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GBB Juvie may be dying. What do I do?

alf89757

New Member
Messages
1
Location
Seattle
My 1.5 - 2" GBB's been in a weird half curl recently sitting on its hammock. Worried that it might have been dehydration, last night I dropped a few drops of water on the web. Other than being startled initially, she seemed to drink from it so I was relieved and went to bed. This morning she was on the ground and stayed motionless the whole day, I stopped to check on her a few times but she didn't really move but at least wasn't wasn't curling.

This evening I checked again and was shocked to see she had lost her two back legs! I'm completely devastated. I've never seen T's lose two legs like that before. What could be the issue here? Is it dehydration? starvation? Was it a fall? Is this a bad molt? She did reject food last week when I tried feeding so I suspect maybe pre-molt. What's going on? Should I do something or just leave her alone?
 

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SikmT7

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Tarantula Club Member
Messages
307
Location
Rahway, NJ
My 1.5 - 2" GBB's been in a weird half curl recently sitting on its hammock. Worried that it might have been dehydration, last night I dropped a few drops of water on the web. Other than being startled initially, she seemed to drink from it so I was relieved and went to bed. This morning she was on the ground and stayed motionless the whole day, I stopped to check on her a few times but she didn't really move but at least wasn't wasn't curling.

This evening I checked again and was shocked to see she had lost her two back legs! I'm completely devastated. I've never seen T's lose two legs like that before. What could be the issue here? Is it dehydration? starvation? Was it a fall? Is this a bad molt? She did reject food last week when I tried feeding so I suspect maybe pre-molt. What's going on? Should I do something or just leave her alone?
I'm so sorry to hear this :(Sounds like she had a bad molt, this could occur from a previous bad molt as the T removes the appendages that were not properly formed in previous molt. Just keep a close eye on her, keep trying to feed her at least once a week, make sure she has plenty of ambient humidity by keeping water dish full as well as misting lightly on one side of the enclosure. As long as she has her fangs and has eaten, the blood should clot if there was any bleeding. Worse case scenario, if you do see any signs of hemolymph, then you can mix corn starch with water and patch up the wounds with that solution. Other than that she should be fine. I pray she makes it through.
 

SikmT7

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Tarantula Club Member
Messages
307
Location
Rahway, NJ
Hemolymph is their blood and it appears as a clear yellowish fluid, just take a dab of corn starch on a q tip and gently apply it to the wound and that will clot the blood so it could heal. I'm not an expert and I'm not saying that this is 100% the problem but it is worth a shot to save her. Just make sure she has plenty of humidity so that her next molt can be successful.
 

Arachnoclown

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1,000+ Post Club
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Tarantula Club Member
Messages
6,381
Location
The Oregon rain forest
Sometimes they just have problems molting. No matter what you do sometimes this occurs and you can't help. Some spiders are repeat molting disasters that happen over and over again. I had one that had problems every time it molted until it finally got completely stuck. Just trying to help it is all we can do.

Scratch the Suggestion of plenty of humidity. Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens are arid species. High humidity has been known to kill them. Just feed and water it properly. The moisture it needs to molt is within the spider, not the air.
 
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SikmT7

Well-Known Member
3 Year Member
Tarantula Club Member
Messages
307
Location
Rahway, NJ
Sometimes they just have problems molting. No matter what you do sometimes this occurs and you can't help. Some spiders are repeat molting disasters that happen over and over again. I had one that had problems every time it molted until it finally got completely stuck. Just trying to help it is all we can do.

Scratch the Suggestion of plenty of humidity. Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens are arid species. High humidity has been known to kill them. Just feed and water it properly. The moisture it needs to molt is within the spider, not the air.
Agreed with @Arachnoclown GBB is an arid species as I mistakenly gave you wrongful advice on the misting part of what I wrote. Thank you @Arachnoclown I keep my C. cyaneopubescens with just a full water dish and absolutely no misting. I got this info copied and pasted from another forum with just T's in general, I should have specified that, my apologies.
 

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