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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jimbo john" data-source="post: 62250" data-attributes="member: 4260">If we could avoid scorning me for my idiotic mistake it'd be appreciated. TL: DR version : I have a 3rd/4th instar P. irminia sling basically immobilized from damage due to moving it after moulting. Keep it as is? Remove legs? Or kill it? The moral dilemmas. If I chose to keep it alive I will need to crush roaches to feed it myself. Long version: I heat my tarantulas with some thin bags of water on top of a heat mat with a thermostat controlled by a thermometer in between two overlapping bags (not the main topic of discussion in this thread). So, I left for town for a few days. When I got back, the setup had been moved and I realized the thermometer was above the water bags causing the thermostat to crank heat out. It reached upward of 92F. Around the same time I saw my P. irminia sling moulting... ~1.5" above the bottom of its burrow in a tunnel at the entrance to its burrow. I saw it with full colors, a tiny abdomen, and the molt still attached to its abdomen about half way in a bone dry enclosure with its legs slightly curled. What I assumed was: it moulted a day or two before I got back and dehydrated while/after moulting, being so small in that heat. I put a few drops of water near it and waited a while. It didn't drink. I tried blowing softly on it to invoke a response, nothing happened. At this point I assumed the worst. I used a paint brush to scoop it up and went to put it on its back on a table to give it water manually. It fell about an inch onto its back when I went to do this. I gave it some water and after a few minutes it began to twitch a little. I then carefully moved it back into its enclosure in the corner it sits in after adding water to the substrate and putting some small water drops near it. A day later it still hadn't moved. I was concerned and blew softly onto it again, to try to invoke a response. It flailed all its legs but didn't move. I manually gave it water a few more times yesterday to make sure it still wasn't dehydrated. It doesn't seem to be dehydrated anymore. The issue is that I think the small drop severely damaged its legs, 3 of the rear legs barely function and the rest are unable to support the weight of the sling, it can barely crawl with all of its effort. I'm now faced with the moral dilemma of keeping it alive in its current (terrible) condition, doing that but removing the more damaged legs, or putting it out of its misery. Thoughts? Ultimately the decision is my own to make, but I want some others input before making the decision.Before I get crap for the mistake, I already learned my lesson (don't f*** with a moulting tarantula, especially a sling, because they are more fragile than nitroglycerin covered glass threads micrometers thick) and any such replies will be disregarded. Mind that I'm not a breeder with tons of these slings and that this is one of my pets. I would likely not buy another should this little fella croak.Given that it just molted a few days ago, it will probably molt in another month and a half to two months if it is able to survive that long, should I decide to keep it alive.</blockquote>

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