G. Rosea with white mouth and limb weakness

[Georgia B]

Hi all, I have been finding your good advice when I do google searches, but now I have signed up so I can post my own question. I think I'll like it here.

Anyway, I have a sick baby. I got Aragog, my G. rosea, 3 years ago at a reptile show. At the time I was told that he was a not yet sexually mature male. However, he does have hooks, and the clubbiness of his pedipalps is up for interpretation. Not like a boxing glove, as I have heard described, but still wider at the tips than the base. He has not molted in the three years that I have had him.

Anyway, lately he has not been eating. I thought he was finally in premolt. But today I noticed that he was moving with two legs dragging on the ground. His abdomen is noticeably smaller and I think his legs are skinnier too. When I picked him up to have a closer look, he managed to get all eight legs moving again but not strongly. The scariest thing is that when I looked at his mouth, it is all covered with white. I tried to swab the white, but it was hard and did not come off. I tried to drip water into his mouth, but it beaded up and did not seem to sink in. (I keep his water dish full.)

Could this be a symptom of old age? Does he have a mold or parasite? I keep his cage dry except for the water in the dish. He is currently in an ICU. But if he's dying for sure, I don't want to prolong the agony. If it was something I did wrong I would be heartbroken... it's already hard watching such a beloved little creature ailing.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm not the first to post such symptoms so thanks for your patience. I'm going to try and post a picture here, he is in a plastic kid's cup if you wonder why it's all yellow. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[ediblepain]

H! Welcome to the boards. I have no idea about the white mouth stuff. If your G rosea has hooks, it is a mature male. It's actually pretty impressive it's lived this long, as most mature males have short life spans. ICU will probably do more harm than good as this is a desert dweller (unless he is super dehydrated. But I'm not 100% sure on this). Most likely this is just the end of his life, and not a disease or parasite. Hopefully another member will have better answers/advice for you. Good luck.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Did he have hooks when you bought him?. He had to have had them if he has not moulted since then. As was pointed out above, that's a pretty good run for a mature male. Somebody else will have to comment on whether or not that is common, I never had a G. porteri make it nearly that long after hooking out, myself, but I've only owned three, two were male, the last was female which I had for 13 years. So yeah, his time has probably just about run out as suggested in the post above. Try not to be too upset, when it comes to males, it is the name of he game, unfortunately. Thatt is why that females are sought after, generally speaking.
I do not know about the white appearance though, but given the spider's age there may be no connection.

 

[boina]

The pedipalp I can see in the pic defintely does NOT look like a mature male. However, it does look like a very scruffy spider in bad shape. Thie white stuff is really worrisome. The only white stuff around the mouth I know off are mites, but they look different and are defintely not hard and should have popped up before now - after all you have it 3 years already. Dragging two legs either points to severe dehydration or neurological problems. It could be severe dehydration because it can't drink with this stuff around it's mouth.

I would make a more determined attempt to get the white stuff off. Spider hair is strongly hydrophobic, so it's normal that the water you drop on will just pearl off. Maybe some careful rubbing with a wet Q-tip will help?

 

[The Grym Reaper]

The only white stuff around the mouth I know off are mites

Severe nematode infection would lead to white gunk around the mouth parts but it'd be soupy and wouldn't have spread that far from the orifice.

It could just be encrusted poop, I keep seeing mentions of it in relation to white stuff around the mouth but I have no idea if they actually ever attempt to eat their own faeces.

 

[spotropaicsav]

View attachment 251092 Hi all, I have been finding your good advice when I do google searches, but now I have signed up so I can post my own question. I think I'll like it here.

Anyway, I have a sick baby. I got Aragog, my G. rosea, 3 years ago at a reptile show. At the time I was told that he was a not yet sexually mature male. However, he does have hooks, and the clubbiness of his pedipalps is up for interpretation. Not like a boxing glove, as I have heard described, but still wider at the tips than the base. He has not molted in the three years that I have had him.

Anyway, lately he has not been eating. I thought he was finally in premolt. But today I noticed that he was moving with two legs dragging on the ground. His abdomen is noticeably smaller and I think his legs are skinnier too. When I picked him up to have a closer look, he managed to get all eight legs moving again but not strongly. The scariest thing is that when I looked at his mouth, it is all covered with white. I tried to swab the white, but it was hard and did not come off. I tried to drip water into his mouth, but it beaded up and did not seem to sink in. (I keep his water dish full.)

