Emergency help with bad molt needed!!

[darkhelmet]

figured out why my GBB has been blah lately...she's molting!

but horribly!!! i've never had to deal with this before, help a guy out!

she was in her molt position for about 24hrs before i decided to pull her out of her home and into a little tupperware container.

her pedipalps and R1 (assuming the counting is front to back) are still in the molt. her R2 leg was, but carefully pulling the molt revealed it was loose and the molt came right off. the leg was kind of mangled and i think will be useless (it looks like she was trying to remove it at the first joint, as it looks like it has been bent back).

anyway. pedipalps and R1 leg still in molt. what do i do??

she is kicking and screaming at me, but i've also noticed thin, white, paper like substance in/around her book lungs. did she not shed that out completely?

[MizM]

How large is she? The larger the T, the longer a molt takes. You probably should not have touched her at all, that just exacerbates the problem. Now that she's been disturbed, put her in a small container lined with moist paper towel. Put the container in a warm, dark place and leave her undisturbed to finish her molt. Check on her periodically, but look only, don't disturb her. Molting is the most stressful time in a Ts life, the best thing you can do for her at this point is provide quiet and humidity.

Good luck!

[darkhelmet]

done and done.

i have other T's her size, and they've all molted within a couple hours. i had checked her yesterday morning, and she was in her hide upside down, in the afternoon she was same spot most of the way out, and then today, now, exact same situation.

[MizM]

She's probably just having some difficulty getting out. The higher humidity and warmth should help her. Don't worry about mangled legs or stuff sticking to the opisthoma for now, the most important thing is for her to complete the molt.

Any residual exuvia sticking to her will come off in time and won't harm her unless they are covering her book lungs. A mangled leg will grow back. As long as there are is no hemolymph (blood) leakage, she should be just fine.

[Boanerges]

MizM's advice is excellent!!! I hope all goes well with the molt!!!

[darkhelmet]

She didn't make it Now I'm sad. She was a great T, even though every time I looked at her she tried to kick hairs at me...

[MizM]

I'm so sorry!! Sending hugs your way.

[DanHalen]

Sorry to hear about your loss It's very unusual for a female to get caught in the palp region, and also very unusual for a GBB to have molting problems.

Are you absolutely sure it was a mature female, and not a mature male?

[MizM]

Sorry to hear about your loss It's very unusual for a female to get caught in the palp region, and also very unusual for a GBB to have molting problems.

Are you absolutely sure it was a mature female, and not a mature male?

Was thinking along the same lines... post ultimate molts usually end up like this, although I've heard stories of them just losing the palps and living a few more months.

[darkhelmet]

Yeah I got her as MF, and the guy I got her from had got babies out of her, so I think that's a pretty good sign

At least I learned from this. I know what I did wrong (which was caused by misinformation regarding GBB's), but it's unfortunate I had to learn on a MF