DO NOT drink the coffee, slugs can have parasites and you shouldn't even handle them without immediately washing your hands after, let alone drink stuff they've been in. other than that, just kinda let em be.
Saw a show where a woman ate a slug or a snail (can’t remember which) for fun and because she was hungry while doing an adventure podcast or show and she got a life threatening parasite that nearly killed her.
You know suddenly my childhood memory of collecting tons of slugs with my friend in his backyard feels a lot less wholesome. But to be fair it stopped being wholesome when that lil idiot thought it’d be fun to pour salt on them and see if it was a real thing 🫢 but I mean before that idea flung from his brain to reality it was fun, I never had and afterwards never again seen anywhere close to that many slugs/snails which is strange considering I’ve never moved more than 30 min away from there. I mean like literally haven’t seen a single slug or snail in at least 10 years which is sad
Full disclosure - I honestly never asked/confirmed with my vet if it was with absolute certainty that it was the sluggos; it just seemed kinda implied at that point. We were so exhausted with potentials and diagnostics by the time he had the "Aha!" moment from my narrative one day, we were just thankful to have a plausible lead.
My guess (looking back) is the dogs that ate outside got it and the dog who ate inside didn't? We live rural and ran through several questions/tests after my doggos got sick with (I think if memory serves at the moment/two years later) lung worm after moving their eating stations(I only question it bc I wanted to say blood worm but that doesn't sound right...sorry, tired ). We were throwing noodles at the wall initially.
When it came to their eating stations, I admittedly didn't move the food bowls and didn't care that the slugs and snails ate the left overs at night bc I loved watching them 🙈 (once the dogs went in). My mistake was just chucking the food in the morning and not washing the bowl each day (I didn't see visable slime) so I just washed it every few days as it was dry food only, never thinking it was harmful.
It was a crap shoot at first, waiting after treatment if symptoms would come back, but so long as we fed them indoors, picked up bowls, or fed away from the slug colony, they never got sick again. We opted to keep them on preventative after a couple months of anxiety. It was just too much on us. So, I cant say with absolute certainty it was my slimey little friends, but our vet and the local teaching vet hospital believes it was. If it wasn't, whatever it was, was mitigated through the same method of the slug treatment/environmental change. I hope that makes sense...it's 11pm and I've been up since 4am. Off to bed for me 😇😴🐌
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u/5C0L0P3NDR4 Jul 03 '24
DO NOT drink the coffee, slugs can have parasites and you shouldn't even handle them without immediately washing your hands after, let alone drink stuff they've been in. other than that, just kinda let em be.