Could this be a symptom of old age? Does he have a mold or parasite? I keep his cage dry except for the water in the dish. He is currently in an ICU. But if he's dying for sure, I don't want to prolong the agony. If it was something I did wrong I would be heartbroken... it's already hard watching such a beloved little creature ailing.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm not the first to post such symptoms so thanks for your patience. I'm going to try and post a picture here, he is in a plastic kid's cup if you wonder why it's all yellow. Thanks in advance for any advice.

If you post another pic would it be possible to get a closer picture of your Ts mouth, could be helpful

 

[Georgia B]

Thanks everybody for your time. I left him overnight in the ICU but this morning he was expired. I will post some pictures for interest's sake. I'm doing my best with my iPhone camera and a digital microscope.

Pic 1: You can see his mouth and hooks. The white is dry and crusty. There's also a spot of white on the end of one pedipalp.
Pic 2: microscope view of mouth.
Pic 3: microscope view of of hook
Pic 4: microscope view of pedipalp
(Just to confirm he was indeed a mature male?)

I acquired him in May 2014 at the Calgary reptile show. He died today, Sept 2017. They told me at the show that he was not yet mature, but maybe he's just not well endowed so it wasn't obvious? I know 3 years is an exceptionally long time for a mature male to live. I kind of underfed him, one cricket a week or less, if that makes a difference.

 

[FrDoc]

Impressive equipment.

 

[sdsnybny]

G. porteri have indeed gone 3 years past ultimate molt many times. Some have even made it through a 2nd post ultimate molt although they lose their manly parts in the process. Your T was indeed a MM when you got him the seller either lied to you or wasn't aware of it. (hard to believe). Sorry you lost him but that was a long time for a MM.

 

[Georgia B]

Impressive equipment.

You mean the microscope? It's a Celestron Infiniview. It cost me around $150 on Amazon. I use it for school programming; easy to use and holds up really well.

 

[Grace Cannell]

I am sorry you lost him, I have no idea what the white stuff is but if he is a MM then try not to beat yourself up about it.

 

[Georgia B]

G. porteri have indeed gone 3 years past ultimate molt many times. Some have even made it through a 2nd post ultimate molt although they lose their manly parts in the process. Your T was indeed a MM when you got him the seller either lied to you or wasn't aware of it. (hard to believe). Sorry you lost him but that was a long time for a MM.

Thanks. He's actually a G. rosea. Anyway, yeah he was a really pleasant little fellow who helped many people overcome their prejudices and pushed me deeper into the hobby. I think I might actually try to preserve him.

 

[ediblepain]

Thanks. He's actually a G. rosea. Anyway, yeah he was a really pleasant little fellow who helped many people overcome their prejudices and pushed me deeper into the hobby. I think I might actually try to preserve him.

G rosea are red in color.

 

[miss moxie]

Thanks. He's actually a G. rosea. Anyway, yeah he was a really pleasant little fellow who helped many people overcome their prejudices and pushed me deeper into the hobby. I think I might actually try to preserve him.

Yep, common mistake. G. rosea and G. porteri used to be pretty much synonymous to people but G. porteri has that grey and pink color scheme where as G. rosea look like:

[ Image Source ]

 

[Georgia B]

Yep, common mistake. G. rosea and G. porteri used to be pretty much synonymous to people but G. porteri has that grey and pink color scheme where as G. rosea look like:

[ Image Source ]

Wha???? Mind blown. So what is the common name of G. porteri?

 

[Venom1080]

Chilean rose hair.

And that's why we use scientific names here lol

 

[miss moxie]

Wha???? Mind blown. So what is the common name of G. porteri?

Chilean rose hair.

And that's why we use scientific names here lol

+1 they're both called Chilean Rose Hair. Sometimes the G. rosea is called "Chilean Rose Hair RCF (Red Color Form)" but yeah that's why things get confusing quickly. Not to mention how many "bird eater" common names there are. It can be a pain remembering and correctly spelling the scientific name (Here's to looking at you Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens), but worth it. Practice makes perfect.

 

[DadsGlasses]

I'm sorry that you lost your tarantula. Thank you for taking such great post mortem pictures. Those were very helpful.

 

[spotropaicsav]

I'm sorry for your loss

 

[boina]

Ok, I'm officially blind. That's a mature male if I ever saw one. Please disregard my first post .
It's actually not that uncommon for a mature G. porteri/rosea to live this long. They are a very slow growing species and mature males often live several years. And no, you didn't underfeed him, you fed him just right.

Personally I think this 'MMs only have another year' is an underestimate. All my mature males lived more than a year. My male L. difficilis - a fast growing species, living on the fast lane - just died after 19 months, so I think for a slow G. porteri to live 3 years sounds about right.

Still, I'm sorry for your loss.

(Get a new tarantual as soon as possible )