Molting... possible problem.

Lea

Arachnopeon
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Apr 21, 2004
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My subadult P. regalis is molting right now. I am very concerned about him - last time he molted he lost one pedipalp and three legs.

Now he looks odd - he has all his legs out of old exuvium, but they seem very, very soft, like cooked spaghetti, laying in odd positions around him - he is still on his back. He does not seem to be able to lift them.

Is this normal, or does he lack sufficient fluid to fill them up???? Can I help him??? (Doubt it)
 

Mike H.

Arachnoprince
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Jan 25, 2004
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The best thing you can do at this point is to leave him alone...do not touch or disturb him at all..


Good Luck..

Regards, Mike :rolleyes:
 

Lea

Arachnopeon
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Apr 21, 2004
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Yes, handling him would do much more damage than good... it is always good to be reminded ,though... :)

He has now turned himself. Legs are relatively normal looking, disturbingly thin, but in somewhat right angles and positions.

I think he might make it.

It was just that I have observed several molts and legs of the molting spider have never been so... sorry sight. Usually they come of already somewhat sturdy , but these just slipped out of exuvium like they were liquid. He did not "pump himself out of exuvium - he kind of trickled out of it.

I at once remembered that maybe in some distant past I had read about how too much humidity can cause spider to shed its legs during molt. And as he had had problems in previous molts and I had therefore kept humidity high... Or maybe I never read such thing, only had a nightmare of such thing happening... :8o
 

Mattyb

Arachnoking
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Jun 28, 2004
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Lea said:
My subadult P. regalis is molting right now. I am very concerned about him - last time he molted he lost one pedipalp and three legs.

Now he looks odd - he has all his legs out of old exuvium, but they seem very, very soft, like cooked spaghetti, laying in odd positions around him - he is still on his back. He does not seem to be able to lift them.

Is this normal, or does he lack sufficient fluid to fill them up???? Can I help him??? (Doubt it)


can you post a picture so we can see this?
 

Lea

Arachnopeon
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Apr 21, 2004
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Unfortunately I do not have digital camera and even my "normal" camera just run out of film. So there will be no documentation. Pity.

Little male seems quite nice now. His abdomen looked really scary some time ago as he did (could?) not twist it along other body as he turned back to his feet. I helped a little by tilting the whole enclosure somewhat and he straighened his abdomen. Abdomen looks somewhat sacky ( he must have pumped fluid from it to fill up his new feet) but "normal". All feet - even those that were not regenerated in this molt - are less thick than they used to be and they still do not seem as hard as they should be. I hope he will be patient and let his exo harden properly before trying to move more - he seems so fragile...

I know it is early to judge as he is not yet ready, but it seems that this was not his final molt - pedipalps do not seem to have boxing glove - shape. I think it is good - It would be better for him to have at least one molt still to strenghen and regenerate those legs fully.

Lea
 

Lea

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
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I got his old exoskeleton (as he had moved away from it) and checked it. It seems that only one booklung has shed properly - It may of course be that white linings just got lost somewhere else and are not stuck in the lungs. Lets hope that. Otherwise old exo looks promising: all other vital parts have shed nicely.

Can spider survive and function with 1/4 of its normal breathing capacity? :confused:


Gosh, I am like my mother - fussing over things I can do/know absolutely nothing about (at the moment). :rolleyes: I will go and try to get some sleep.

It helps to write things here - knowing there are people who might be interested and compassionate about this :) Thank you for reading :) Nite.


ZZZZZZZZZZZ
 

jesses

Arachnobaron
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Apr 26, 2003
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Lea said:
Yes, handling him would do much more damage than good... it is always good to be reminded ,though... :)

He has now turned himself. Legs are relatively normal looking, disturbingly thin, but in somewhat right angles and positions.

I think he might make it.
Humidity has never been proven to have an effect on molt, but anyway the legs usually are very thin right after the molt... The new exoskeleton is actually microscopically wrinkled - or folded in on itself (in ways you can't see), and then once the Tarantula is out of the old exoskeleton they will expand and unfold.

The legs themselves may be folded at the joints after the molt, or if not folded they'll be in funny positions.
 

Lea

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
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Update.... Little male now looks relatively normal except his lungs. He was climbing the wall today and laying there very "pokie"-way and I could check his underside. At least two of lung opening have not shed - another has white lining sticking out of the opening and another looks... really weird: there is lining and some icky reddish lump :?


Well, he seems fine enough and so spunky that I do not dare put my fingers near him to check if less weird looking lungopening could be done something about.

Lea
 

jesses

Arachnobaron
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Lea said:
Well, he seems fine enough and so spunky that I do not dare put my fingers near him to check if less weird looking lungopening could be done something about.

Lea
That would be a problem... If you plan on trying to remove that, I wonder if it would be better to do it now or after the exoskeleton is fully hardened? Fully hardened fangs are a concern also... I can just imagine trying to work on my Regalis with her legs flailing around and hitting me and jumping
 

NYbirdEater

Arachnobaron
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jesses said:
Humidity has never been proven to have an effect on molt, but anyway the legs usually are very thin right after the molt... The new exoskeleton is actually microscopically wrinkled - or folded in on itself (in ways you can't see), and then once the Tarantula is out of the old exoskeleton they will expand and unfold.

The legs themselves may be folded at the joints after the molt, or if not folded they'll be in funny positions.
My T's also look thin after a molt. I can see every day after that their legs look thicker until they're fully hardened. You can also usually notice this in the abdomen, at least in the ones I have.

My large rosehair only molted once but when it did it's whole body looked visibly soggy right before the molt and was mushed against one side of the tank, I thought it was dead at first. It molted and lost one leg, but it functions fine and lunges at prey and is still kicking over a year later. The leg loss was most likely due to the poor care it was in at Petco, and the fact that the guy at the store was so afraid of it he used a net to take it out and snared its legs, so most likely it was from that. I could see the leg inside the old exoskeleton and it looked bloated and infected or like something ruptured.
 

Lea

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
22
Mites

Update...MITES HELP!

Today I decided he is hard enough to be handled (but yet not hard enough to bite) and examined his lungs area and see if there something that could be done about them.

He did not take it nicely - tried to run, quick little thing he is and even raised his legs at me (honey - I already saw you fangs and you cannot bite me, bark as loud as you may - I will catch you) And as I was trying to be very, very gentle so that I would not hurt him accidently it was really hard to get hold of him.

I managed , eventually, to get him onto my palm and kept him there steadily belly up.

I moistened the booklungs which had linings (and icky stuff) visible. I waited for a moment and tried gently tug linings away - with no success. I dared not try very hard because I could end up rupturing new exo. So I decided not to do it, then. What I HAD to do, was cleaning the environment of the lungopening with icky stuff: there were MITES - yikes! They were around and in the lungopening!!!! My poor baby! So I dapped away all mites I could see with moist q-tip one by one. I changed dry, clean tissuepaper to the bottom of his ICU - which I washed. He has a bowl of water, though. Is there anything else I can do to help him get rid of those vermins? I am so disgussed. Are they eating him alive??? Or is it just somekind of scab they are devouring on? :mad:
 

Lea

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
22
Update:

Little male is alive. He has munched few big crickets and is active. The ugly icky stuff (which I now interpret as a scab of some sort) has dried out. It does not seem to bother him at the moment. I guess it might be problem in next molt, but so far so good.

Way to go little one! :D
 
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