Need help with sick rosehair

[Elithial]

I’ve had Cinnamon for at least seven years now she was an adult when I got her, she’s a Grammostola Rosea as far as I can tell, adult, confirmed female. She hasn’t molted in at least two years and hasn’t eaten in several (4+) months. Recently ever since I cleaned her enclosure and freshened up the coco fiber substrate she has been curling up like this. She has a clean and full water dish and I keep her out of direct sunlight with half her enclosure covered for a nice dark spot. My room is room temperature and I offer her crickets biweekly which she ignores. Her old dirty endlosure had webbing all over the floor but she has neglected to do this since I cleaned it about a month ago. She does move and appears to move normally, even getting fiesty when I picked her up to examine her recently. She is normally dark in color so it’s hard to tell if she’s pre molt or not. Her fangs are shiny and intact and her abdomen small but smooth and not wrinkly. Either way I recently put her in an ICU overnight in case she was dehydrated, she perked up alittle but then went right back to this curl position again. I’ve tried putting her in a warmer space to see if the temperature was the problem but that didn’t change anything. I tried a darker space too and that also did not change anything. I’m worried about her. Meanwhile her neighbor (in a nearby enclosure), Tippy the pinktoe, is doing just fine and she has the same substrate, crickets, and water source.

Any ideas what might be wrong or is she ok? Let me know if you need more details.

 

[Andrea82]

Welcome to the boards
How long since you made all the changes?
I would usually advise to raise the substrate level a bit to decrease the space between substrate and top of the enclosure. This way you can bury the hide a bit more so when she falls she won't fall on the edge of the hide.
An ICU for this species is never a good idea since it needs everything dry, just a fyi

Her position however is a bit worrying, it looks like she is pointing her toes to the inside which could be the beginning of a deathcurl. Was she an adult or close to an adult when you got her? It could be she is just nearing her time, sadly.

 

[antinous]

The substrate looks to be moist, this is an arid species and it requires dry substrate. Also ‘ICUs’ shouldn’t be done with arid species as they aren’t equipped to handle the humidity. Looks like it needs a bit more sub too as a fall can seriously harm the T. But it looks like she’s at the beginning stages of a death curl sadly.

 

[Elithial]

She was an adult when I got her yeah and the substrate isn’t moist it’s just kinda dark. I’m aware arid species hate moisture but I was hoping it might help in the ICU, good to know not to use it. I cleaned her enclosure about a month ago, the same time I cleaned Tippy’s. I used the same dawn dish soap, thoroughly rinsed and thoroughly dry on both enclosures. I really hope it’s not that she’s going to die but I guess I’d rather itbe old age than something I did. I would normally raise the substrate but she isn’t climbing anymore so I left it at that for now, should I raise it still?

 

[Elithial]

The substrate looks to be moist, this is an arid species and it requires dry substrate. Also ‘ICUs’ shouldn’t be done with arid species as they aren’t equipped to handle the humidity. Looks like it needs a bit more sub too as a fall can seriously harm the T. But it looks like she’s at the beginning stages of a death curl sadly.

Nooo
I’m not ready TnT
Just rechecked, her sub is bone dry, just how she likes it.

 

[antinous]

She was an adult when I got her yeah and the substrate isn’t moist it’s just kinda dark. I’m aware arid species hate moisture but I was hoping it might help in the ICU, good to know not to use it. I cleaned her enclosure about a month ago, the same time I cleaned Tippy’s. I used the same dawn dish soap, thoroughly rinsed and thoroughly dry on both enclosures. I really hope it’s not that she’s going to die but I guess I’d rather itbe old age than something I did. I would normally raise the substrate but she isn’t climbing anymore so I left it at that for now, should I raise it still?

Nooo
I’m not ready TnT
Just rechecked, her sub is bone dry, just how she likes it.

No I wouldn’t raise it right now, I’d leave her be and check in every couple hours to see if her condition has changed.

 

[Andrea82]

If she was an adult when you got her I think she's just at the end of her time

 

[Teal]

She was an adult when I got her yeah and the substrate isn’t moist it’s just kinda dark. I’m aware arid species hate moisture but I was hoping it might help in the ICU, good to know not to use it. I cleaned her enclosure about a month ago, the same time I cleaned Tippy’s. I used the same dawn dish soap, thoroughly rinsed and thoroughly dry on both enclosures. I really hope it’s not that she’s going to die but I guess I’d rather itbe old age than something I did. I would normally raise the substrate but she isn’t climbing anymore so I left it at that for now, should I raise it still?

I am curious why you felt the need to scrub enclosures out with dish soap?

ICUs aren't good in general, in my opinion. You're displacing an already stressed/injured/sick animal and putting them into an entirely different climate. If they seem to "perk up" I feel like that is a stressful response of wanting away from the strangeness of moist paper towels.

