Tarantula first aid compendium

So, some of you may have read the thread in which I acted like an idiot and tried to give first aid to a T that didn't need it. She survived, which makes me feel very, very lucky, and much, much less stupid.

Thank providence that my stupid mistake didn't cause a needless death.

So, it brings me to my next point. I've looked around the forums, and I think what we could really use here is a tarantula first aid section. Post all your photos of hurt tarantulas and how you took care of them here. Hopefully this can be a resource for people who have hurt tarantulas, and what we can do for them.

Excellent idea,

Ive been done some research to make asimilar post in our brazilian forum, these are all the methods I found to heal tour Ts injuries, try these methods in the order that they are listed and rebember that if U need to imobilize you T, just put it in the freezer for some minutes (be careful) :


- TOILLET ISSUE

Just put a small piece of of paper towel on the bleeding, it will mix with hemolynph forming one "band-aid" that will be there until the next molt.


- TALCUM

Polvilhe talco (no parfum), directly on the wound, this can stanch the "bleeding" (spiders have hemolynph not blood), make sure it doesn't get in the book lungs.

Is interesting to try these 2 methods before the others therefore they are the less agessive comparing to the others, for the fact that they contain no or less chemical elements.


- VASELINE

After to have attemped the Talcum method, try to pass a small amount of solid vaseline (petroleum jelly) on the bleeding, just like boxers fighters do. This can resolv the problem.


"LIQUID BANDAGES".

This seem to be a very useful method, but these products are expensive and not so easy to find for everyone. Use "liquid bandage" or "liquiquid skin" to stanch the bleeding, just drop it on the injury.


ENAMEL FOR NAILS or SUPER GLUE

Use just like the "liquid bandage" method, but these 2 products are very strong, they should be used as "last try".


- DENTAL WIRE

In cases that we have one of the legs very bad injuried maybe the only chance is to amputade the leg.
take a piece of dental wire (or other clean wire) moor it very tied arround the 1st junction above to the injuried segment. This will interrupt the flow of hemolynph to the bleeding. After this, take a pair of scissors (sharp and sterilized) and just 1/4" below the point where the wire is. Next molt it will have a new leg.


Obviously all these methods depend on the size of the wound.



Help me to continue updating this topic as other methods emerge.

maybe a point to start with:

• CAPPELLETTI, A. & G. VISIGALLI (2004): What every veterinarian needs to know about giant spiders. Exotic DVM Veterinary Magazine 5.6: 36-45.

I was just wondering if is it possible to use an old abdomen skin or some other part of the T + "liquid skin" as a bandage, someway.

from BRAZIL said:

I was just wondering if is it possible to use an old abdomen skin or some other part of the T + "liquid skin" as a bandage, someway.

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Thats a good idea! how would you secure it to the T itself?

I think we need a first aid sticky! Shall i make one up? what do you people think? :?

Superglue is the best bet for healing wounds (e.g. a non-clean leg break, or an abdominal puncture) on an arachnid in order to prevent bleeding to death. The medical uses of cyanoacrylates (the basis of superglue) are well documented.

You might also be interested in Paul Carpenter's 'First Aid for your Spiders' article (from the British Tarantula Society Journal).

I would love for this to be a sticky, and the books are a great idea too.

Do any of you guys have photos of hurt tarantulas? To use as a basis of comparison to gauge how hurt our Ts are and if they need help?

Maybe some pictures of those godawful internal parasites too.

It would be a GREAT Sticky

Also guys, how about some anecdotes?

I'd love to hear some stories about how you saved your tarantulas' lives! If you've ever wanted to brag about being an Arachnosurgeon, this is the place to do it!

Your account should include: How the T hurt itself, how long it had been injured, what you did to care for the injury, and how long it was before the T was back on its feet.

taorchard1987 said:

Thats a good idea! how would you secure it to the T itself?

I think we need a first aid sticky! Shall i make one up? what do you people think? :?

Click to expand...

Without a doubt there should be one, i mean, sometimes pepole cant wait for a reply post at 3 am in the morning when there t suffered some ultra catasrophy due to ::insert situation here:: ordeal

I am new to the forum and just wanted to share in this thread about first aid. I found great information via Google on tarantula first aid that was life-saving. I wanted to return the favor. Here is my short story.

I am an animal educator and was performing a live animal show the Saturday before halloween. I took a savannah monitor, ball python, and Chilean rose tarantula. I let the kids pet the monitor and ball python. At the end, I also let kids hold the tarantula - with me placing her on and removing her from their hands. She is about 7 years old and a patient and wonderful girl.

While I was lifting her out of a kid's hands, one of her feet was latched on to his sleeve, he panicked and dropped her before I had a good grip on her. Though she didn't fall far, she landed on her back on the hardwood floor. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened. When I picked her up, she was bleeding.

I told the kids the show was over and put her back in her carrier. After the 15 minuted drive home, I checked her before putting her back in her tank. The bleeding seemed to have stopped. I did research on tarantula first aid at the that time.

I checked her about an hour later and saw that she was still very, slowly bleeding. I couldn't see any blood coming out, but there looked like a tiny, whitish pool had collected and dried on the ground behind her abdomen. (It could have been dried hemolymph or feces, not sure.) To be safe, I decided to put Liquid Bandage on her injury to make sure she wouldn't continue bleeding.

Here is a picture of her after I put some on. She was the perfect patient - calm and cooperative. That is one of the reasons I love her so much - she is one of the calmest, most docile creatures I have ever met.



I have been checking on her a few times a day since then and all seems well, no signs of bleeding, no legs curling under her, no wrinkling/shrinking of her abdomen.

I have learned my lesson - no more kids holding her.

Liquid Bandage rocks!

Another journal article:

Dombrowski, D. & De Voe, R. (2007) Emergency Care of Invertebrates. Vet Clin Exot Anim 10: 621 - 645

This one recommends stopping the hemolymph flow with gauze or cotton tips and then repairing it with cyanoacrylate glue or paraffin wax.

Please help! Bleeding T!

Hi guys this is my first time posting on here maybe you can help me! Today we purchased a t blondi I'd say around 6 and a half inches. He looked great except he had been kicking hairs which is normal and a scar on top of his carapace. The owner called the guy he gets his ts from and asked all the questions we had about him. He seemed fine and didn't leak at the store even when they put him in the container. He kicked hairs a little but seemed fine. They said they had him 2 months and that he molted like that and it's only a scar... He is beautiful and I have other spiders and tarantulas just never had this issue. We had him in an icu like container until we got home. We noticed after we got home that the scar was now a cut and was bleeding. We hurried and put his tank together and got him settled in. Then all of a sudden he's running around and bleeding everywhere! When he starts moving it bleeds more. We took a paintbrush and put some cornstarch on his wounds. They're very weird. One crack is small on the left side right above his fangs and the other side has a huge crack and two small black spots behind his eyes that are also leaking. I'm freaking out. It seems the blood has stopped for now but how long? What else can I do and what do you think it is?