Grammostola Rosea - 2 front legs curled; possible injury to abdomen

[BobArctor]

I have a female Chilean rose hair tarantula that may be around 10 years old but could be closer to 12-15 as she was already a fully mature adult when I received her several years ago.

Today when I looked in on her at around 9am she had crammed herself between her water dish and the cricket food dish, was laying on her right side, and had some clear liquid pooled under/behind her. I touched her just to see if she was alive and she kind of weakly flailed some of her legs. Also one of her spinnerets was kind of weakly moving as well, but not the other one. I took out the water dish to give her some space to see if she was stuck and she didn't move. This rosie usually rears anytime you even think of touching her. Her heart was beating pretty hard (i usually don't notice it) and after a little bit more prodding she finally righted her self and tried to get away from me, but seemed to only be pushing herself forward using her back legs. I got an ICU set up for her and when I went to lift her out of her tank she was very weak.

She is able to move her legs, as I held her vertically she drew all of them close to her body. This is when I noticed the sides of her abdomen are wet (the right side more than the left) and she has what appears to be a large wound/scab on the underside of her abdomen near her spinnerets. This area of her body was dry, it seemed to be just the sides that are wet. I syringed her some water which she took ok (She had completely covered her water dish in the tank with webbing at some point over night) When I put her back down I realized that her sides are also peeling and she keeps covering/touching the peeling parts with her hind legs.

So now she's in her ICU in my bathroom (I ran the shower to make it more humid in there.

Any insight into what is happening to her or advise on whether there is anything else I should be doing or not doing?

 

[Nicolas C]

To be honest, she doesn't look good at all. This injury could be either from a cricket (unlikely unless there was one when she was molting), from a fall on a hard object (don't know how her enclosure is set up) or it could be some kind of cyst.

The wound is too big to do something in my opinion. Trying to pour cornstarch doesn't seem indicated because of the size of the wound and the book lungs too close. I would personally leave her alone with a waterdish and hope for the best...

Maybe someone else has a better idea?


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[BobArctor]

She doesn't really climb much so I don't know that it's a falling injury, though I guess she could've scraped it on something, she does have some bark and a hide log in her tank.

She's spent the last week hunkered down in the corner next to the log, she dug out a little pit and everything.

I looked up pictures of cysts on tarantulas and it definitely looks like that. Bummer.

So yeah, I'm planning on leaving her in her icu box for at least the next 24 hours and I guess just seeing what happens from there.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply.

 

[kormath]

that's too bad. i was going to say it looked like an abscess. hopefully she pulls through.

 

[Nicolas C]

I wish you and your T all the best. Give us news as soon as possible.


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[BobArctor]

*update*

2-3hrs have passed and when i checked on her ICU, she had ruptured her abdomen and was losing fluid.
I have used cornstarch/Superglue to hopefully hold her together but it does not look very good as we move forward.
I have attached the latest pictures and moved her abdomen out of the wet part of her ICU. its 80* and above 80% humidity.

 

[kormath]

*update*

2-3hrs have passed and when i checked on her ICU, she had ruptured her abdomen and was losing fluid.
I have used cornstarch/Superglue to hopefully hold her together but it does not look very good as we move forward.
I have attached the latest pictures and moved her abdomen out of the wet part of her ICU. its 80* and above 80% humidity.

i'd watch the humidity, too much is bad. rosea are a desert spider, their average humidy range in the wild is 15-40%, the higher end being in their burrows underground. Try getting it to drink instead. use a water bottle cap or similar full of water and put it under it's mouth so it can drink, or maybe even drip water into it's mouth every couple hours or so.

 

[BobArctor]

Unfortunately she didn't make in through the night.

I took her into work with me last night (vet tech) and on the advice of a coworker that has dealt with these guys in the veterinary field before, we gave her an injection of isotonic saline to see if that would help at all. We also took some fluid/tissue samples from the wound and with what little we know of invertebrate medicine at my practice are leaning towards it being neoplastic rather than an infection.

All in all I think she just lost too much hemolymph and also it was just her time.
I'm definitely going to miss having her around.

Thanks again for the replies and the advice. I really do appreciate it.

 

[Nicolas C]

So sorry... At least you tried everything possible...


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[Tricocyst]

I know it doesn't take the pain of your loss away but atleast you can say you had the privilege of spending the last several years in her company :/