Premolt, DKS, something else?? Please help :(

[Jkelly]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie and have a beautiful female juvenile Avic metallica. I got her from Jamie's and when she first arrived, she happily walked up a branch, drank for a good while from her water dish, pooped, and perched herself on the wall of her acrylic, vertical enclosure (also from Jamie). Yes she has proper ventilation, plenty of fake plants, and I haven't overdone the humidity. I've had her about 2 months now. She's only eaten once since I got her when I resorted to tong-feeding, but she's always seemed chill and content (althought she hasn't webbed at all yet). The last 2 times I tried feeding her she totally freaked and ran away so I haven't tried since. Now, for the past week or so she appears to have trouble walking, getting her footing, and moves very spastically. I know DKS is rare, so I'm really hoping she's in premolt? Regardless, it breaks my heart to see her this way

Her color has also faded and the "toes" on her front legs and pedipalps appear swollen.

Since she is restless and looks awful when she tries to move, I've put her in a much smaller enclosure with good ventilation, a wet paper towel to suck on, a water dish, and an area of totally dry substrate. Is that okay? Should I offer pre-killed prey? Anything else I can do?

More info:
-her abdomen looks small to me, but it's hard to tell with all the fuzz--plumper than carapace, but much narrower
-all my other Ts are fine and they all eat from the same dubia colony
-I do have dogs but I do not use Frontline

Please help! I know you want pics but I'm at work until late tonight...I know, I know.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Down with OBT]

I lost one just like that. All I can think of that I never tried is to fluctuate temp. Take it down to 15C if no responsiveness take it up 22.5C see if there's a change. Its a risk for sure. Maybe even lower depends how risky you are.

 

[Jkelly]

I lost one just like that. All I can think of that I never tried is to fluctuate temp. Take it down to 15C if no responsiveness take it up 22.5C see if there's a change. Its a risk for sure. Maybe even lower depends how risky you are.

What species was yours? Was the behavior just the same?

Thank you...

 

[Down with OBT]

A. avic so basically identical

 

[Ghost]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie and have a beautiful female juvenile Avic metallica. I got her from Jamie's and when she first arrived, she happily walked up a branch, drank for a good while from her water dish, pooped, and perched herself on the wall of her acrylic, vertical enclosure (also from Jamie). Yes she has proper ventilation, plenty of fake plants, and I haven't overdone the humidity. I've had her about 2 months now. She's only eaten once since I got her when I resorted to tong-feeding, but she's always seemed chill and content (althought she hasn't webbed at all yet). The last 2 times I tried feeding her she totally freaked and ran away so I haven't tried since. Now, for the past week or so she appears to have trouble walking, getting her footing, and moves very spastically. I know DKS is rare, so I'm really hoping she's in premolt? Regardless, it breaks my heart to see her this way

Her color has also faded and the "toes" on her front legs and pedipalps appear swollen.

Since she is restless and looks awful when she tries to move, I've put her in a much smaller enclosure with good ventilation, a wet paper towel to suck on, a water dish, and an area of totally dry substrate. Is that okay? Should I offer pre-killed prey? Anything else I can do?

More info:
-her abdomen looks small to me, but it's hard to tell with all the fuzz--plumper than carapace, but much narrower
-all my other Ts are fine and they all eat from the same dubia colony
-I do have dogs but I do not use Frontline

Please help! I know you want pics but I'm at work until late tonight...I know, I know.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I know your at work but when you get home if you could get some close up pics of your T and a pic of her enclosure then that might help us give a more conclusive answer as to what could be wrong,now moving slower and having trouble climbing and not eating can be a sign of pre-moult but it could also be something else,I know you said you have plenty ventilation but having good cross ventilation is key for Avics,what I do with my Avics is give them two rows of holes around the sides just above substrate level and then three or four rows around the top sides of the enclosure,also what temperature are you keeping her at?

I lost one just like that. All I can think of that I never tried is to fluctuate temp. Take it down to 15C if no responsiveness take it up 22.5C see if there's a change. Its a risk for sure. Maybe even lower depends how risky you are.

