Dune Scorpion with a Deformed Tail

Here is a Dune Scorpion (Smeringurus mesaensis) the lps gave me for free, as a "rescue." The lps had him on orange-red sand, and there appears to be some attached to his metasoma on the fourth segment, not sure why or if it will come off-thinking maybe this is poop caked with the sand or dried hemolyph/sand? I am thinking he had a bad molt. Is there any chance he will survive? Will he not be able to poop? Overall he's a very pretty scorpion ; he is way more docile that I would have thought, but I wonder if it is because he is sluggish/compacted. I think he's a male, but not 100% on that. I hope he's not doomed to die

Male?

poor guy

if you see him poop then It should be OK i guess

if not, might be a good idea removing the damaged area of the tail and hoping he can 'go' with half a tail

Checked on him this am and it seems a lot of the stuck-on sand has come off. I don't know if he's pooped yet. He does look rather fat and I am wondering if he's compacted.Anyway, will keep observing. Thanks for the advice, I hope all goes well with him. If I decide to remove the "hook" where would be a good place to cut it off?

It will die from that injury imo. Somebody probably grabbed it with tongs too tight along that segment of the tail, the rest of the tail is dead as you know. I think the problem will be, wherever you cut, there will be at least a small amount of necrosis and it will shrivel on the end, blocking it off again.

Yeah I was wondering if I cut it if it would just heal over and block it up. I wouldn't be too surprised if the tong theory occured. Even though this is the best reptile shop in Austin, an employee may have done that. Too bad. Perhaps the best thing to do would be put him down? It would be a shame since he is such a pretty guy. But I'm afraid he's already compacted and since he seems rather sluggish, may be suffering already.

You prob went to zkeeper(?), yeah there's nobody there that would've done that, that I can think of, sure could've happened when field collected though, sometimes it takes a while for things like that to visually show up. You could freeze it.

Yes, that's the store I went too. Been going there for about 15 years. Makes more sense that he was injured in the field than somebody there doing it. I may freeze him afterall. Poor fella.