Brachypelma smithi in critical condition?

Austin S.

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She is my fav amongst fav's. I got her as a sling 8 years ago. She is a hefty 7" female. I even have a subadult male for her to come... She has not eatin for about 2 months. Her abdomen looks shriveld, but she has a clean water dish, every day! I have never seen her drink out of it either, only hover over it... her behavior is very weird... she only molted around 5-6 months ago. I'm very confused right now. It could be old age yea, but I highly doubt it. I can't lose this girl, not right now..
Here are some pics, she is in ICU now.

Whats wrong with this picture...

She wont even drink this... just hovers over it...


What do you all think? Can I do anything further?
 

cheetah13mo

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It could be just about anything but I don't see anything visually wrong with her. What size was she when you got her? If nothing jumps out at you or you can't remember anything that might have happened, I'm going with old age.
 

Austin S.

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She was no even an inch. I was saying old age too. But abdomen is kinda shriveled and such, she wont drink, wont eat. I dont know man...
 

cheetah13mo

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It's just about gotta be old age. I know that doesn't seem right but that's the obvious thing since nothing else is evident. I could be wrong but that's what I think it is. good luck.
 

beetleman

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hmm:? she dosen't look that bad at what i can see, i have a smithi for about 19yrs raised from a sling,she'll go off feed every now and then but her abdomen never gets any smaller,mine molts once a year, i keep her very dry/waterdish i never see her drink at all,and mine is a fat one, as for yours i would keep her dry and have a waterdish in there anyway,they don't like constant moisture in the container,try to feed 1 cricket at a time,maybe the movement will trigger her to eat or try feeding a prekilled 1,w/tweezers not sure though,i wish i can help more,i don't know why her abdomen is small,is she really sluggish? i hope she will be ok, they are great ts. goodluck.
 

Austin S.

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hmm:? she dosen't look that bad at what i can see, i have a smithi for about 19yrs raised from a sling,she'll go off feed every now and then but her abdomen never gets any smaller,mine molts once a year, i keep her very dry/waterdish i never see her drink at all,and mine is a fat one, as for yours i would keep her dry and have a waterdish in there anyway,they don't like constant moisture in the container,try to feed 1 cricket at a time,maybe the movement will trigger her to eat or try feeding a prekilled 1,w/tweezers not sure though,i wish i can help more,i don't know why her abdomen is small,is she really sluggish? i hope she will be ok, they are great ts. goodluck.
She's not really sluggish, just very calm. Should try and throw in a cricket in her ICU container and see if she eats it?
 

Talkenlate04

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Try this for me................ Gently pick her up. With tweezers touch her fangs, have a gentle but firm hold on her when you do this. See if you can get her to voluntarily move her fangs. If she does move them and you dont have to pry at them to get them to move this eliminates what I think it might be which is nematodes.

Last fall I had a female waste away, in the later stages I found she could not move her fangs it was like they were frozen in place. This prevented her from drinking and eating. I never saw a thing, no white goo, but I did have a particular sweet smell coming from her.
So also open the ICU lid and if you smell a somewhat sweet smell, but not sugar sweet, nasty sweet I dont even know how to decribe it then that is another indication of nematodes.

After my female passed I observed her for a few weeks. The smell was horrible, but eventually nematodes started coming out of her mouth parts.
Do those two things and let us know what you find.
 

Austin S.

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Try this for me................ Gently pick her up. With tweezers touch her fangs, have a gentle but firm hold on her when you do this. See if you can get her to voluntarily move her fangs. If she does move them and you dont have to pry at them to get them to move this eliminates what I think it might be which is nematodes.

Last fall I had a female waste away, in the later stages I found she could not move her fangs it was like they were frozen in place. This prevented her from drinking and eating. I never saw a thing, no white goo, but I did have a particular sweet smell coming from her.
So also open the ICU lid and if you smell a somewhat sweet smell, but not sugar sweet, nasty sweet I dont even know how to decribe it then that is another indication of nematodes.

