What's ICU? still noob i think hehe

Hi! just wanted to know what this is, never saw an explanation of it in any thread

Intensive Care Unit, T style. Usually consisting of a smaller tub with moist, plain papertowels on the bottom for hydration/humidity. No water dish, no hide or strate. Kept in a darker, quieter area of one's home.

Hope this helps answer your Q.

Thx a lot, it helps me of course since i now know how to quarantine a T in a proper manner

I wouldn't quarantine in ICU unless you suspected problems to begin with. Otherwise I'd just put them into a normal cage setup in a different room.

vvx said:

I wouldn't quarantine in ICU unless you suspected problems to begin with. Otherwise I'd just put them into a normal cage setup in a different room.

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Ok, so what is exactly the point of making an ICU for a T?

For sick/injured spiders.

Its like a T's sick room.

Frédérick said:

Hi! just wanted to know what this is, never saw an explanation of it in any thread

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Others have told you what it is and what it's for. We used this trick to treat injured or sick tarantulas many years ago when we owned Noah's Ark Pet Shop in E. Lansing, MI. When we were writing the second edition of The Tarantula Keeper's Guide we needed to coin some term to describe the thing, and since we were both working in a research lab in a medical school (University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine) at the time, it sort of came to us as natural to call it an Intensive Care Unit.

So, now you know it's purpose, it's derivation and a little background to boot!

Enjoy your one-thousand-and-one-useless-facts tarantula!

If I'm not mistaken, ICU is a common term in the medical field in general. I, however, am not a doctor and if anyone can verify/discredit that by all means, do so!

Frédérick said:

Ok, so what is exactly the point of making an ICU for a T?

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When a tarantula is sick or injured one of the first problems it runs into is a drop in hemolymph (blood) pressure. If it was injured this may be due to loss of hemolymph. If it's come along way through shipping it may be extremely thirsty. If it's sick for some other reason it may just be having trouble keeping its blood pressure up because it's so sick. (Have you ever heard the phrase "... so sick I could hardly hold my head up...?") A tarantula that can't control its hemolymph pressure can't move effectively. So, one of the first things you do is try to get it's hemolymph pressure up into the functional range.

Contrast this with the human practice of the paramedics always first slapping an oxygen bottle on you for some really bizarre reason! (But it's a broken arm! Focus on "arm" here! Hey guys! Forelimb! Not lungs!)

Basically, the ICU is just a plastic container of appropriate size with a sopping wet paper towel in the bottom. You punch or melt one or two small holes in the side for some air exchange, pop the sick tarantula in, and install the cover. It's best if you keep it in some warm part of the house. Definitely DO NOT do anything to artificially warm the ICU, like put it on a heating pad! Unless you think you'd like poached tarantula for breakfast.

Check on it at least once a day. If it doesn't recover, clean the ICU on the third day and put the tarantula back in. After a week, if it's not showing progress, you should take it out and let it dry out a day before doing it again.

Don't throw the tarantula in the garbage or bury it in the little graveyard in your backyard until it begins to smell spoiled. Sick tarantulas are really good at playing 'possum!

How does the ICU work? If the paper towel is wet enough the tarantula can sip very needed water from it. While it's in the 100% humidity of the ICU it's not losing any water through its leg joints or book lungs. And, it may feel more at ease and protected in a darkish, closed space instead of its normal cage, exposed to all the commotion of your home.

I doubt that the tarantula actually absorbs water through its exoskeleton in the ICU because the exoskeleton is pretty much coated with a wax-like substance that ordinarily prevents water loss. If it prevents water leaving the tarantula, it stands to reason it would also prevent it from coming back in. I believe there is also a reference in the Guide about a research paper that found that scorpions definitely did not absorb water through their exoskeletons and we presume the same is true of tarantulas.

Having said that, I need to point out that these critters have fooled us before, and I'm not placing any bets just yet.

Enjoy your "Dr. Kildare" tarantula!

Truff135 said:

If I'm not mistaken, ICU is a common term in the medical field in general. I, however, am not a doctor and if anyone can verify/discredit that by all means, do so!

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You are correct Truff. All of the larger hospitals will have an ICU area/floor for very sick patients, or those having recently gone through a major surgical procedure. (You won't find this as much in the smaller rural hospitals.) For example, when my FIL had his triple bypass in March, he was kept in the cardiac ICU (or CICU) for 3-4 days after surgery. When my daughter had abdominal surgery as two days old, she was kept in the neonatal ICU (NICU) for almost 3 weeks after surgery.

ICU is not the same as isolation. That is for someone/thing that has a contagious condition, so things like congestive heart failure or emphasema wouldn't be considered an isolation required illness.

I don't know if it was Mr. or Mrs. Schultz that chimed in, but thank you for the input.

Thanks to everyone, this was very informative!!!

penny'smom said:

... I don't know if it was Mr. or Mrs. Schultz that chimed in, but thank you for the input.

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No, no, no! "Stan" and "Marguerite." Please.

Pikaia said:

No, no, no! "Stan" and "Marguerite." Please.

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Sorry, we all respect you a great deal (and love your book by the way, its my spider bible). It feels more comfortable to go with Mr. and Mrs. Shultz. I'm sure I'm not alone in that. I at least, will try. By the way, I didn't say anything before, but I'm delighted to see you on the boards!!!!! It is great to get to talk to someone with as much knowledge in the hobby as you have!!!!!

Pikaia said:

No, no, no! "Stan" and "Marguerite." Please.

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WOW! I had no idea you guys were on here! Its like being able to talk to your favorite rock star.

Pikaia said:

Don't throw the tarantula in the garbage or bury it in the little graveyard in your backyard until it begins to smell spoiled. Sick tarantulas are really good at playing 'possum!

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heh, i adopted this policy with all my bugs. i have brought many tarantulas and a few centipedes back from their various death poses enough times to not trust that they are dead until they smell like it


incidentily large dead bugs smell like bad seafood. when i got into the bug keeping hobby i couldn't eat shellfish/crabs for about a year until my brain sorted out the similarities ehehehehhe




also, one final step that ihaven't seen mentioned in here (i think) is that you can flip an utterly nonresponsive spider on it's back and put water drops in it's mouth and give it water that way. in some sick spiders you can actually watch them drink this way. i have brought a few taras back from the edge of the great beyond using this trick. in my experience if you see them drink when you do this prognosis is somewhat favorable. if they remain unresponsive... well... they probably aren't going to make it. don't give up though, at least once i kept doign water drops even when i thought i was wasting my time and had the spider make, well, a partial recovery and then die a molt and a half down the road anyways hehehe