Help with an injured sling

[starnaito]

One of my G. pulchripes slings was injured by the lid of her enclosure. She popped out of the enclosure while I had started closing it. Luckily, I reacted quickly and didn't squish her, but the lid touched her enough to stun her. At first, I didn't think she would make it. But by the next day, she was moving around normally, with the exception of two back legs on her right side not working.

It has been several weeks since then, and she's still very much alive, but she hasn't dropped the injured legs and she's starting to get thin. If she was healthy, she would've molted once or twice by now like her siblings. She won't touch cricket legs, so I started cutting up small dubia and mealworms so that she can have easy access to the juices inside. But based on her shrinking abdomen, I'm not sure if she's able to eat properly. I haven't personally seen her eat, but I leave food in her enclosure for a while. She does drink water, though, and she was able to dig a burrow.

Is there anything else I can do to get her to eat? I really don't want to give up on her, but it's possible that there's more damage than I can see. I also don't know if she would be able to make it through a molt. Any advice from keepers who've dealt with tarantula injuries, especially among slings, would be very much appreciated.

 

[Chebe6886]

Sucks but not much else you can do. Provide prekilled/water and hope it survives molting. Either way, learn a lesson, be more careful and move on.

 

[Smotzer]

All you can do is hope for the best, there’s rarely anything you can do when something goes wrong if it’s not related to husbandry. Hopefully it molts and the legs heal in that process or drops them. And watch out for the lid next time.

 

[EpicEpic]

I'd imagine all would be fine when she eventually molts. Best of luck!

We don't learn lessons from the good things in life!

 

[viper69]

One of my G. pulchripes slings was injured by the lid of her enclosure. She popped out of the enclosure while I had started closing it. Luckily, I reacted quickly and didn't squish her, but the lid touched her enough to stun her. At first, I didn't think she would make it. But by the next day, she was moving around normally, with the exception of two back legs on her right side not working.

It has been several weeks since then, and she's still very much alive, but she hasn't dropped the injured legs and she's starting to get thin. If she was healthy, she would've molted once or twice by now like her siblings. She won't touch cricket legs, so I started cutting up small dubia and mealworms so that she can have easy access to the juices inside. But based on her shrinking abdomen, I'm not sure if she's able to eat properly. I haven't personally seen her eat, but I leave food in her enclosure for a while. She does drink water, though, and she was able to dig a burrow.

Is there anything else I can do to get her to eat? I really don't want to give up on her, but it's possible that there's more damage than I can see. I also don't know if she would be able to make it through a molt. Any advice from keepers who've dealt with tarantula injuries, especially among slings, would be very much appreciated.

Drinking is important, that's good. Just wait it out, that's all you can do. The only thing you could try is increasing the ambient temps to increase its metabolism, no guarantees that will work.

 

[starnaito]

Thank you all!
I was able to successfully feed her today in a very gross way... popping the head off a mealworm and pulling out all the innards for her. She didn't eat much, but some is better than nothing. I'm going to try doing the same with a waxworm next time. I also moved her to a part of the house that's a bit warmer, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[EpicEpic]

Thank you all!
I was able to successfully feed her today in a very gross way... popping the head off a mealworm and pulling out all the innards for her. She didn't eat much, but some is better than nothing. I'm going to try doing the same with a waxworm next time. I also moved her to a part of the house that's a bit warmer, so we'll see how it goes.

Easier said then done, but put it behind you. You have a bit of a project going forward, but no reason to not be optimistic about it!!

Good luck! I have seen way worse pull through!