An animal clinic in Tel Aviv, Israel, earned accolades after coming to the rescue of an unusual patient – a snail with a broken shell.
The team at Haclinica Veterinary Hospital spent the day gluing the snail’s shell back together after the woman who accidentally stepped on him, brought him and his broken shell in for care.
The team spent the day gluing his shell back together piece by piece. They shared the procedure on their Facebook page.
They nicknamed the snail “Chevy” and after several hours of the painstaking repair, Chevy’s shell was reassembled.
Many people asked how they did the repair and the clinic said that the process takes a lot of patience, a steady hand and epoxy glue. They wrote that to repair a snail’s shell properly you have to make sure that the glue stays outside of the shell and in no way penetrates into the internal “skin” area of the snail.
They also advised that the snail be kept in a well ventilated aquarium while it recovers. The aquarium needs to be kept moist at all times and they suggest adding water (maybe add about a half inch of water at the bottom of the aquarium) and misting with a spray bottle several times a day.
The snail also has to consume large amounts of calcium, so a limestone should be added to the aquarium. Snails eat anything (except anything containing salt), but really like vegetables like lettuce, cucumber and bell peppers. All in all, it’s not easy work!
Once Chevy was whole, the clinic said he would need several weeks to heal. But during that time Chevy got to rest on a bed of lettuce, which no doubt speeded up his recovery!
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