I agree that it looks like the start of a death curl ): It's hard when you have no idea how old they are.

 

[RezonantVoid]

Do you mind me asking why you felt the need to clean out the container? If it's dry there shouldn't be any bacteria and you can just remove rejectamenta with tongs. I just feel that doing so ruins the T's little web home and significantly stresses them out, i made a similar mistake with my first T and paid the price for it unfortunately

 

[Elithial]

Her enclosure was extra dirty so I used the mildest soap I could think of to clean it, dawn is pretty safe as long as you thoroughly rinse and dry afterward.

While I now see that the ICU was a mistake for an arid tarantula they aren’t to be fully discounted. ICUs can be a life saver for a severly dehydrated arboreal or tarantula used to wetter conditions in a last resort effort to revive them, I’ve seen many people attest to that.

I had never fully cleaned her enclosure until a month ago, I usually just spot cleaned as you said.

This was actually the first and only time I’ve ever fully cleaned a T enclosure, Mostly I was worried about the dust her web had collected over 7+ years but I did feel really bad removing the web itself, I tried to leave it alone for a long time because that seemed to make sense to me that they’d keep their burrows as is for their life pretty much.

I hadn’t been on this site since I first got her and my first pinktoe Mittens, I guess some views on ICUs and cleaning have changed because I remembered people saying they cleaned enclosures and rehoused pretty frequently, I even saw plenty of youtube videos detailing how. I honestly thought I was doing something wrong by not doing a full clean every year like I saw some people doing, guess I’m glad I did leave it alone for so long, though I regret not leaving it alone longer. I didn’t mean to stress her out with the cleaning or the ICU. Again I guess the information I had was incomplete or incorrect because all the reading I did on ICUs never once mentioned that arid species shouldn’t be given the treatment, the reading was all very generalized with no mention of species differences at all. I’m sorry I was so misinformed.

Small update: Cinnamon isn’t as curled as she was when I took those pictures and she’s still moving around pretty regularly (for her). Still keeping and eye on her and trying to disturb her as little as possible.

 

[Teal]

Her enclosure was extra dirty so I used the mildest soap I could think of to clean it, dawn is pretty safe as long as you thoroughly rinse and dry afterward.

While I now see that the ICU was a mistake for an arid tarantula they aren’t to be fully discounted. ICUs can be a life saver for a severly dehydrated arboreal or tarantula used to wetter conditions in a last resort effort to revive them, I’ve seen many people attest to that.

I had never fully cleaned her enclosure until a month ago, I usually just spot cleaned as you said.

This was actually the first and only time I’ve ever fully cleaned a T enclosure, Mostly I was worried about the dust her web had collected over 7+ years but I did feel really bad removing the web itself, I tried to leave it alone for a long time because that seemed to make sense to me that they’d keep their burrows as is for their life pretty much.

I hadn’t been on this site since I first got her and my first pinktoe Mittens, I guess some views on ICUs and cleaning have changed because I remembered people saying they cleaned enclosures and rehoused pretty frequently, I even saw plenty of youtube videos detailing how. I honestly thought I was doing something wrong by not doing a full clean every year like I saw some people doing, guess I’m glad I did leave it alone for so long, though I regret not leaving it alone longer. I didn’t mean to stress her out with the cleaning or the ICU. Again I guess the information I had was incomplete or incorrect because all the reading I did on ICUs never once mentioned that arid species shouldn’t be given the treatment, the reading was all very generalized with no mention of species differences at all. I’m sorry I was so misinformed.

Small update: Cinnamon isn’t as curled as she was when I took those pictures and she’s still moving around pretty regularly (for her). Still keeping and eye on her and trying to disturb her as little as possible.

"Extra dirty" and "dust"... these are animals that literally live in the dirt. I could see cleaning something like an arboreal enclosure that has poop all over the glass if you wanted, but there is nothing about a terrestrial enclosure that would make me want to clean it out entirely.

I am glad she is looking less curled!

 

[RezonantVoid]

it seems like you were misinformed, so i can understand. however, a terrestrial T will nearly never have an issue with dirt and dust unless its perhaps a tropical species. I know it may be unsightly to look at but quoting @Teal, i wouldnt worry unless the sides of the container were literally covered in poop. that will save stressing the T.

also glad to see she appears to recovering a bit

 

[Elithial]

The sides of the container just above the substrate was covered in poop, she seemed to like to go at the sides and never in the middle, which makes sense to me, why poop on your carpet y’know? If it had been normal dust that woulda been one thing but when we lived near the beach for a few years we got this really thick really weird dark blue dust that would get everywhere. Still never found out what caused that dust before we moved again.