Beginning symptoms of nematode's?

[Austin S.]

I have had this female smithi since she was 1/2". Now shes pushing 6". She has been taken very well care of, but the past week or so, something has been brought to my attention. She now has started to hold up/curl her palps under her like she was eating something, but also as if a tarantula has nematodes. She is also hovering her water dish most of the day. Tonight, I picked her up, looked under her, but I did not see and of the little "white worm puss ball" oozing out of her chelicarae/mouth. But around it is very moist, but it's not like she is drooling or anything, and it is not moist on the sternum, just around the chel. Another thing, I'm not sure if it helps, but when I urged her to move, she did put ALL legs down to walk, during walking she wasnt hold up her palps. Anyone have any ideas? I'm not too concerned about this, YET. If it continues the way it is going for a couple weeks, and or if I DO see the nematodes, then yeah, I know there is nothing to do and it will really suck.

I'll be more than happy to post pics if that would help. Thank you guys in response.

Austin

 

[Anastasia]

here, read dis http://giantspiders.com/article12.html
hope its helps

 

[LaneyKaz]

I haven't noticed too many of the symptoms of nematodes, but i have noticed that my smithii has been pretty restless and i also noticed this white stuff near its mouth...i'm posting a pic so if anyone who has had a T infected with them, please let me know if this is what it looks like..maybe i'm just being paranoid, but i'd rather know for sure.

 

[coolguyluke]

I noticed some white foam or something around my P. ornata's mouth about a week ago. I was getting worried, but when I looked an hour later, it was gone. Havent seen it since. Two days ago when I went to put more water in the waterbowl, I saw several small objects that reminded me of sesame seeds at the bottom of the bowl. Any ideas anyone? I heard that if it's nematodes, the spider wont eat, but it's been eating fine. The palps seem to be ok as well.
I dont have a microscope or anything, but I used my jeweler's loupe, and they just looked like....sesame seeds.

 

[aliceinwl]

I'd try to dab some of the white residue off and swirl it in some water or alcohol and look at it with some magnification to see if you can detect any nematodes.

-Alice

 

[Austin S.]

I noticed some white foam or something around my P. ornata's mouth about a week ago. I was getting worried, but when I looked an hour later, it was gone. Havent seen it since. Two days ago when I went to put more water in the waterbowl, I saw several small objects that reminded me of sesame seeds at the bottom of the bowl. Any ideas anyone? I heard that if it's nematodes, the spider wont eat, but it's been eating fine. The palps seem to be ok as well.
I dont have a microscope or anything, but I used my jeweler's loupe, and they just looked like....sesame seeds.

This exact thing happend to the smithi today also. I cleaned and re filled her water dish last night and today there were little "white pellets" at the bottom of it, kinda looks like her poop. But I dunno. I've caught her a couple times taken a dip in the water dish also. I'm not too worried, she hasnt help up her palps today as from what I could tell. I'll keep my fingers crossed though.

 

[coolguyluke]

Mine hasn't been hanging out around the water dish at all. I'm wondering if those sesame seed things were clumps of calcium crystals or something? I dont know. Havent seen anything else like this happen lately. Oh well

 

[abarth]

Just saw my pokies mouth, and she has some white stuff around her mouth.
She's not eating and barely reacting to whatever i may do to her.
Read about nematodes, and it doesn't appear to be it.
The stuff around her mouth seems to be dry.
Does anyone know what it might be?

The vagans I have also has "white pellets" in the waterdish some times, and it's poop. I've seen her place the rear over the dish and releaving herself.

 

[edie]

This exact thing happend to the smithi today also. I cleaned and re filled her water dish last night and today there were little "white pellets" at the bottom of it, kinda looks like her poop. But I dunno. I've caught her a couple times taken a dip in the water dish also. I'm not too worried, she hasnt help up her palps today as from what I could tell. I'll keep my fingers crossed though.

mine do that too, it is their poop i'm pretty sure, for me it usually looks just the same as it does in the walls of their tanks

 

[coolguyluke]

Yeah. It is poop.

 

[Snipes]

Austin, i have noticed that you are collecting wild A. henzis by the for sale board. Are you being careful to keep the wild caughts separated from the others?

 

[Cirith Ungol]

The sesame seeds are indeed poop (and my vagans poops in the water dish only ). Poop colour can range between anything from near black to near white.

 

[treeweta]

nemadtodes??

that white paste may NOT be nematodes, if you do a search under my posts you will see an on going issue i had with my T blondis, they all had white paste, 2 large slings died quickly after it appeared but 2 large juveniles pulled through after being sickly for months and now have each moulted twice since being ill and now fine (aside from one who lost her fangs last moult!). for me it seemed to coincide with feeding them crickets which may have been infected. The nematode symptoms seem to be more a nasty material that looks like yellow matted/mushy cotton wool, wheres this paste is more like a dried toothpaste type material. I'll agree the white balls in the water dish is poop, my spiders often poo in there right after I clean it out!

once i changed to orange head roaches ive had no issues with my spiders, i also kept the substrate totally dry but I inc. the humidity by having the cages in a larger tank and that had some water in the bottom , this ensured air humidity but a dry substrate.

treeweta.

 

[Leiurus87]

that white paste may NOT be nematodes, if you do a search under my posts you will see an on going issue i had with my T blondis, they all had white paste, 2 large slings died quickly after it appeared but 2 large juveniles pulled through after being sickly for months and now have each moulted twice since being ill and now fine (aside from one who lost her fangs last moult!). for me it seemed to coincide with feeding them crickets which may have been infected. The nematode symptoms seem to be more a nasty material that looks like yellow matted/mushy cotton wool, wheres this paste is more like a dried toothpaste type material. I'll agree the white balls in the water dish is poop, my spiders often poo in there right after I clean it out!

once i changed to orange head roaches ive had no issues with my spiders, i also kept the substrate totally dry but I inc. the humidity by having the cages in a larger tank and that had some water in the bottom , this ensured air humidity but a dry substrate.

treeweta.

Sounds like a classic bacterial infection to me. Hopefully your T will pull through. keep a close eye!

 

[SavageDigital]

Visible symptoms...

...stutter movement, odd position of palps.

 

[Austin S.]

Austin, i have noticed that you are collecting wild A. henzis by the for sale board. Are you being careful to keep the wild caughts separated from the others?

Oh yeah, they are def far away from the rest of my collection. In the other room to be exact, I did this only because of that reason. She had the symptoms even before I started collecting them. As of right now, no white puss is visible, but she still is not eating. She molted not even 4 months ago, and shes a very large adult, she shouldnt molt until around Sept. I imagine, but maybe she will?? :? I'm kluless as of what is going on with her... Wish there was something I could do! :wall:

 

[treeweta]

Visible symptoms...

...stutter movement, odd position of palps.

WOW, that is quite obviously nematodes from the picture you show. Very different from the white paste that my blondi had.

 

[coolguyluke]

Yeah the whole process I was explaining before took an hour. I happened to look over and see it smearing the stuff on the glass. An hour later it was gone, and the mouth was clean. Maybe my Pokie eats his poop. What a sicko! Definately different from the nematodes pic shown above.
Luke