TL; DR: I'm not sure if my A. hentzi suffered a fall, had a molt/housing issue, or if this is DKS.
Long winded context, but I wasn't sure what was relevant to figuring out what happened?
During feeding this weekend I realized my A. hentzi sling had lost a leg. I didn't see any oozing so I didn't apply corn starch, but I did move it first onto a surface with easier access to water and then into the smaller enclosure in case it was a fall. I'd had it in the larger enclosure for about two months with no issue, and I've had the sling for just over a year. I found its most recent molt a little over a week ago.
It isn't moving a lot, but I tried to catch some video of how unusual its movement is. When it walks it's almost like the back legs want to curl under, especially on the side where the leg is missing. It is also "flexing" the entire body periodically while hanging on the wall of the enclosure.
There have been no recent changes to husbandry except the onset of winter weather in my area. The slings I have are double enclosed and have had a heat mat under the secondary enclosure since nights got cold in mid August. There's a low power, two-fan setup on the top for ventilation. Substrate is straight coir, and it isn't overly moist - the sling was burrowing normally (and staying invisible) until the day I discovered the injury.
This particular sling has been on hunger strike for a few weeks, but I've been offering weekly anyway. The feeders come from my own colonies - typically this one gets mealworms but I've also given dubia nymphs when they're plentiful. About 4 months ago I supplemented the mealworms with store bought cups, and got a few more breeding size roaches from a local keeper but haven't seen any red flags in colony health.
The room they're in isn't chemically cleaned, we haven't flea treated our cats recently, and the water source hasn't changed (dechlorinated tap). There's a very small chance that black mold has gotten into the air - our windows are unfortunately prone to it - but we've been keeping up on cleaning that so I'm not convinced it's the issue. Everyone has a 12 hour day/night cycle and I try not to mess with them outside of visual checks and weekly hands-on maintenance. None of the other slings I can see without digging up are having any issues, and my juveniles are behaving normally.
Any insight or advice is appreciated! I'm keeping an eye on the injury site and keeping water available, but otherwise I'm not sure what to do.
Long winded context, but I wasn't sure what was relevant to figuring out what happened?
During feeding this weekend I realized my A. hentzi sling had lost a leg. I didn't see any oozing so I didn't apply corn starch, but I did move it first onto a surface with easier access to water and then into the smaller enclosure in case it was a fall. I'd had it in the larger enclosure for about two months with no issue, and I've had the sling for just over a year. I found its most recent molt a little over a week ago.
It isn't moving a lot, but I tried to catch some video of how unusual its movement is. When it walks it's almost like the back legs want to curl under, especially on the side where the leg is missing. It is also "flexing" the entire body periodically while hanging on the wall of the enclosure.
There have been no recent changes to husbandry except the onset of winter weather in my area. The slings I have are double enclosed and have had a heat mat under the secondary enclosure since nights got cold in mid August. There's a low power, two-fan setup on the top for ventilation. Substrate is straight coir, and it isn't overly moist - the sling was burrowing normally (and staying invisible) until the day I discovered the injury.
This particular sling has been on hunger strike for a few weeks, but I've been offering weekly anyway. The feeders come from my own colonies - typically this one gets mealworms but I've also given dubia nymphs when they're plentiful. About 4 months ago I supplemented the mealworms with store bought cups, and got a few more breeding size roaches from a local keeper but haven't seen any red flags in colony health.
The room they're in isn't chemically cleaned, we haven't flea treated our cats recently, and the water source hasn't changed (dechlorinated tap). There's a very small chance that black mold has gotten into the air - our windows are unfortunately prone to it - but we've been keeping up on cleaning that so I'm not convinced it's the issue. Everyone has a 12 hour day/night cycle and I try not to mess with them outside of visual checks and weekly hands-on maintenance. None of the other slings I can see without digging up are having any issues, and my juveniles are behaving normally.
Any insight or advice is appreciated! I'm keeping an eye on the injury site and keeping water available, but otherwise I'm not sure what to do.
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