After my female passed I observed her for a few weeks. The smell was horrible, but eventually nematodes started coming out of her mouth parts.
Do those two things and let us know what you find.
I am sorry to hear about your lose. Okay I tried what you said. I had the firmist grip I could ever get on her, she was just to big man! Everytime she would get out of my grip ( the last grip I pretty much cupped my whole hand around her) and she still got out. For being such a calm spider, she had some amazing strength. She also kicked up a storm, I have U hairs all over me... I didnt try and grip her fangs with the tweezers, only gently poke at them and tried "prying" at them, but the little I did, did no good. She does not smell either...
 

Talkenlate04

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Well thats not good news. But so little is known about what illnesses a T can have and what to do if anything when those things happen.
Her fangs not moving is a classic sign of nematodes. But I am not jumping on that boat yet. You have her in an ICU so try leaving her there for a while week maybe and see if she perks up some. Then you want to transfer her back to a regular home, but smaller. Medium kritter keeper or a 5gal will be fine. Make sure when you move her back she has full access to water, then resume offering prey every few days.
I got my fingers crossed for you man I hope this works out.
 

Pink_tarantula

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aww...

Dude i feel for you, Really seriously. I have a deadly atack of parasites last year killed two of my snakes
100 leopard geckos
a couple baby dragons
my dog
:(
I hope she's fine she might be in pre-moult by b.smithi spiderling didn't eat for three months before moulting
 

beetleman

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She's not really sluggish, just very calm. Should try and throw in a cricket in her ICU container and see if she eats it?
yeah, you can try 1 live cricket just to see what happens,if it is still there after a while them remove it,it's worth a try. good luck.
 

Austin S.

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She did not eat the cricket. I'm going to put some water in an eye dropper of some sort and see if I can drop a couple drops of water on her mouth and see if she drinks it. Maybe that'll help a little.
 

julesaussies

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parasites?

Dude i feel for you, Really seriously. I have a deadly atack of parasites last year killed two of my snakes
100 leopard geckos
a couple baby dragons
my dog
Wow - that is a horrible loss. What kind of parasites infected your snakes, geckos and dog like that? Did it start with the reptiles or the dog. i love my exotics but would die if something happened to my dogs!! julie
 

Austin S.

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I'm wondering that also... Anyways, watter drops did not work. She freaked out too much, i could not even hold her on her back long enough to see if she was even drinking or not. I'm all outa ideas now! My guess is just wait, maybe she is going to molt...
 

Talkenlate04

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True she might be gearing up for a molt. Sometimes when something is wrong with a T they will hurry up and molt to correct the problem, they can do this without eating. If she does molt again shes going to have a really tiny butt thats for sure.
 

T-chick

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I am guessing you have never heard of putting your T in the fridge for about 15 minutes or less to "cool" them off. It makes them much more handleable.
I would hazard a guess that you are stressing her out more by trying all these remedies.
I would keep the ICU thing going.. keep her warm, the paper towels moist and keep her in a dark spot.
When you open it up, spray water on her and near her, or dribble it.
Try a mashed up roach or a squished super worm or a mashed headed cricket.
On another board a member hand fed his T when it lost both fangs to a bad molt.
He fed an opened up squished super worm for a few months and she molted out just fine..
Just a thought good luck
 

Austin S.

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On another board a member hand fed his T when it lost both fangs to a bad molt.
He fed an opened up squished super worm for a few months and she molted out just fine..
Just a thought good luck
That other member may have been me, if you're not talking about another site that is. I'm going to cool her down, make some cricket soup, put it in eye dropper, and go from there. I'll keep you all informed!

Austin
 

P. Novak

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That other member may have been me, if you're not talking about another site that is. I'm going to cool her down, make some cricket soup, put it in eye dropper, and go from there. I'll keep you all informed!

Austin
Good luck Austin! Sorry to hear about your B.smithi, I hope she doesn't die and pulls through for you man. Good luck!
 
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