My iPod Classic went for a swim

Just over a week ago now I was camping in a storm and part of my tent fell down. At this point we were all tired and fed up, but after a LONG time (maybe hours, I'm not sure) I remember that, that section of the tent was holding my iPod Classic. After searching I found the iPod submerged underwater on my camping mattress.

In a moment of panic at 2am I tried to blow out the water from the charging connector, (probably should have just left it to drip dry/put it in rice in the morning), and yes lots of water poured out.

I have let it dry for this whole week now, and had a fan on it for a day or so.

So today I decided to connect the device to my computer after reading a few forums about water damage on classics.

When connected to my Macbook pro and iTunes is open, iTunes proms me with an alert box

"iTunes needs to prepare your iPod for recovery. Please leave your iPod connected" with the option to cancel or continue.

When I select continue a status bar appears saying "Preparing iPod for recovery". That completes and goes away shortly followed by another status bar "Waiting for iPod".

This bar completes in a second or so, loads for another second or so then disappears to be replaced with the first prompt again (iTunes needs to prepare your iPod for recovery. Please leave your iPod connected.).

this cycle repeats itself with no change.

whilst this is happening the iPod does not mount to my computer or iTunes, and the screen stays black

I'm asking for help to see whether or not it is possible to bring my iPod back from the dead.

For now I will keep the device connected to my computer to charge then try a hard reset.

edit: after charging for a few hours and trying a hard reset, the screen flashes the apple logo for a second, glitches out, flashes the apple logo again, glitches out again. It repeats this process forever