I have a pet water snail named Crouton. Last night after I got home from work I found him on the floor and he was half out of his shell. He was completely unresponsive when I picked him up. I was sure he was dead, but didn’t feel like burrying him that night, so I just put him back in his tank. As I did so, a good portion of his shell fell off, almost half. I had read that snails will die after being out of their shell, and although that applied to being out of all of their shell, I figured that having half a shell gone is pretty deadly too.
This morning, when I went to use the bathroom, he was sitting on the edge of the tank!!! He is in pretty bad condition, as he can no longer retreat back into his shell but a good deal of him is exposed. I imagine that it will take months, even years to grow back the missing chunk of his shell is he is so able. I moved him into a large glass so I can monitor him. Right now he is laying on his side and his feelers are moving around.
I was thinking of maybe trying to stick the missing piece back on, but I don’t know how I would reattach it or if that would even be a good idea. If he is in pain or is going to die slowly, I would prefer to stick him in a freezer or something to make it as painless as possible.
I am hoping that someone can give me an expert opinion, so I stuck this in general questions. If you think that is in error, please feel free to move it, mods.
I don’t have any expert knowledge, but I’m replying to bump the thread up hoping to attract the attention of someone who can help, and to second RR’s sentiment about your little guy… he does sound very cool, and I’m sorry about the misfortune that’s befallen him.
One vague notion… maybe you could try one of those ‘expert advice’ sites?? I looked at allexperts dot com, but they don’t have any category that would include ‘snails’ and the few peeps in ‘exotic vetrenarian’ that suggested they could handle just about any creature were MAXXED OUT and could not be sent any questions at the moment, argh.
If you do happen to get local advice, or simply make a decision on your own, I think we’d like to know.
This reminds me of an anecdote.
In a biology class, I needed to present a snail preserved, ie. in alcohol. So it had to die.
Now in my region, there weren’t really that many snails, but some of my richie friends’ moms who are continously watering everything in site found a snail and gave it to them. They brought it on the bus to me. I assumed it was dead already. It was in a hard plastic container, no air holes. So I carry it around all day, go home on the bus, and I am pulling out it’s head foot for presentation when it goes straight back into it’s shell!
:eek: it was still alive! I felt so bad for putting it through all that banging all day. I think I killed it by a bath of metho.
I say, time will tell. Since snail shells grow in a spiral, so that hole will never heal, or at least that’s my understanding of it
I’m glad to hear that there’s someone else out there that cares for them lil’ critters of nature that most people wouldn’t give a second thought to (you’re my kinda people ).
When my brother’s newt was dying it was suggested to him that the freezer was one of the most painless ways to put a small, un-euthanizable animal to sleep. Water-dwelling and/or otherwise cold-blooded creatures can’t shiver and instead just become really drowsy from the cold. And it worked for his newt; she just kind of slowed down and closed her eyes. No fear or apparent pain.
The best part of that website is how, nestled in with the care and feeding of snails as pets, is the Q&A on how to eat applesnails, along with a recipe.
From what I’ve read this is an inhumane way to put down an animal. The thing of it is, they can’t function due to the cold temperatures. So while it appears like they just slow down and die, they could in fact be under extreme pain from ice crystals forming inside their bodies. Exploding cells, dragging daggers through their blood. That sort of thing.
I don’t know how a newt or a snail’s nervous system works. Perhaps it is not complicated enough to feel such pain. But generalizing this to all cold-blooded creatures is a no-no.
“Freezing has been used as a humane method to kill small reptiles under one pound in weight. Although low temperatures do result in a state of torpor, the formation of ice crystals in the tissue is quite painful. Freezing should only be done to anesthetized animals.” -cite
"Freezing. Freezing is only acceptable if the amphibian is small (<40 grams), is already anesthetized, and the freezing is immediate (such as immersion into liquid nitrogen). However, refrigerator freezers are too slow and are considered unacceptable. Additionally many arctic, near arctic, and montane species can tolerate freezing for over 48 hours, making this especially ineffective for these species. " - cite
~Owner of a number of small cold-blooded cuties
I was just relating one experience. It was a vet my brother had called that told him this, so I was just offering the most professional knowledge I’d heard. And it was him that made the final decision, not me. I own 5 anoles and personally I would not do that to them, because I would feel guilty.
Really though, is there any really painless way to put an animal down? It’s hard to know what hurts for which animal.
Sorry I have not responded sooner. I had to go to work and then my roomie reformatted the computer.
Petco said that he was probably going to die, Petsmart said he would live. The people on applesnail’s forums said that it depended on how bad the break was. If it is towards to edge of the shell, apparently they can survive as long as no other fish or snails can attack them. If it is back near the spiral, then they can’t survive. It was way over the spiral and most of his body is now exposed.
I tried to put the piece back on, but I think I inadvertently made it worse since he was moving around last night before I messed with it but this morning he isn’t moving at all that I can see.
It was also my fault because I didn’t have a tank that had a lid completely closed. It looks like he fell and cracked his back on the bathroom floor. His shell was already weakened, I’ve since learned that Petco is a very bad place to buy snails because they don’t take very good care of them. Also, if anyone gets an apple snail as a pet, make sure there isn’t a single hole in the top of the tank that he can fit through.
I think he might be already dead, because it smells funny and I haven’t seen him move a bit. I am afraid to pick him up though to find out for sure. He also didn’t eat any of the cucumber that I put in for him.
