to get this down fine) but he is still eating quarter of what he used to and his mouthparts are often badly protruding and look really painful, they are like 3 white lumps and sometimes are bigger than others, only seems to be getting worse. He retracts them sometimes and to eat but more often than not they are really swollen I love my beautiful Brian but if he is in pain and this is really what his life is going to be like from now on id rather he went bfore it all ended badly like it did for poor George.

Does anyone have any advice?!!!!

[coyote]

I'm so sorry about Brian's swollen mouth. My only experiences with swollen mouth was with one of my milk snails, and I wound up having to euthanize him. But that was because he had stopped eating completely. And one of my aspersas also got it from grazing on a pine branch in the tank, which is why I now advise people to avoid branches from the pine family. Her mouth parts turned really dark red. I tried offering aloe to her in the hopes that it might soothe her mouth, but she recoiled violently from it after trying a bit. She wound up going into deep retraction and passed away a few days later.

You can try offering aloe to your snail. I think mine had a problem with it due to her mouth getting burned by the resins in the pine bark. Other than that I don't know of anything else that can be done, sorry.

[cookilicious]

Brian's mouth is awful today Its the worst ive ever seen it, his mouthparts are so swollen (about the size of half a golf ball) i dont think he can retract. Does anyone know a humane way i can put him out of his misery? The vets are no help i dont think there is any pain relief i can give him.

I dont want him to suffer now

[pleurdonteisabella]

Hi I have been reading alot about the best way to put a snail to sleep and the best and quickest way seems to be to freeze them.

I am sorry to hear about your snail. x

[aerliss]

Most people still go with freezing. The idea is that they'll fall unconscious (as they react differently to cold than we do) and just never wake up again.

We've been discussing other possibilities here, further down the front page and on the second.

[ness]

Aw how sad! There's rarely anything that can be done. It's the right thing to do, to put it out of it's pain, but an awful thing to have happened.

Going on the things in the thread in question I'll be tempted to take a deep breath and go with very fast crushing in the future with my own, but I know how horrible that is too.

I think on reflection the best thing is to go with your own feelings of what it kindests, as no-one truely knows. x

[coyote]

I'm so sorry about Brian. Swollen mouth is a terrible thing, and as devastating as it is, you are doing the right thing to end any suffering he might be in.

[lee2211]

Well this thread is extremely interesting.
Freezing is still seen as the best way.

Aerliss, but if they were put in cold water, what with the stress of the problem and the shock of the cold water, I think it could possibly do more harm than good?

[aerliss]

Jul 9, 2010 20:11:58 GMT lee2211 said:

Aerliss, but if they were put in cold water, what with the stress of the problem and the shock of the cold water, I think it could possibly do more harm than good?

Took me a while to work out what you were talking about then. That post is oooold XD

I was just thinking out loud. The idea behind it with the geese is that it shocks the muscles into contracting, thus pulling the organs back inside. Sure, not fun at the time for the goose, but it saves their lives.

Again; no idea if it would work with a snail.

[lee2211]

Sorry, I was trying to work out whether it would work or not, whether there was any basis for trying it,
It seems a reasonable idea, I was just thinking, it might shock them too much?

[aerliss]

If it had a chance of working it would be worth trying, as gut extrusion is a death sentence anyway. However, from what little I've learnt gut extrusion I'm not sure it would work.

Prolapse is when the muscles relax too much... so (without going in to too much detail) everything falls out. Contraction pulls everything back in. Gut extrusion, though, appears to be the opposite; insides are being forced out as opposed to falling out.

So... yeah, dunno. Useful...

[crossless]

I think it would not work why try to put back inside of snail something if something is come off so how guts would stay in place if they have already come off? There's too risk of infection when trying it.

[aerliss]

Because NOT putting them back will end in death anyway.