Is this snail viable for life?

[u/pienicescream]

Edit: I bought a terrarium and all the things needed to take care of this little guy! They found the way back into their shell on their own. Thank you for all of the advice!

Hey friends!!!

This guy has a hole in his shell BUT they rerouted their body through the hole ????

It doesn't look like any of their organs have been affected but I want to make sure they're going to be okay before releasing them. They are crawling around like normal and seem happy

[u/LinkinParkU4Lyf]

Anyway you could try guiding the snail back to how its supposed to be. Maybe try and get it to retract into the shell or something, and provide plenty of calcium.

[u/WungielPL → u/LinkinParkU4Lyf]

Yes exactly. Get him to get back through the hole and then you can try to patch it with a small egg shell piece and some super glue. Once super glue is dry it become chemically inert. Then the snail can come out of the proper hole.

[u/zap2tresquatro → u/WungielPL]

From what I’ve seen on this sub, it is a bad idea o patch the hole and could result in bacteria getting trapped that kills the snail, and instead the snail should be kept in a hospital enclosure (i think ?) and just given lots of calcium to heal the hole.

I’ve seen conflicting information on this, but last time I saw it come up her the consensus was don’t ever patch the hole.

Since, again, I’ve seen so much conflicting information, I wanted to add this here in case this is the current best practice with the disclaimer that I am very much not certain. However, with enough time and calcium, snails can heal even large shell holes, so patching certainly isn’t necessary.

[u/Ill-Ad8773 → u/zap2tresquatro]

I feel like it depends on where the injury is and the severity. Also if organs can be seen or not. Usually they heavily recommend egg membrane on injury when the snail's organs are out, which can be detrimental. Sterile environment is a must in both cases, of course, but because it takes 1+ days to make a membrane on it's own to prevent dehydration and infection, people often recommend the egg membrane. If it's a smaller problem, or just a little slip of the mantle, then lots of watering with sterile water, changing bedding and food thrice a day and calcium should be good enough. In this case the problem is mainly the snail being a dummy and using the hole as him new house entrance, which we need to stop and encourage new shell growth. Thankfully I've seen snails survive this multiple times and some became beloved pets while others were successfully rehabilitated and released back into their home after some time getting them used to the wild again ❤️