Micro surgical nail biter

[Scorpusvonpork]

My dictator got caught in its molt today. The whole entire front limbs to the body. It took two hours of every pair of tweezers and blunt leather needles in the house to free it. My observations are as follows: the exoskeleton is as tough as popcorn shell. The more convex the panel, the higher the strength it is, and the harder to rupture. I used a blunt flat sided needle to delaminate the old pieces from the animal. The living animal in its molting state is like a wilted grape, nearing raisin in its toughness and texture. While delicate, it is surprsingly tough and at no point did I rupture the animal. As I got near to main joints, I had to use sewing scissors in conjunction with the needle. Once I had established a sinus under the shell, the scissors could be slipped in for a cut. The actual claw ends were very tricky to compromise. I managed to generate a split at the necked off wrist area and exploit that crack to open the base of the claw. The little moving claw part popped and released the lower part. Ultimately the scorpion pulled its own hand free each side. My wife held the animal against wet peat under a wet Kleenex seatbelt with two chopsticks. The animal writhed mightily during the whole process and repositioning was constantly necessary. We were elated to have freed the animal without injury and it is now convalescing with its friend. The other dictator molted incident free three days ago in the same enclosure. It looks like what happened is that the molt ruptured in the mid section and wound up putting the animal in a straight jacket. I'm astounded by the force required to generate a split or crack in the old exo skeleton.

 

[Scorpusvonpork]

Another thing, this scorpion had become seriously overgrown in its old body. I think that may have contributed to the ejection malfunction.

 

[Dave Jay]

It could be that it held off moulting because there wasn't a place where the conditions were right. Low humidity may have contributed to the exoskeleton being less pliable than is ideal for a successful moult. Don't take this as criticism, I have no idea of your set-up but sometimes it is the case.

It was very interesting reading about your experience, I've often wondered how I would go about freeing a stuck scorpion, I'd feel more confident now after reading how you went about it. Well done!

 

[Scorpusvonpork]

It could be that it held off moulting because there wasn't a place where the conditions were right. Low humidity may have contributed to the exoskeleton being less pliable than is ideal for a successful moult. Don't take this as criticism, I have no idea of your set-up but sometimes it is the case.

It was very interesting reading about your experience, I've often wondered how I would go about freeing a stuck scorpion, I'd feel more confident now after reading how you went about it. Well done!

Thanks! Yes conditions were optimal. Its tank mate successfully molted three days prior. A split occurred in its exoskeleton at a weird place during the molt. It would be akin to taking your sock off and having a while section rip off and stay on your leg. The stinger was still too floppy to be effective I think. But she sure tried to get us with it lol. Here's some photos from the operating room...

 

[Scorpusvonpork]

This is the rupture point as indicated by the needle. Everything forward of that remained attached to the scorpion with only the front limbs fully encased.

 

[Scorpusvonpork]

once a weakness is found in the component, the tweezers or scissors can be used to destroy it. Sometimes I pushed the needle up into My own finger to crack the shell and then I had a ridge to get the scissors in. The whole time the scorpion is going nuts and thrashing hard. Especially when joints were involved. It was extremey touchy work to apply enough force to break through, but not enough force to rip limbs off.

 

[Dave Jay]

View attachment 274730 once a weakness is found in the component, the tweezers or scissors can be used to destroy it. Sometimes I pushed the needle up into My own finger to crack the shell and then I had a ridge to get the scissors in. The whole time the scorpion is going nuts and thrashing hard. Especially when joints were involved. It was extremey touchy work to apply enough force to break through, but not enough force to rip limbs off.

Amazing stuff! Most people wouldn't have the confidence to even try.

 

[Galapoheros]

Haha, "ejection malfunction". I've had to work on a few also. I had an imperator that blew at it's midsection also, it's like an exo-hernia. If you see it in time then you can work on it, they will die or be deformed if you catch it late but can still work on it. At least they can still breed if they don't look right. I know they don't know you are working on them but they act like a little kid getting a shot, you have to let them calm down. I have an EMT kit in the bug room, comes in handy.

 

[Scorpusvonpork]

Haha, "ejection malfunction". I've had to work on a few also. I had an imperator that blew at it's midsection also, it's like an exo-hernia. If you see it in time then you can work on it, they will die or be deformed if you catch it late but can still work on it. At least they can still breed if they don't look right. I know they don't know you are working on them but they act like a little kid getting a shot, you have to let them calm down. I have an EMT kit in the bug room, comes in handy.

Yeah I took a lot of little breaks. Had to stay calm myself too. Holding her with that wet Kleenex seemed to help her relax.

 

[Scorpusvonpork]

Update:

I checked on her this morning. All is well. She survived intact and unharmed. Apparetly these animals don't suffer from shock like fish or birds do. I have quite a few doctoring episodes under my belt over 30 plus years involving all manners of life. The worst one ever was facial surgery on an adult red belly. That was pretty bad. My entire living room and bathroom were covered in blood and water. Actually I digress, the racoon in my ensuite was worse. That was the worst by far.