Sudden DKS...

[Valarien]

I probably messed up her emergency care too...because last night before I went to bed she had uncurled her legs and walked over to the water dish to drink maybe? But she either did not want to drink or could not get up the short sides of the dish....I have dug down in the substrate now and the dish top is now flush with it but it is probably too late...she is nearly completely unresponsive and in a tight death curl.....

 

[Pseudo]

I probably messed up her emergency care too...because last night before I went to bed she had uncurled her legs and walked over to the water dish to drink maybe? But she either did not want to drink or could not get up the short sides of the dish....I have dug down in the substrate now and the dish top is now flush with it but it is probably too late...she is nearly completely unresponsive and in a tight death curl.....

Try placing her face area over the water bowl? Don't follow my advice until someone can confirm.

 

[Tryinhardbutstillfailin]

Try placing her face area over the water bowl? Don't follow my advice until someone can confirm.

If she's still responsive there's still a chance. But rather than just placing her over the dish I would go all in now and turn her over, drip water for her, and get that heat up like one of the other users mentioned. If you haven't already, take her and put her in an enclosure with ventilation and dry substrate as another member mentioned. This is all good advice.

Rather than saying you probably messed up and telling us what your t is doing, tell us what you are doing. What did you do last night, did you follow some or most of the other users advice?

We can't be in the room with you so the more detailed the better. Is your t possibly getting better?

And don't beat yourself up too badly, everyone makes mistakes. It's just something some people go through, rather than reevaluating your ability to be a tarantula keeper, look at what you did wrong and use it as a learning experience.

 

[Valarien]

If she's still responsive there's still a chance. But rather than just placing her over the dish I would go all in now and turn her over, drip water for her, and get that heat up like one of the other users mentioned. If you haven't already, take her and put her in an enclosure with ventilation and dry substrate as another member mentioned. This is all good advice.

Rather than saying you probably messed up and telling us what your t is doing, tell us what you are doing. What did you do last night, did you follow some or most of the other users advice?

We can't be in the room with you so the more detailed the better. Is your t possibly getting better?

And don't beat yourself up too badly, everyone makes mistakes. It's just something some people go through, rather than reevaluating your ability to be a tarantula keeper, look at what you did wrong and use it as a learning experience.

What I have done like the one person mentioned is put her back into her enclosure after drilling plenty of holes for proper ventilation and leaving the lid off of it so that it is a certainty that ventilation is not a problem. I have the heat cranked up to about 92 and I have a system in place that is maintaining that. And she had gotten better last night before I went to bed she had uncurled and had walked to the water dish as I said already but since then she's curled up and hasn't moved.

I have already flipped her over and placed a drop of water on her mouth and left her there for a little bit before flipping her back upright.

 

[Tryinhardbutstillfailin]

What I have done like the one person mentioned is put her back into her enclosure after drilling plenty of holes for proper ventilation and leaving the lid off of it so that it is a certainty that ventilation is not a problem. I have the heat cranked up to about 92 and I have a system in place that is maintaining that. And she had gotten better last night before I went to bed she had uncurled and had walked to the water dish as I said already but since then she's curled up and hasn't moved.

I have already flipped her over and placed a drop of water on her mouth and left her there for a little bit before flipping her back upright.

Make sure there is dry substrate in that enclosure and you cleaned out and sterilized the possible mold substance.

If your tarantula still had the water drop on her when you flipped her back over then she didn't drink the water. Keep her chelicerae over the water dish now just in case she wants to try and drink.

 

[Valarien]

Make sure there is dry substrate in that enclosure and you cleaned out and sterilized the possible mold substance.

If your tarantula still had the water drop on her when you flipped her back over then she didn't drink the water. Keep her chelicerae over the water dish now just in case she wants to try and drink.

Okay so she needs to be in a hot dry enclosure?

 

[Tryinhardbutstillfailin]

Okay so she needs to be in a hot dry enclosure?

The poster mentioned that keeping his t's at 90 degrees is how he treats early symptoms of DKS. That doesn't seem to be what your t is going through. Your tarantula was kept in a too humid and possibly moldy enclosure, DKS is usually unexplainable (some people don't think it's real and it's an extremely hot topic in regards to what might cause it) but either way we have a very good guess of what went wrong.

