1" Sling with diskinetic syndrone....

[TalonAWD]

I bought a T sling and received a Grammostola rosea 1" sling as a freebie. Shortly after unpacking the T's I noticed that the G rosea sling walked a little funny. Was stumbling. The other T, which is also a sling is totally fine.
Heres the thing. I unpacked them and the sling came like this. The person who shipped stated that when packing them never noticed the strange behavior. They were sent priority which took 2 days. (my choice) Shortly afterwards I watched the slings and concluded that the rosie is in fact with DKS, right out of the box. Now I'm not worried about it in terms of being mad since it was a freebie and my purchased T is fine. But how can this happen?

So I threw in a Dubia nymph and set up the camera to film and I'm a 100% sure its DKS. Take notice minutes 1, 1:30, 2:40, 2:50, and 3:10. This is where the action is. The sling had alot of difficulty trying to get the meal due to uncontrollable leg flinging. The other purchased sling right next to it is enjoying a nice fat nymph.
One day I hope someone finds why this happens to tarantulas in terms of causes because it was not exposed to pesticides coming out of the box.
Terrible
[YOUTUBE]Xfte2RSlbb0[/YOUTUBE]

 

[codykrr]

that to me doesnt look like DKS....it looks more like your sling is
A. unhappy with the very moist substrate.
B. was kicking its legs in responce to tackling a rather large dubia...

seems it was just trying to situate itself while eating the dubia...but since the dubia has legs..it was just trying to eat the dubia without letting it touch its self.

 

[TalonAWD]

that to me doesnt look like DKS....it looksmore lik your sling is
A. unhappy with the very moist substrate.
B. was kicking its ligs in responce to tackling a rather large dubia...

seems it was just trying to situate itself while eating the dubia...but since the dubia has legs..it as just tryingto eat he dubia without letting it touch them.

HUH? What??? It does it even when theres no food. Its been doing it for over 24hrs. I'm not a newbie. Been in the hobby for 10 years. I think I know how to keep a rosie.

 

[codykrr]

HUH? What??? It does it even when theres no food. Its been doing it for over 24hrs.

hmm..well this info is kinda nessacery...anyway is there anyway for you to get a video of it walking...say on a sheet of paper to see if he leg spazms continue. this was substrare and feeding is 100% ruled out

also as an extra precaution, get it far far away from ny other Ts. as this can spread.

 

[codykrr]

ok apparently i cant type tonight! :wall: :wall: :wall:

 

[Redneck]

IMO I think slings can get DKS to.. I have had my H. villosella do this shortly after a molt.. And shortly after I noticed it doing it some odd hours later it passed.. I kept my sling it the right conditions moist not wet substrate.. And it had webbed over almost the whole vial.. It had molted and was sitting out in the open doing the leg spasm bit..

 

[TalonAWD]

Here you go Since you need to see more proof...

I just made this video under the conditions you wanted to see, codykrr
On top of a sheet of paper. I got one with lettering so you see its actual paper.

And its news to me that its contageous. I seperated the vial away from all my other slings/ tarantulas. This disease is so strange. Can attack all ages of T's
[YOUTUBE]T44BHixrEd0[/YOUTUBE]

 

[WARPIG]

I don't see it nearly as much in the second vid.
I purchased 3 G pulchers a yr ago, and two had the problem so bad that when they walkd they would filp onto their backs, two died and the third has no signs and is 1.25" today.

Could it be, who knows???

PIG-

 

[james.m]

I never knew DKS was potentially contagious from the infected host T to others nearby. I thought it was merely pasted via ingestion of deseased prey; although Im not really sure how the prey ever aquire it to begin with. In any case, I guess keeping it seperated is the safest route to take. I hope everything works out for the best.

 

[Julia]

Well, it certainly doesn't look like normal behavior... Poor little guy. Maybe because he's so small, you can powerfeed him into the next molt and he'll molt out of it?

Keep us posted!

 

[TalonAWD]

Well, it certainly doesn't look like normal behavior... Poor little guy. Maybe because he's so small, you can powerfeed him into the next molt and he'll molt out of it?

Keep us posted!

Bingo!!!! Its not normal at all!!!!

