Sick Rosie!

[Zayshah]

I've searched everywhere that I possibly can, and I still have no answers as to what might be wrong with my G. Rosea.
About a week and a half to two weeks ago, when she was trying to climb up the glass of her enclosure, I noticed two white spots below the opening of her mouth and right above her labia. I pulled her out, worried it was a fungal infection of some sort, and tried to gently wipe at it with a moist Q-Tip. It came off easily, mostly. There was no recurrance intil last night, when I saw them again; but worse. It was the same white stuff, but it was sort of growing outwards weirdly. It doesn't look like a fungus or mold, no spores- it actually looks like lime deposit, but that doesn't make any sense to me. I also scraped that off, and kept a sample of it on the Q-Tip. I was planning on taking it to an Entomology proffessor at a college or university, but there are none in my state that offer any courses on veterinarian entomology. I don't want to take her to a vet, as I know that they will likely not have anyone there who is qualified to treat arachnids.
I bought her as an adult and have had her for a few months, with no molt yet. It's going into Autumn, so she's slowing down a bit as well. She has also been fasting for a few weeks, however when I put a cricket in with her she attacks it like she's hungry before dropping it and leaving it paralyzed and dying. This is the first Rosie I've ever had, so I'm getting to the point where I'm wondering if any of this behavior is normal (I at first thought she was just slowing down for seasonal change, but now I'm not so sure.) I'm hoping that her behavior is because she is close to entering a molt or some such, but I would really like to know what the white stuff is before it has any chance of harming her. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[reverendsterlin]

my first thought is T poop, maybe if she walked over some fresh it got on her. The consistency sounds right, still it could be something else. Pics will help if it reoccurs. Someone else may suggest some other cause, I can not think of anything from both the mouth and labia or booklungs. I hope I am right instead of something worse. Rosies will often fast for months on end, sometimes for over a year. Killing an intruder may be a normal reaction.
Rev

 

[Zayshah]

Hm... I never thought that it could be feces. The only reason I'm not too keen on that idea is that it was on the same spot both times. That puts up a good point though, just because it is the same consistency and I can't see it being lime deposits.
So long as the fasting with killing sounds Ok, I'll keep an eye on her and take pictures to post if it comes back. She's got me all worried

 

[insekta]

I don't want to scare you, but I would look closely to see if nematodes or yeast are a possibility. It's not often I get to say this, but I really do hope it's poop in its mouth.

 

[Zayshah]

UPDATE:
I've been checking on her whenever she 'climbs' the glass and cleaning her mouth whenever the white stuff appeared. After doing some more research on it, I believe it is (was?) a yeast infection. However, since I couldn't find any pictures and can't take any decent-quality ones myself, I can't be sure.
Later that night after I posted, more white stuff came out of her mouth. I swabbed it off. I set her near her water bowl, which she immediately ran to and drank an almost obscenely large amount from. The morning after there was white stuff in the bowl (it did not appear wormlike, I don't think it could be nematodes. It sounds unlikely to me), which I immediately took out of her cage and disinfected. She drank more when I put her now refilled water dish in, and as of tonight there is no more white goo. She is also less lethargic and looking better already, I am hoping that she somehow managed to puke it up or something of the sort. I don't know if it's even physically possible for a T to vomit, actually... It sounds odd, but I sincerely hope that's what happened. I just want whatever it is out Maybe she just had an upset tummy?
I'm going to offer a cricket tonight and see if she ignores it or attacks it. If she ignores it whatever, she's been fasting for a while anyways, but if she attacks and drops again I'll be a bit concerned. Other than that, though, she seems to be improving She has not started digging like OCD yet, though. When she does that again I'll assume she's all better, as it's her very favorite thing to do.

 

[insekta]

The white goo makes me certain it's likely yeast. I'm not sure if there's anything you can do beyond keeping things as clean as possible and offering plenty of clean water. I'm glad she's behaving better, as that's a good sign that she's feeling better. I'll do some digging and see if there's anything I can find on treatments. Doubtful but worth a try.

 

[Zayshah]

That would make me smile, thank you for your help
My hope right now is that it's not too early to be saying that she's acting better... although she truly does look and react better now than she has in days.

 

[insekta]

Okay, first, you don't want to know what popped up when I googled "tarantula yeast mouth infection." Seriously, you just don't. It will be a long time recovering for me.

After a few meandering links I found a few hints that the white goo itself may be a result of a bacterial infection from nematodes, and not the nematodes themselves. I'd definitely look closer for signs of nematodes, just in case.

This seems an interesting read. Something about buttplugs and nematodes.

I'm still looking for a yeast infection. (Ok, no matter what I type it's not coming out right, but hell, I'm just going to type and steel myself for the onslaught of snickers). Somewhere there has to be a clue...

 

[halfwaynowhere]

maybe adding a tiny bit of probiotics to the water bowl? Just a teensy amount? You can get acidophilus capsules at the drugstore, if you break one open and put a tiny amount of the contents inside the water bowl, it should help fight off the yeast, if that's what it is... Just an idea, although I've never experienced this with Ts...

 

[insekta]

Probiotics is an idea, but how do we know whether the flora that's good for us would be good for a T? I'd be hesitant to introduce it to my spider without knowing the result. I guess if there's nothing left to try, I'd probably do it. After all, who would think of super-gluing a tarantula back together? Obviously someone tried it!

Here
and here are a couple of bits of info, although not as in-depth as I'd like.

I have to try to go to bed soon, but definitely keep me posted. In retrospect I remember having an avic that had a similar issue, but I didn't know anything back then and she died. I hope you have better luck than I.

 

[Zayshah]

I love these forums, you guys are all so sweet Thank you so so so much for all the links, I will be sure to comb through them. I'll update this board in a few days unless there is another outbreak, in which I'll post an early reply. I'm not going to put anything in the water, just because so little is known about tarantula microbiology and what's harmful for them vs. what's not. Otherwise I definately would.

(Ha... yeast infection tarantula... I feel your pain. I went to google image search to find some sort of visual to compare, no no no bad idea.)

 

[Zayshah]

UPDATE:
Well, it's been just about a week- and she's doing fine She's still fasting, but now she's actually moving when she is poked or if i blow on her lightly. When she was sick she wouldn't even twitch, now she'll jump forward a bit like she should. She's also begun to dig a new little burrow, so she must be feeling much better C: Whatever it was that was making her sick seems to be gone now, thank goodness! There was no recurrances since the last post, so hopefully whatever it was is gone for good.