I would turn down the heat a little bit as well, if she's drying out in a death curl and is dehydrated that would probably drain the life out of her. I would slowly lower the temoerature to keep her in about 75 degrees now.

Get your t into the proper environment they actually live in and get her hydrated. I've seen a lot of these death curl posts and that's how people tarantulas make it through. Though sometimes it is too late, they'll give their t to a more experienced keeper to nurse it back to health or the tarantula dies.

 

[Valarien]

Ah yes, I didnt think of the fact you had her in 90 degrees. I was mostly worried about the mold.

The poster mentioned that keeping his t's at 90 degrees is how he treats early symptoms of DKS. That doesn't seem to be what your t is going through. Your tarantula was kept in a too humid and possibly moldy enclosure, DKS is usually unexplainable.

I would turn down the heat a little bit as well, if she's drying out in a death curl and is dehydrated that would probably drain the life out of her. I would slowly lower the temoerature to keep her in about 75 degrees now.

Get your t into the proper environment they actually live in and get her hydrated. I've seen a lot of these death curl posts and that's how people tarantulas make it through. Though sometimes it is too late, they'll give their t to a more experienced keeper to nurse it back to health or the tarantula dies.

You can always clean up the mold and sterilize the container, dampen (dampen not drench) new substrate, crank the heat to 90, and keep it well ventilated. See that works as well. This option might actually be better because if there is good ventilation then the damp substrate and high temperature might allow for some rehydration through her book lungs.

You have 2 options and both are pretty good. At this point whatever you try can't really make it worse.

I personally do not believe that white patch was mold. I had fed her the day before and that spot was right behind where her well lack for a better word butt is and where she would release waste. But I can replace the substrate and dampen it.

 

[Tryinhardbutstillfailin]

I personally do not believe that white patch was mold. I had fed her the day before and that spot was right behind where her well lack for a better word butt is and where she would release waste. But I can replace the substrate and dampen it.

Great, let us know how she does, good luck!

 

[boina]

Great, let us know how she does, good luck!

You wrote in another thread that you have your first tarantula since about a week - and now you are here dishing out advice on a very difficult situation. You got to be kidding me. Where do you get your confidence from?

1. There's absolutely no indication the tarantula is dehydrated - where did you get that from?

2. Your advice about temps is wild guessing - what is it even based on?

3. Sterilizing the substrate is bad.

4. New substrate??? Rehouse for a dying tarantula? Like, let's just stress her a bit more? For what???

5. Rehydration through her book lungs??? Is that a joke? They rehydrate by drinking, like every other animal.

6. Damp substrate for a tarantula that's suffering from exposure to stuffy conditions??? How does that make sense?

7... at this point I give up.

You seem to make things up as you go along. Your advice is about as bad as it gets. Since this is arachnoboards and people around here pride themselves on the good informationon this boards provides it needs to be said: Practically everything you posted is highly questionable or outright wrong.

OP, keep your tarantula warm and dry and try to give her water.

 

[Tryinhardbutstillfailin]

You wrote in another thread that you have your first tarantula since about a week - and now you are here dishing out advice on a very difficult situation. You got to be kidding me. Where do you get your confidence from?

1. There's absolutely no indication the tarantula is dehydrated - where did you get that from?

2. Your advice about temps is wild guessing - what is it even based on?

3. Sterilizing the substrate is bad.

4. New substrate??? Rehouse for a dying tarantula? Like, let's just stress her a bit more? For what???

5. Rehydration through her book lungs??? Is that a joke? They rehydrate by drinking, like every other animal.

6. Damp substrate for a tarantula that's suffering from exposure to stuffy conditions??? How does that make sense?

7... at this point I give up.

You seem to make things up as you go along. Your advice is about as bad as it gets. Since this is arachnoboards and people around here pride themselves on the good informationon this

I'm just trying to help, please don't put me on full blast. Yes, that is the first tarantula I've owned myself and it's stressed me out to no end but it is not the first tarantula I've helped taken care of. I've been helping care for them for 4 years. I'm not trying to come off as a know it all, I'm just trying to help. I'm sorry if I've given any bad advice.

1. Many other were suggesting she should be drip fed water, she's gone into a curl supposedly trying to reach her water dish. I thought it could be possible the tarantula got dehydrated somewhere in this process.

