P. antinous - Right Leg I, Coxa damage/growth

belewfripp

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 17, 2002
Messages
344
So, not used to having to ask for much in the way of advice, however I've simply never had this issue before. Yesterday when I was doing routine maintenance I could tell there was something off about my adult female P. antinous. In terms of activity/eating, she's completely normal and not behaving differently. However, when I looked into her retreat, the coxa of her leg I on the right side (her right) stood out from the surrounding dim light as having a bright patch of white something on it.

My first thought was fungus, as she is a WC adult female and I've only had her for about two months, and as such I'm still keeping her on the humid side and gradually acclimating her to drier conditions. Additionally, about two weeks prior I'd noticed that the underside of her cork bark retreat had small, bluish fuzzies that indicated some kind of fungus. Not seeing anything on the spider at the time, I removed the cork bark, got her a new one, and mixed in a substantial amount of drier substrate (I use coconut fiber), and resolved to simply let the tank dry out, making sure to keep a full water dish.

Having gone through all that a couple weeks ago, I was therefore predisposed to interpreting this as fungal in nature. Based on my memory of TTKG (I have a copy, but haven't read it in awhile), the coxae are one of the places where fungus can often attach itself, and the appearance seemed about right (somewhat scaly or textured in appearance, similar to Schultz' description of an orange peel). i know that gentian violet and methylene blue are two of the common items used to treat an external fungal infection. However, she also likes to defecate in her water dish, and it seemed as if maybe, going back to get a drink later, she could have gotten some excrement on that same spot.

So, I took a wet q-tip and worked on it for a bit and some of the white stuff did indeed come off, in flakes, fairly easily. I felt relieved, and, having removed her to a new, entirely dry tank (with full water dish and new hide, again, just to be safe) I decided I'd been wrong about the fungus diagnosis. However, this morning when checking in on her, the same coxal area was bright white in contrast to all of her others, indicating perhaps I'd missed some or was wrong. I did the wet q-tip routine again, and although the "whitish" appearance was reduced, I don't know if anything came off or if that was just the result of getting it damp.

Looking at it, the joint almost looks ulcerated or swollen in some way, compared to a normal coxa, and at this point I'm a bit at a loss to determine what's going on. This is the only part of her that is affected, and in all other activities she behaves normally. It's not sticky or gummy or runny. I uploaded some photos to my website, so that you can see. If you zoom in, you can get more detail on the first shot. the second is a bit blurry, so apologies for that. Links are below:

Pic 1
Pic 2

And yes, she kept her leg elevated like that for me for a good five minutes, and patiently allowed me to work on her coxa with the q-tip, as well. They may spook at sudden noises, but P. antinous are, at heart, extremely well-behaved. I've had many a Grammostola or Brachypelma that was more temperamental.

Any help is appreciated - thanks.
 

awiec

Arachnoprince
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
1,325
Possibly could be a scab of sorts, if that is the case then the best medicine is to leave it alone and see if she fixes it on her own with a molt; could be a while since she is an adult. All you can do right now is keep her comfortable and see what happens.
 

belewfripp

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 17, 2002
Messages
344
Small update: still not 100% sure on what exactly is going on with her leg, but nothing has spread further, and was finally able to obtain some gentian violet, which I applied to the whitish patches on the coxa of that leg. She continues to eat very well, 6 large crickets in the past week, so I'm fairly confident there is nothing serious going on. Suspect it's been awhile since her last molt, since she came to me looking pretty worn-out. She is set back up in a new tank, with closer-to-normal conditions for the species, though not as humid as she'd been kept previously. Also, most of the Ts I've ever had have been pretty diligent about relegating waste/bolus remnants to a corner of their tanks, but she tends to just leave stuff lying around. So, as a further preventative measure against the hazards of a more humid tank, I got some H. miles predatory mites (not actually H. miles anymore, but can't remember the new classification) and seeded her tank with some of those, as well.

I'll continue to keep a close eye on things, but I suspect that whatever the issue is, she will be fine.
 
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