[Summer’16 Internship] Zombie Snails: On the Road to Postoperative Recovery

After going through surgery, usually humans can wake up from the anesthesia and function quite normally. Snails are not the same. After this procedure, they need to stay hydrated, but in something less anesthetic and more similar to their blood plasma. This is called a snail saline solution, or Ringer’s solution. It’s essentially 1 liter of water but with some very key components, like sodium chloride (NaCl) and a solution called HEPES. Below is the recommended concentration for each component which can be converted into grams of milliliters to add to the water. Sodium hydroxide (0.1 M NaOH) was added last in very small quantities to make sure the final pH of the solution was 7.9. This saline was provided by very kind and knowledgeable Lymnaea experts at Cornell. The snails can recover in this within 24 hours so place them in it for comfort and hopefully a speedy recovery!

By Nancy Sloan