2. I only suggested two temperatures. I said that if it were me I would keep her at 75 degrees, this is a little less broad than saying warm as warm is a very loose term. As for the 90s degrees that was not originally suggested by me.

3. I meant sterilize the container if there was mold. Which the OP said he didn't think there was.

4. The owner already had her moved to an ICU, she's already stressed. This goes along with your 6th point, I assumed the substrate was already damp and I orginally suggested the t be kept dry just like you but said that with a lot of ventilation it's possibly that with moist substrate it could help. I did not believe in this nor should I have suggested this and I apologize.

5. I read that on a seperate arachnoboards posts with a similar predicament and people seemed to agree with it. I threw it out there and I deeply apologize for the misinformation.

 

[Valarien]

You wrote in another thread that you have your first tarantula since about a week - and now you are here dishing out advice on a very difficult situation. You got to be kidding me. Where do you get your confidence from?

1. There's absolutely no indication the tarantula is dehydrated - where did you get that from?

2. Your advice about temps is wild guessing - what is it even based on?

3. Sterilizing the substrate is bad.

4. New substrate??? Rehouse for a dying tarantula? Like, let's just stress her a bit more? For what???

5. Rehydration through her book lungs??? Is that a joke? They rehydrate by drinking, like every other animal.

6. Damp substrate for a tarantula that's suffering from exposure to stuffy conditions??? How does that make sense?

7... at this point I give up.

You seem to make things up as you go along. Your advice is about as bad as it gets. Since this is arachnoboards and people around here pride themselves on the good informationon this boards provides it needs to be said: Practically everything you posted is highly questionable or outright wrong.

OP, keep your tarantula warm and dry and try to give her water.

So what should I do? Leave her in her current enclosure that has the damp substrate that caused the stagnant humid conditions that put her in this situation? Just now with its improved ventilation?

 

[cold blood]

OP, keep your tarantula warm and dry and try to give her water

So what should I do? Leave her in her current enclosure that has the damp substrate that caused the stagnant humid conditions that put her in this situation? Just now with its improved ventilation?

See the above quote.

 

[Valarien]

See the above quote.

Thanks for not really answering my question....
I have moved her into the lid of her current enclosure with dryer substrate in it and placed her on the cusp of the water dish which is flush with the substrate. Her pedipalps and fangs are just over the edge so water is readily available for her to drink with no effort needed on her part. I am going to keep the temperature around 90 degrees.

 

[cold blood]

Thanks for not really answering my question....
I have moved her into the lid of her current enclosure with dryer substrate in it and placed her on the cusp of the water dish which is flush with the substrate. Her pedipalps and fangs are just over the edge so water is readily available for her to drink with no effort needed on her part. I am going to keep the temperature around 90 degrees.

But I did, I answered with an agreement of the advice already given....hence the quote I placed above your question and directed you to.

I would only aim for such high temps if it appears to be suffering DKS symptoms. If its not, keep it warm, but you don't need to go excessively high.

 

[Valarien]

But I did, I answered with an agreement of the advice already given....hence the quote I placed above your question and directed you to.

I would only aim for such high temps if it appears to be suffering DKS symptoms. If its not, keep it warm, but you don't need to go excessively high.

The person you were quoting did not in that reply define what warm was so that is vague and useless. That same person however had previously told me to keep it 85-95 so I was going off of the information available to me from that same person you were just agreeing with.
I am not sure what else I was supposed to do with the suggestion of keep her warm.

 

[boina]

The person you were quoting did not in that reply define what warm was so that is vague and useless. That same person however had previously told me to keep it 85-95 so I was going off of the information available to me from that same person you were just agreeing with.
I am not sure what else I was supposed to do with the suggestion of keep her warm.

I'm sorry for the confusion with the term "warm". Unfortunately there is no specific temperature I can give you that will help, I was vague on purpose. 85 to 95°C only applies to tarantulas suffering from DKS - I thought I was clearer about that then I obviously was. Iwould probably keep a sick tarantula from a hot climate warmer than room temps, but what temperature I can't tell you. No one ever tested various temps and found one that works. You will have to make you own decision on this.

 

[Valarien]

She is less curled up than she was before and less twitchy as well.

 

[BC1579]

Just out of curiosity- OP, is this your first sling?

 

[Valarien]

As of this evening she has regressed. Right back to a tight death curl again. Also in response to BC1579 yes she is my first sling.