Emergency Room Assistance (I think?)

My female Cobalt Blue molted over a week ago and seems to still be having a wild molt...

First of all, I found her dragging her old 'shell' behind her around the cage as the skin of her old opisthosoma (rump) seemed not to want to release itself from her. The old 'shell' finally broke off from the skin still clinging to her, but she still has that skin attached to the back of her opisthosoma (kind of like a second skin) and it does not seem to want to 'fall off'.

To complicate things, she has pooped (the white stuff) and the poop seems to have become sandwiched in between the old and new opisthosoma thereby 'cementing' it even more to the back of her opisthosoma (the bottom of the opisthosoma released fine so she can breath at least!). Seems her spinnerettes are also lodged within the old opisthosoma.

I've begun misting the old opisthosoma with water to try to moisten it and perhaps loosen it, but was wondering if anyone ever came upon such an event before and how they ended up fixing it. None of my other tarantulas have ever had this problem, and neither had she before now.

Being a Cobalt Blue, I will not even consider trying to catch her (like I can my pink toe, rose hair, etc. that I handle easily) because she is SO aggressive, and being an old world tarantula I would not look foward to getting nailed by that nasty venom of her species...

HELP?!?

Consider sedation using CO2 or temperature decrease. Sedate then get area damp with a very mild soap solution. Use tweezers and pick off slowely. Do not pull if you get resistance as it will tear the abdomen.

Do not get water/soap near the book lungs.

If you do not get it cleared out the anus could become plugged and the spider very well may die.

I once had this with a A seemani. It's spinnerettes were stuck as was the anus.

forrestpengra said:

Consider sedation using CO2 or temperature decrease.

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Could you elaborate further on this? Seems to be pretty valuable information, and I'd like to know this.

Sorry about your lividum, by the way. I hope she makes it okay.

talkinlate04(if i remember correctly) has done the c02 sedation trick before.....maybe someone can pull up a link real quick,as i am at work,and should get back at`er....

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=127341&highlight=surgery

There's the link where Ryan sedated his rufilata.

You could also put her in the fridge to really slow her down. The problem with this is that they snap out of it rather quickly and so you couldn't really do it all that slowly.

Cassandra

Mack&Cass said:

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=127341&highlight=surgery

There's the link where Ryan sedated his rufilata.

You could also put her in the fridge to really slow her down. The problem with this is that they snap out of it rather quickly and so you couldn't really do it all that slowly.

Cassandra

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+1 on that cass

when I sedated my B smithi with temperature it came to quite quickly. See my video on YouTube for my nematode infestation.

I would use the CO2 method for this. Just be careful because too much WILL kill.

yeah i like to use 2 butter bowels a 20 inch piece of aquarium tubing, dry ice and warm water. first take the 2 butter bowls(with lids) now make a hole in each lid just big enough to get the aquarium tubing to fit snug inside. put hot water inside one of the butter bowls and the tarantula in the other put the lid on the bowl with the T and put the tubing threw the holes on both lids. (make sure to just barely place the tubing about an inchin the bowl with water(also only fill the bowl about half full) now drop dry ice into the water and place the lid on. it should only take a little bit of dry ice to create an ample amount of C02. keep and eye on the T it will basically look limp after about 1 min. but beware! they come back quickly this way too!

Post-Op Report

Well, it was totally awesome to get SO near my Burmese Cobalt Blue without her going postal, rearing up, poking out her fangs and lurching at me - she normally stays in her burrow during the day which would've made it next to impossible to 'work on her' without aggrevating her trying to get her out of it.

Seems she knew she needed help and that I was there to give it. There she was just calmly walking about all day long outside her burrow in the daytime apparently trying to get my attention. So, because of my love for her (and for any animal under stress for that matter), I braved the possibility of getting bit and got up close and personal - and did not get attacked!!!

She seemed to sense that I was there to help, so for the next 10 hours I would mist her rump, wait 20 minutes for it to soak in, then I'd tug on her old skin gently using tweezers and it would come loose millimeter by millimeter as this process was repeated over and over - all with her just two inches from my bare hand and without so much as raising one hair on her gorgeous body against me (they are SO deeply blue after they first molt!).

Towards the end, she even began to help when I was 'working on her' by using her rear legs to help scratch at the dead skin - it was like I had a totally different tarantula that was so gentle and not like the agressive old one, I was just SO CLOSE and yet unafraid of any danger. Unfortunately, that last cooperative effort took a small patch of the new skin with it - I figure it was new skin that had 'gone bad' from being under the old skin for too long combined with her poop being on it for so long as well. Looks like there is this small shiny scab there now where that old skin got peeled away. Finally, there were the spinnerettes - and she began immediately to lay down some silky webbing.

Oh, happy days!!!

She did eat one cricket that was dying and was pretty immobile that I placed in front of her burrow, but she does not yet seem to want to go after the healthier crickets yet (probably too much 'work' in her weakened state for the time being - and that scab may be hurting a bit thus adding stress, so I'm also keeping the humidity up around 80-90%). But she is back to being in her burrow in the day and only comes out in the wee hours of the night. And she seems to be getting back to being a bit more aggressive as I did see her strike at her water bowl when I moved it a bit. So nice to see her doing better, even if it means not being able to get close anymore :-\

I will keep this thread updated as time goes on, hopefully with more good news.

You..didn't need to sedate her?

I doubt she "knew" what you intended, she might have merely been too weak to resist effectively. But good jorb either way.

I have to agree with you, Batgirl. I think Ts are a lot smarter than a majority of the people give them credit for. Either that, or there are some seriously long strings of coincidences that lean them to a certain light. Like many other animals, Ts seem to often do things that leave me completely baffled. I'm glad to hear she's doing well. just be wary of the scab on her back. Feed her lightly and continiously watch that spot. Don't let her eat too much in one day especially. Ie, if you feed her 5 crickets every feeding, break it up into 2 crickets one day and then the other 3 over the next 3-5 days or so. Overfeeding may cause her to streach and that damaged portion to burst. I would err on the side of caution and just treat it as a possible wet molt.

Under the circumstances it is probably best to wait awhile before feeding yet.

Batgirl,

Very cool that you were able to help your T out like that. IMO sometimes they just know we are trying to help. Keep us updated on how she does.

Pic of Leela with scab...



The scab is clearly shown, and below you can see her nice spinerettes...

She's so sexy

Success! Great to hear.

What an amazing story. Thanks for sharing. I agree, she probably had been trying to get it off and when you started to help her, she let you because it probably felt better. What did she do when the piece of new exo came off? Did she react to it at all? I'm just curious.

Jilly1337 said:

What did she do when the piece of new exo came off? Did she react to it at all?

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She 'found' her spinnerettes and just started spinning webbing all over the place... it was so nice

Later, she returned to being her normal agressive and hostile self, but that's Burnese Cobalt Blue tarantulas for ya!

Awesome story, glad to see your T is ok. She is sooo beautiful!

Release from hospital and follow-up...

Well, she is now eating about two crickets a day (famished!). The scab has gotten smaller and has turned white (did she webb it over?) and she is starting to plump-up. Also back to hiding all day in her burrow and only coming out in the middle of the night to 'hunt'. Still keeping the humidity up around 85-90% and temperature around 80-85°F for awhile just to be safe...
:clap: