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Hi everyone.
I'm new here and have come seeking help and advice from other tarantula keepers.
I have a Mexican Red Knee called Eclipse. She is approximately 17 years old and I have had her since she was small enough to fit on my fingernail, so she's grown and matured in my care. She's always been absolutely fine, no problems shedding, eats well, tolerates handling is is a really lovely spider. I'm extremely fond of her.
The last time she shed her skin was around October 2014. A few months ago she started ignoring food, so I thought she's probably coming up to a skin shed and didn't worry about it at all. I know she can sometimes stop eating for a couple of months prior to the shed so I wasn't concerned, and just made sure the humidity was good. Then about a month ago I looked into her enclosure and between her spinerettes was white stuff. It had the consistency of her usual faeces, but was around where her anus is (assuming it is actually at the base where the spinerettes are?!). I got a wet cotton bud and removed it, but although I'd moved a lump, there were white marks left around the bass of the spinerettes. I was worried that perhaps she was constipated and couldn't understand how insect eating creatures could get constipated. After a few days of this not clearing up, I took her to my vet for his opinion. Some of the while stuff was on one of the spinerettes and looked like limescale in a kettle. He took some of it off and looked under a microscope. No parasites at all present in that sample. We sent a sample to a lab and there was nothing unusual about it, I think the lab report said there was just chitin and a couple of long bacteria, which could be normal. We didn't have enough sample left to try to grow the bacteria to see what they were, so the vet said to clean the area every couple of days with an anti-bacterial wash (F10), which I have been doing. The area around the back of her abdomen and spinerettes is quite bald now - sometimes she scratches it lots after I have cleaned it.
This week, although the white has mostly gone, she just seems lethargic. She has been slower than usual for a month now anyway, but no normal signs of a shed being imminent; no web bed, so silk spinning. She is spending more time than usual up on her rock rather than on the bottom. The only thing that has changed over the past few months is I cleaned her enclosure, but put it all back the same way she's always had it. I used a different brand of vermiculite, and had wondered if she was reacting to that, but it doesn't really make sense.
I've just had her out to bathe her rear end. I'm making sure I have her sitting with her mouth to water just in case she has forgotten to drink, but other than doing these things, I feel so helpless. The vet is at a loss and is trying to consult some other people who specialise more with arachnids for me. So I thought I would post here to find out if anyone else has experienced anything similar and has any ideas?
I have some pictures - though annoyingly I don't have one showing when there was more white on her rear end. The vet has these.
Here is a picture from a couple of weeks ago showing just her rear. Can you see the white around the base of the spinerettes? It's less that it was - sometimes when I clean it, it looks like a powdery texture. Hard to see in this though.
Here is a picture I've just taken. If you can see right in the crevices of the base there is still a little bit of white I can't quite get to.
Another angle.
Her general size/condition.
Just to add that tonight it seems as if she's not in control of her spinerettes as I can manipulate them and she doesn't react with them, and her pedipals seem a little limp. She can walk around though and gets her hooks into things without a problem, so she's not completely weak, just not right. I've also been feeling her abdomen and it's quite palpable - I can press a little on it and it's as if it's a case and doesn't feel solid. I've not done this before so maybe it's always like that, but it's worrying me and doesn't seem right.
Can anyone offer any advice here? I feel really helpless and want to do all I can for her. Perhaps it is just a shed after all and she's taking ages where she is older?!
I'm new here and have come seeking help and advice from other tarantula keepers.
I have a Mexican Red Knee called Eclipse. She is approximately 17 years old and I have had her since she was small enough to fit on my fingernail, so she's grown and matured in my care. She's always been absolutely fine, no problems shedding, eats well, tolerates handling is is a really lovely spider. I'm extremely fond of her.
The last time she shed her skin was around October 2014. A few months ago she started ignoring food, so I thought she's probably coming up to a skin shed and didn't worry about it at all. I know she can sometimes stop eating for a couple of months prior to the shed so I wasn't concerned, and just made sure the humidity was good. Then about a month ago I looked into her enclosure and between her spinerettes was white stuff. It had the consistency of her usual faeces, but was around where her anus is (assuming it is actually at the base where the spinerettes are?!). I got a wet cotton bud and removed it, but although I'd moved a lump, there were white marks left around the bass of the spinerettes. I was worried that perhaps she was constipated and couldn't understand how insect eating creatures could get constipated. After a few days of this not clearing up, I took her to my vet for his opinion. Some of the while stuff was on one of the spinerettes and looked like limescale in a kettle. He took some of it off and looked under a microscope. No parasites at all present in that sample. We sent a sample to a lab and there was nothing unusual about it, I think the lab report said there was just chitin and a couple of long bacteria, which could be normal. We didn't have enough sample left to try to grow the bacteria to see what they were, so the vet said to clean the area every couple of days with an anti-bacterial wash (F10), which I have been doing. The area around the back of her abdomen and spinerettes is quite bald now - sometimes she scratches it lots after I have cleaned it.
This week, although the white has mostly gone, she just seems lethargic. She has been slower than usual for a month now anyway, but no normal signs of a shed being imminent; no web bed, so silk spinning. She is spending more time than usual up on her rock rather than on the bottom. The only thing that has changed over the past few months is I cleaned her enclosure, but put it all back the same way she's always had it. I used a different brand of vermiculite, and had wondered if she was reacting to that, but it doesn't really make sense.
I've just had her out to bathe her rear end. I'm making sure I have her sitting with her mouth to water just in case she has forgotten to drink, but other than doing these things, I feel so helpless. The vet is at a loss and is trying to consult some other people who specialise more with arachnids for me. So I thought I would post here to find out if anyone else has experienced anything similar and has any ideas?
I have some pictures - though annoyingly I don't have one showing when there was more white on her rear end. The vet has these.
Here is a picture from a couple of weeks ago showing just her rear. Can you see the white around the base of the spinerettes? It's less that it was - sometimes when I clean it, it looks like a powdery texture. Hard to see in this though.
Here is a picture I've just taken. If you can see right in the crevices of the base there is still a little bit of white I can't quite get to.
Another angle.
Her general size/condition.
Just to add that tonight it seems as if she's not in control of her spinerettes as I can manipulate them and she doesn't react with them, and her pedipals seem a little limp. She can walk around though and gets her hooks into things without a problem, so she's not completely weak, just not right. I've also been feeling her abdomen and it's quite palpable - I can press a little on it and it's as if it's a case and doesn't feel solid. I've not done this before so maybe it's always like that, but it's worrying me and doesn't seem right.
Can anyone offer any advice here? I feel really helpless and want to do all I can for her. Perhaps it is just a shed after all and she's taking ages where she is older?!
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