Thats what I'm trying to do. I put a paper roll tube over the Dram vial for total darkness to give it absolute privacy and will check up on it once a day. Will continue to drop food into the vial to power feed it. Its in a controlled temperature environment to try and speed up growth. Its totally seperated from all the rest of my slings as well.

 

[ZergFront]

I agree, doesn't look normal to me, either. Healthy Ts don't spazz out. They usually don't waste energy like that. Unless it got something on it's legs it really didn't like.

Even if it was provoked, wouldn't it have just run in the opposite direction? :?

 

[codykrr]

yeah..id say that is definatly a possible DKS case...also i wasnt trying to be rude..but if you have been on these boards enough you will have noticed hat this and nematode threads exploded a while back and had everyone and there momma thinking there Ts were infected..so you kinda do have to start questioning things like, substrate, moisture content, and feeding responce.

so i wasnt being demanding but rather going for more of a controlled view of what was really going on.

as far as DKS goes, it has wiped out collections on here..entire collections.

it isnt a FACT that it is transferable but rather a ASSumption...but better safe than sorry.

like stated above just powerfeed it till its next molt and see what happens, some have been know to get past it. some not.

also DKS has been thought to be linked with flea and tick pesticides though not proven just a theory.

a member on the forum a while back as acually trying to conduct a study of the causes for DKS in tarantulas for a college class, though i never did hear what came of it, you may search and see if you can find the post nd pm them.

i hope you little guy makes it though and best of luck!

 

[anthony86]

hello, i'm from malaysia. Would like to drop some opinion. I have read some articles, DKS is from pesticides (either food/polluted air). pesticides destroy T's nerves system causing they walk like "drunk". After wathing your video, i would say possible DKS.
but if it happen after molt, i guess it would be an imperfect molt which T uses lots of energy and some get dehydrated. i have 3 Ts behaved this way after molt (within my 5 years T keeping period). and i found, if they still eating, they will recover. if they refuse food, they will die...

just some personal experience ya, it migth be wrong.

 

[curiousme]

hello, i'm from malaysia. Would like to drop some opinion. I have read some articles, DKS is from pesticides (either food/polluted air). pesticides destroy T's nerves system causing they walk like "drunk".

I would think since the slings were shipped with no problems noted, but one arrived acting in this manner while the other sling is behaving fine, that this statement is incorrect because the introduction of pesticides to a sealed box and vial(presumably) is a bit of a stretch. I was unaware that anyone had pinned down a definitive cause of DKS.



Talon, you are correct that does not look like normal sling behavior at all. We have never had a T with DKS and I wouldn't try and say it definitely has it, but I will say that is definitely spastic leg movement for no apparent reason.(the only thing i could think of as a reason, is maybe it was being blown on, but why would you do that!)

i hope that the power-feeding and low stress will help the little guy make it.

I would definitely make sure it always plenty of moisture available to it to help counterbalance the increased movement caused by the spasms, but since you are not new to the hobby, i bet you already knew that.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[ErinKelley]

I agree it is definitely not normal behavior. What I really wanted to say is that something like that could be easily overlooked by someone who has and is selling lots of T's. If you had PAID for it I believe a refund would be in order, it would probably still upset me a little though since its supposedly contagious and now its in your home It would be wise for whoever gave it to you to check the rest of their stock closely.

 

[TalonAWD]

Update!!

Well I kept it in a controlled temp environment and sped up its molt. It molted succesfully (I watched it struggle to turn over).
After the molt, I let it harden up and saw it doing the pokie stance. The next day (today) I decided to see its progress by taking it out for a stroll.

Unbeleiveable. Much better. Graceful movements and much more normal behavior. In another forum it was stated that it could be stress related from the shipping (in my case) that might have caused an inbalance.
Well I guess in this case that was a good call since it prompted me to try the methods I did (darkness, seclusion, warm temps constant, legless prey placed on its back) to releive all stress.
Here is a video.:clap:

[YOUTUBE]AryNBK3XDHI[/YOUTUBE]

 

[arachnidgirl]

That is awesome news....I'm glad all has worked out

 

[ZergFront]

Awesome. Glad to see at least someone is doing well after the fact. Should be named Lucky.

 

[TalonAWD]

Awesome. Glad to see at least someone is doing well after the fact. Should be named Lucky.

I was thinking "Miracle"