P. metallica - Death by Constipation

One of my P. metallica's had a "wet" molt back in July. Since then she was eating fine and acting fine until a few weeks ago when she started slowing down quite a bit. She's been in partial death curls for the past week and today when I checked on her I thought she was dead. Well, I picked her up and noticed a hard plug at the tip of her abdomen by her vent. I pulled on it with needle nose pliers and poop just came gushing out! I put some water near her mouth but I think she's pretty much dead now. Has anyone seen anything like this?

Hey Kyle,

First, I'm sorry for your loss. Beautiful spider to lose, that's for sure.

Second, I'm not sure how many people willingly grab poo-plugs and pull them out of their spider's anus, but I imagine this is something that has happened before, but gone undiscovered.

I can remember several instances where I've lost spiders, and they would have poo kind of caked on their rear ends. Now I wonder if it was something similar to yours, or if it is similar to when humans and other animals die...all the muscles relax and everything kind of drains out.

I also wonder if there is a direct correlation between the 'constipation' and the wet molt...although it would be difficult if not impossible to tell. Raises some interesting questions, though.

It would be great if we were able to understand what exactly a wet molt was, what causes them, and what kind of (potential) internal damage they cause.

Again, sorry for your loss.

--Joe

Excess ecdysone that partially digests the new cuticle during molting? That may prolong the time it takes to harden after a molt, and the T could warp itself while moving around after the process.

Sounds interesting, but I have never seen a wet molt. A search brought up images of what I suspected one would look like, but no definitive causes.

I'm very sorry for your loss The photo's fascinating, in a morbid sort of way.

Hey Kyle did you ever observe her grooming herself after the troubled molt?
I'm really sorry for your loss...

By the way, next time anyone faces something like this you are much better off attempting to wipe away the crusty area with a warm wet paper towel instead of pulling with pliers....nothing good can usually come from the latter.

Once again sorry for your loss...

UrbanJungles said:

Hey Kyle did you ever observe her grooming herself after the troubled molt?
I'm really sorry for your loss...

Click to expand...

Yep, she was constantly brushing her abdomen with her back legs. Also, I tried wiping the area with a wet cuetip to try and loosen it up, but it wouldn't budge. I also wouldn't have used pliers if she wasn't already pretty much dead.

Noexcuse4you said:

Yep, she was constantly brushing her abdomen with her back legs. Also, I tried wiping the area with a wet cuetip to try and loosen it up, but it wouldn't budge. I also wouldn't have used pliers if she wasn't already pretty much dead.

Click to expand...

That's interesting, I would have suspected she was unable to groom.
Perhaps with the wet molt occurring in the abdomen, the ducts associated with the lower GI tract were somehow collapsed or sealed off causing a blockage. It's hard to tell what happened really but thanks for sharing the pics and info.

Sorry for your lost. That is a odd death to say the least.

Tough tough loss.

PIG-

Sorry for the loss.

What were the tank conditions before moult?, if I may ask.

I have a P. metallica dubbed the "chicken spider" as it is always in hiding (quietest room in the place), and I am never sure of which conditions it prefers. It survives, but IMO is not thriving.

sorry for your loss.... the death of ur T is very intriguing... i wonder how many others had fallen to this kind of death....

gee, isn't that a bummer.

Yes it happened to my G. Pulchra, below is what it looked like and below that is a video of how I cleaned it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFOkw3pQvLY

Great video makes sense that warm water would do the trick.

That is a beautiful T and I bet it was hard for you. I am sorry for your lost buddy.

I know this thread is a couple of years old but despite my best efforts, I think I've just had a death due to the same problem, but in this case, it's a L. violaceopes.

About three months ago, I noticed she began drinking more often. She had stopped accepting food. She was almost due for a molt so I didn't think anything of it. But then, she started curling while on the side of the enclosure, and began to stay outside her burrow/hide and on the glass during the day, which was very strange. She was visibly weakening, so I decided to move her into a more humid, mini-enclosure where I could monitor her better. I candled her, and she had a faint yellow glow under her abdomen. Anyway, for the next month or so, aside from still drinking lots, she was like this all the time.


I then realized that for the nearly two months she had been in there, she had never pooped. I also noticed her abdomen getting progressively larger and her steadily getting weaker and weaker. I then immediately thought of this thread, and Draiman's thread. I decided to pull her out into a bag, and give her a once over. I cut a corner out of the bag that was just big enough for me to examine the end while still being able to keep her restrained in the bag. I noticed a very faint white crust right in the anus, that you could barely see. I decided to put some baby oil on it, and see if that would dislodge it. It hadn't. A couple of days later, I get her out again and decide to go at it again but this time with a magnifier in my eye and a pair of needle thin needle nose tweezers. So dab some baby oil again and pick at it. It's the consistency of chalk. After I managed to dislodge it, a big glob of white poo immediately shot out, followed by some brown, then clear-ish liquid. Her abdomen shrumk considerably, and it was as if she was in a daze after the procedure. However, in the week or so following, she recovered and seemed to perk up quite a bit. She would still refuse food, but was no longer curling, and even began to web and clean herself again. It was short lived, as after a week or so, her abdomen gradually increased in size again, and she went back to being very weak and curling. So I went at her with oil again, but all that was needed for her to poop was some stimulation of her anus with a Q-tip. Again, she recovered, but after only a few days of showing promise, quickly returned to curling, and this time showing such extreme lethargy and weakness that it seemed she could barely convey herself. so, I went to her with the swab again, and this time, a lot of poop came out. First was the brown stuff, then a LOT of the nitrogen "pellet" poop that new hobbiests often mistake for eggs. so much came out that the abdomen was visibly wrinkled afterwards. This time, the procedure left her more than just dazed, but almost completely limp. I put her in an ICU, but by morning, she had passed.


After a day, I decided to cut her open (since I am planning to dry her out for display) and found that her abdomen was almost full of crap (brown fluid, nitrogenous "pellets"), and it smelled awful. Now, I've cut into dead spiders even longer dead than this one, and there had been no odors. This was completely different. I can only surmise that it had developed some kind of impaction or constipation problem, as it had previously pooped just fine after her most recent molt.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience. I hope this, as well as this thread, may prove useful to others that may have missed it the first time around.

Sorry for your loss Hobo, thanks for taking the time to write this up.

Wow man, that really really sucks about your Lv. As you've shown, it's more than simply a blockage, it's some malfunction that causes a recurring failure to excrete. I imagine that the buildup of waste is what ultimately poisons the T. Truly a shame

I'm sorry for your P. metallica loss as well TS

Curious if there was some sort of rupture internally that caused an infection ?