dyskenetic syndrome, or "THE TWITCHES:

TalonAWD

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Talon, after it started twitching a little like in the video, how long after that did it die?
Couple months later. The DKS was "All of a sudden" One day she was fine than the next she flipped out. At first I thought I startled her with a cricket but then she did it the next day and the next and thats when I knew she was a victim.
She continued to eat initially but it got harder and harder for her to catch prey. She became afraid of them (at least thats what it looked like). She lasted a month after I first realized she had it.
Her symptoms looked alot worst than the video posted earlier in this thread. It was horrifying! Literally her legs were a blur and all over the place with the slightest touch. She even could not use her ultricating hairs correctly.
 

Roland Slinger

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Couple months later. The DKS was "All of a sudden" One day she was fine than the next she flipped out. At first I thought I startled her with a cricket but then she did it the next day and the next and thats when I knew she was a victim.
She continued to eat initially but it got harder and harder for her to catch prey. She became afraid of them (at least thats what it looked like). She lasted a month after I first realized she had it.
Her symptoms looked alot worst than the video posted in the thread. It was horrifying! Literally her legs were a blur and all over the place with the slightest touch. She even could not use her ultricating hairs correctly.
Oh, so one day she was fine and the next she completely flipped out? It didn't start with those small twitches that got worse and worse?

Mine has been doing them for a week or two now but it doesn't seem to be getting worse (maybe I'm being naive here for my own sake, not sure).

Also, after she died on you, did you do anything differently with your other Ts? For me, all I do is fill up her water dish with water from the sink (our sink water isn't too clean and there's a bit of white stuff in it, I think its just excess salt or something. Was yours the same at the time?). And feed her crickets from the LPS.

So for me if it does have DK (god I hope not), it would be for one of three reasons:
Unpurified tap water
LPS crickets might have something in them
Too much interbreeding
 

TalonAWD

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All my T's get bottled water. Never ever from the tap. Crickets from the LPS and crickets eat fish flakes high in protein (47%). No other tarantula got the symptoms and they are perfectly fine. All the enclosures are next to each other and each enclosure is made with the same exact materials. (I custom made all of them) Even the driftwood is all from the same plant and all were baked at 400F when constructing the enclosures.
The twitches were there for a couple of months. It more was random than frequent. Thats was one reason why I made the video, to ask about it but no one knew why she did this nor anyone said they saw the same behavior until now that I read your post. So I can't say the twitch is the beginings of the disease. But it may be:?
 

Roland Slinger

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My old A. geniculata did the same thing. I called it the twitch. When she got to be 6" she came down with Diskinetic syndrome. She would flip out with the slightest movements. Her legs would fling everywhere and she would move histerically fast with no coordination. Eating was a task for her as well and it almost looked like she was afraid of the crickets. She lasted a month after the symptoms. Now I don't know if all Genics do this behavior of the twitch but I'm going to get another one soon and hope never to see this. My first genic many years ago never did this behavior of the twitch. I never found out what happened to her to get DKS and all my other T's were fine.

Heres the video. I'm sure this is what you are referring to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW2zn6G1b3w
To people who believe their T died from DK:
Did your T start doing those small thrusts like in the video, right before it went on the fritz?
 

Roland Slinger

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Doing a lot more research it seems the #1 and most logical cause would be pesticides.

A few weeks ago (right around the time it started but it might actually be a few days after I noticed the humping, no %100 sure), I fed the LPS crickets some lettuce salad slices from those bags with salads in them and also a couple of slices of cucumbers. At the time I wasn't thinking about the pesticides and only came to my head a few hours after I fed them, but I brought it up to my mom anyway and she reassured me saying the spider won't die from eating so little (if any) pesticides one time only. I also did spray my room with Febreeze a couple of times since the T got here but I made sure it didn't get very close to the tank.

So after my online research I believe (regardless if my T has DK or not) that its caused by pesticides.
http://atshq.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5143&highlight=dyskinetic+syndrome
http://atshq.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9489&highlight=dyskinetic+syndrome
http://atshq.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17194&highlight=dyskinetic+syndrome
 
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Zebo777

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What kinda substrat were you using? If you mind me asking I wonder about the stuff in peat moss that grows when it gets wet
 

TalonAWD

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What kinda substrat were you using? If you mind me asking I wonder about the stuff in peat moss that grows when it gets wet
Sphagnum peat moss. The same I have been using for over 6 years.
 
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Bark

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I have had tarantulas for over 9 years and have never fed a mouse to one before. I have also never seen DKS before.