This I certainly wouldn't do lowering temp down to 15c is just asking for trouble,the last time my temp dropped that low over night I lost a few of my T's ,Tarantulas are ectotherms and lower temps reduces their body functions or stops them all together,your T already has trouble climbing and is slow moving dropping the temp isn't going to help the problem....

 

[Jkelly]

Thanks Ghost. I will post a video of her tonight in her original enclosure...I've been told I should move her back and just leave her alone. Pics will be difficult since if she's not spastic, she scrunches her legs to cover her carapace. Her enclosure is from Jamie's Ts and has excellent cross ventilation. It has been up to 83 F in her room, but I keep a fan on at all times to keep the air circulating. Incidentally, I bought her in a pair with a smaller male who has the exact same setup and is doing wonderfully and never refuses a meal.

 

[Down with OBT]

without trying to be the negative nelly. Nothing is going to help. The T will either somehow pull through or it won't. Heat & humidity don't help the situation. I had a T. cyaneolum stuck molt which high humidity helps, but the avics tend to have the odd one just drop for no apparent reason.

 

[spidey noob]

swollen pedepalps are usally a sign of a mature male witch would explain what your seeing, how shure are u thats its a female ???

 

[Jkelly]

She was sold to me as 3" female as breeding pair with 2.5" male from a very reputable breeder. Isn't that too small to be mature? The swelling is on the front legs also. Will be adding video link soon, but it's not great. And my darn camera won't let me zoom in any more.

 

[spidey noob]

female a,metallica can get to 5"/6", so 3" mm could be possibleas male can be a lot smaller !!!

 

[Jkelly]

Okay, so before this causes an uproar:

• this is her semi-ICU that I placed her in this morning, since in her much taller enclosure she was so restless and kept trying to spastically climb from the bottom and falling and it was awful to see
• the water dish was brimming and pristine when I left this morning; the paper towel was freshly wet and clean
• it's a small kritter keeper so the lid is totally vented on the top and all around the sides at the top
• when i started filming, she raised that single leg straight up in the air (never done that before)
• as with all my pets, she would not do what I wanted her to do (move spastically) while I'm recording, so all you see is her telling me in no uncertain terms LEAVE ME ALONE
• I definitely don't feel I should move her back to her enclosure at this point
• I do not make a habit of poking my Ts and I will not lightly nudge her with that brush anymore

Again, any advice, tales of similar experiences, anything at all is greatly appreciated.

 

[spidey noob]

the two front legs dont look swollen to me, (all arboreal Ts have larger front legs than the back ones) the pedipalps do look swollen on the end from what i could tell !!! (i could be wrong)

P.S i am just trying to cover all bases when i sugest it could be male, with avics even the smallest change in conditions can kill them !!!

 

[Jkelly]

Thanks spidey...I appreciate any and all info.

If this was your T, what would you do at this point?

 

[spidey noob]

all u can do is keep a close eye on it & try to keep conditions as stable as possible !!! (hope fully the little one will pull through)
keeping my fingers crossed for u

 

[Jkelly]

all u can do is keep a close eye on it & try to keep conditions as stable as possible !!! (hope fully the little one will pull through)
keeping my fingers crossed for u

Will do, thanks so much.

 

[Down with OBT]

update?

 

[Jkelly]

No change. She won't eat anything and I'm not sure she's drinking anymore either. Just trying to reduce her stress as much as possible.

 

[Down with OBT]

try anything other than dubia? I'm thinking something immaculate slow moving like a grub/larva. If you have good hands you could even try to provoke a feed by taking a grub and coaxing the fangs(using tweezers of course). This will cause stress, but if it eats its probably for the better

 

[Jkelly]

try anything other than dubia? I'm thinking something immaculate slow moving like a grub/larva. If you have good hands you could even try to provoke a feed by taking a grub and coaxing the fangs(using tweezers of course). This will cause stress, but if it eats its probably for the better

Yeah, unfortunately I don't have steady hands and even If I try to place food anywhere near her she panics and is very stressed. I was advised to try worms so I've offered a mealworm and waxworm both with crushed heads and no response. Will try to get waxworm moths to offer--was told they are irresistible.
Thank you...at some point I may try again with the "hand-feeding" but I think I should leave her be for awhile.

 

[spidey noob]

Sorry to here there is no improvement !!!
But at least she is still with u so that's a good thing.