- Joined
- Sep 1, 2002
- Messages
- 1,055
Ok, so this past week would definitely make the Top 5 Worst Weeks of My Life... on top of personal crap including having my much needed weeklong trip to the beach by myself cancelled due to bad weather, I have lost a whopping total of FOUR tarantulas--2 adults, 1 juvenile, and a spiderling. Most of you know about the T. blondi passing away last Monday. She had been sick for awhile but it was still heart-wrenching to see that beautiful monster all curled up. Then, a day later, I found one of my tiny A. avicularia spiderlings curled up--dead for no apparent reason, just dead. A few days later, someone sent me a couple of spiders to cheer me up. One of them was a beautiful A. chalcodes juvenile--I'd never seen one of these before as the only Aphonopelma I've got is A. moderatum, but WOW, this is a beautiful species! Well I only got to enjoy her for a few hours because when I opened the container up, there were two puddles of brown goop and her mouth was filled with more of it. She must have taken a blow during the shipping. I spent most of the day trying to nurse her back to health but she was dead by that night.
And here's the part that relates to the title:
As if that wasn't horrible enough, my boyfriend's first and only tarantula, an adult female E. murinus, got the white mouth gunk a couple days ago. I got lots of advice, information, and feedback via PM and IM from a few knowledgeable people on this board and was forced to come to grips with the fact that her death was pretty much inevitable. Shaun and I opted to wait another day and try to feed her one more time. So yesterday, when Shaun was at work, I tried to feed her. No interest in the crickets whatsoever... and she was quite weak at this point. She let me pick her up without a fight and I flipped her over, no problem. She was curled up on her back in my hand but still alive. So I got a Qtip to swab her fangs with and try to get a hold of the gunk to look at it under a microscope. As I was swabbing, a tiny worm came out of her mouth (this chokes me up even to type it...). I, of course, immediately started crying and Shaun's brother came in the room to see what was up. I told him that we had to kill the spider. I put her in a plastic bag and opened up the freezer--it wasn't very cold at all and I was worried that it would take too long to kill her that way. Some of my friends had suggested a "more humane" way of euthanization--a swift blow or stomping. I just couldn't do it and since Shaun was at work (and good thing, he is torn up over this thing...), his brother offered to do it. I went back to Shaun's room while his brother went outside and killed the spider. I had asked him, before he went outside, to please not show me the spider afterwards. A few minutes later, I came out to the living room to ask Wayne how it went and he was sitting there holding the bag up, staring at it. It was quite possibly the most horrible sight I've ever seen. A formerly beautiful spider--literally smashed to pieces. I won't even get into details, but it really was terrible. So I cried some more. And I really don't think he meant to, but then Shaun's brother started laughing. I think he had been trying to hold it in so it all came out at once. He's never been able to understand why I love the spiders so much but still.... that was pretty awful, in my opinion... so I just cried some more, took the bag from him, and threw it away. The whole ordeal was very traumatic for me.... and then I had to tell Shaun about it when he got home from work. He's so upset about losing her, he won't even talk about it.
So after recounting my horror story... my question is this: what is the *most* humane method of euthanization? Is there any proof that freezing is painful to the spider? If there is no research concerning this, should we assume that it could be painful for them and therefore opt for the squishing method?
All I know is that having 3 spiders die on me prior to this and then having to go through a messy euthanization was extremely painful for me. Obviously, I don't want the spider to experience any unnecessary pain but is there another way that might be less awful for the owners? I certainly couldn't let the worms slowly eat her from the inside out so euthanization was absolutely necessary in this situation. When is it right or wrong to euthanize a spider (I think it is totally different from euthanizing a cat or dog because we know more about how to make said pets 'comfortable' longer than we know how to do the same for inverts)?
And lastly........ please share any positive stories you have from this week to counter my painful week. Any new eggsac developments or breeding successes? A positive ID for an unknown spider? Anything, really..... Just something to put a much-needed smile on my face would be welcomed.
kellygirl
And here's the part that relates to the title:
As if that wasn't horrible enough, my boyfriend's first and only tarantula, an adult female E. murinus, got the white mouth gunk a couple days ago. I got lots of advice, information, and feedback via PM and IM from a few knowledgeable people on this board and was forced to come to grips with the fact that her death was pretty much inevitable. Shaun and I opted to wait another day and try to feed her one more time. So yesterday, when Shaun was at work, I tried to feed her. No interest in the crickets whatsoever... and she was quite weak at this point. She let me pick her up without a fight and I flipped her over, no problem. She was curled up on her back in my hand but still alive. So I got a Qtip to swab her fangs with and try to get a hold of the gunk to look at it under a microscope. As I was swabbing, a tiny worm came out of her mouth (this chokes me up even to type it...). I, of course, immediately started crying and Shaun's brother came in the room to see what was up. I told him that we had to kill the spider. I put her in a plastic bag and opened up the freezer--it wasn't very cold at all and I was worried that it would take too long to kill her that way. Some of my friends had suggested a "more humane" way of euthanization--a swift blow or stomping. I just couldn't do it and since Shaun was at work (and good thing, he is torn up over this thing...), his brother offered to do it. I went back to Shaun's room while his brother went outside and killed the spider. I had asked him, before he went outside, to please not show me the spider afterwards. A few minutes later, I came out to the living room to ask Wayne how it went and he was sitting there holding the bag up, staring at it. It was quite possibly the most horrible sight I've ever seen. A formerly beautiful spider--literally smashed to pieces. I won't even get into details, but it really was terrible. So I cried some more. And I really don't think he meant to, but then Shaun's brother started laughing. I think he had been trying to hold it in so it all came out at once. He's never been able to understand why I love the spiders so much but still.... that was pretty awful, in my opinion... so I just cried some more, took the bag from him, and threw it away. The whole ordeal was very traumatic for me.... and then I had to tell Shaun about it when he got home from work. He's so upset about losing her, he won't even talk about it.
So after recounting my horror story... my question is this: what is the *most* humane method of euthanization? Is there any proof that freezing is painful to the spider? If there is no research concerning this, should we assume that it could be painful for them and therefore opt for the squishing method?
All I know is that having 3 spiders die on me prior to this and then having to go through a messy euthanization was extremely painful for me. Obviously, I don't want the spider to experience any unnecessary pain but is there another way that might be less awful for the owners? I certainly couldn't let the worms slowly eat her from the inside out so euthanization was absolutely necessary in this situation. When is it right or wrong to euthanize a spider (I think it is totally different from euthanizing a cat or dog because we know more about how to make said pets 'comfortable' longer than we know how to do the same for inverts)?
And lastly........ please share any positive stories you have from this week to counter my painful week. Any new eggsac developments or breeding successes? A positive ID for an unknown spider? Anything, really..... Just something to put a much-needed smile on my face would be welcomed.
kellygirl