Two weeks ago I fed a mouse to a male pamphobeteus platyomma who is one or 2 molts away from maturity. He now definitely has DKS. Someone who had a snake gave me this one because his snake had died. I have no idea where the mouse came from or what he fed it, but it could have ingested pesticides or poison for all I know. Heck that could be why his snake is dead. Who knows?

I won't be feeding mice to my Ts anymore. Nor will I be accepting free food from anyone.
 

edesign

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I never fed any of mine anything but crickets and had multiple cases of this syndrome from small juvies to adults so I would hesitate to consider mice or other verts as being the source of the problem. I have to also note that it did not appear to be contagious...or at least not too contagious as the T's I kept next to the ones that developed this problem never caught it. All of my inverts ate from the same food source (crix) but only a couple developed this CNS issue. I never fed my feeder crix vegetables, just tap or distilled water and occasionally a few pieces of cat food but they rarely stuck around long enough to eat much. :D
 
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nexen

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thread necro.

I had a case of DKS that I'm almost 100% positive was due to transferral of Frontline flea & tick medication from my dog to my T.
 

Bark

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I have to also note that it did not appear to be contagious...or at least not too contagious as the T's I kept next to the ones that developed this problem never caught it. All of my inverts ate from the same food source
I had a b Smith and a n Chromatus right next to the cage of the poor fellow with DKS. Both seem to be doing great. Normally all of mine eat from the same group of crickets too. I can never be sure, but the fact is I fed this T and this T alone a mouse and he hasn't eaten anything else since. I'm not saying all mice are bad, but I had such a bad experience with this one that I won't use them again.

Do you put your DKS sufferers down?
 

RedDragonfly

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Further questions:

We just noticed this in our collection in 2 slings: Hmac and GBB. Both have their legs going up in the air and twitching when not trying to walk. They have both being in icu since yesterday.

We have no pesticide issues or fungi issues in their habitats and none of the other 300+ in the collection show any similar issues. Tap water is only used in expanding the coir substrate prior to making habitats. We use the same spring water for all our Ts and for poison dart frogs and any other exotics.

To anyone who has had them molt out or has other information which might be helpful, please advise.

Thanks.
 

TalonAWD

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edesign

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Reddragonfly, everything I have seen written about DKS over the past four or five years is in this post in some form or another. Bottom line is that nobody seems to know for sure what causes it, what it is exactly (bacteria? virus? neurochemical failure?) or how to cure it. satanslilhelper is the only account I have read in which a T "infected" with it (not sure if it's an infection or something else) molted out of it.

Bark, no, I didn't...I kept thinking they would get over it and died before it got to the point where I felt the need to euthanize them. One was an Avicularia braunshauseni and the other was a Nhandu chromatus (or whatever its new name is, this one seemed to change fairly often). The avic was a small juvie of ~1.5" LS and the Nhandu was a sub-adult ~3" LS. I did euthanize a centi I once had but it had a distended "rectum" and there was no saving it.
 

edesign

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Heres my baby Grammostola rosea that had symptoms. It molted out of it and has since molted another time and still great. Became an aggressive eater. I have videos on its entire progress and what I did to help it along.

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=165802
Damn man, you were pretty rude to cody at the beginning...why? Better to point something out that someone should check rather than ignore it and possibly let the problem sit right in plain view. People on the 'net are not psychic and on this forum are here to help each other...please excuse me if in the following paragraph I say anything that you already know because of your ten years in the hobby or attempt to make logical deductions regarding possible causes :rolleyes:

The first two vids do not look like what my T's were doing when they had it...either that or yours had a very mild case of it. My avic had it so bad it couldn't climb and could barely walk...yours darted away from your finger in the second video rather quickly and nimbly. The Avic would constantly twitch its legs and fall on its back if it attempted to climb; obviously this did not translate well in to hunting prey. I forget about the Nhandu, it developed DKS a while after having the T in my collection and I really can't recall its exact symptoms but it was markedly worse than what is shown in your vids. I am not convinced that your rosea was dealing with DKS...maybe a very mild case like I said. Regardless I'm happy to see it had a good ending :)
 

edesign

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Yeah, misunderstandings happen but there was zero, zilch, nada, nothing in his posts to warrant that response which is the only reason I asked (then again we all have bad days now and then and are ill mannered). Normally if I see where someone said something sarcastic or whatever without a smiley then I don't comment but your response kind of surprised me. I'm glad you sorted it out though.

I remember that guy talking about doing a study on it in college,,,any biology majors here want to take it up and report your findings? Would be nice to at least know if it's an infection, caused by a foreign agent, or something that simply develops in specimens prone to it kind of like Alzheimer's or cancer. As it is we can't even tell for sure if it's contagious :(
 
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