GBB stuck in molt please help

[Hellbender]

Hi all,
It appears my GBB is stuck in her molt and I need advice as to what to do. While I have long term and intermediate experiance with reptiles I have beginner experiance levels with T's. My GBB had difficulty last molt about a year ago and it made her left back leg come out twisted and its caused her to scuttle about weirdly the past year. I was hoping with this molt she would be ok but she appears to have her left 3 back legs stuck. I first noticed her last night around 11pm mostly molted in an upside down position from what i could see as my vision was obscured from her hide a bit. Today about noon i noticed her in the same position, looking the same with little to no visible progress. I removed the hide above her since I couldn't fully tell what was going on. In removing the hide i could see her upside down back 3 legs appearing to be stuck. When I removed the hide she struggled and tried to right herself and I think she may have injured one of the stuck legs as it now has a bit of clear/yellowish fluid leaking from it a bit at the joint near her body. When I left her to go to work she was upside down still. I will look in on her when I get home in about 4 hours. Any advice would be appreciated, I dont want her to be in pain or die, I've had her for like 5 years now.
Thanks

In my haste I forgot to post the picture I have. In this view its the 3 right back legs that are stuck

 

[NMTs]

This old thread has great advice on extricating a T from it's exuvia when it gets stuck. Since yours has been at it for so long, it may have hardened to the point where you can't do much to help, but it's worth reading and trying if it is still having trouble:

Tarantula Stuck in Its Molt? Look Here for Advice

Tarantulas sometimes get stuck during molting – it happens, nobody really knows why. Accordingly there are a lot of threads that go “Help, my tarantula is stuck, what should I do?” More often than not the advice is to do nothing because ‘the tarantula knows best how to be a tarantula’. I think...

arachnoboards.com

As long as the T doesn't have issues with it's abdomen (ruptured, or molt stuck on book lungs/anus), then it will most likely pull through - it may just be short a couple legs until next time it molts and regenerates them. Good luck!!

 

[Matt Man]

leave alone other than trying to add some humidity to help. Best of luck

 

[Hellbender]

Thank you for the replies!
MNTs - So when you say it may lose a couple legs does that mean she will pull them off or do I try to remove old exuvia and legs may come off or? Is the fluid seeping from her leg joint non-life threatening? Will she heal that? I saw that article before I posted here and I will reread it. Thanks

forgot to mention, her 3 legs are the only part stuck the rest of her is ok.

This is how I found her tonight. It looks like she has righted herself.

 

[Charliemum]

Corn starch on the wound then leave her alone she will either drop the legs or struggle but either way you messing with her at this stage won't help will just stress her out . Put corn starch on the wound so it clots coz yes you need to stop the leaking if she's been on her back over 24 hours personally I would turn her bk right way although some may frown on this, I recently had to do this with my geniculata male he has neurological damage and couldn't turn himself post moult. Apart from that all you can do is leave her alone make sure her water dish is full n hope for the best . I wish you both the best of luck.

 

[NMTs]

Thank you for the replies!
MNTs - So when you say it may lose a couple legs does that mean she will pull them off or do I try to remove old exuvia and legs may come off or? Is the fluid seeping from her leg joint non-life threatening? Will she heal that? I saw that article before I posted here and I will reread it. Thanks

I meant that she would self amputate the legs if they were an issue for her. You might try the wet paintbrush/q-tip trick to see if you can help the exuvia slide off those legs, but don't pull hard enough to remove the legs yourself. Generally speaking, if the T is leaking hemolymph from the part where the leg and body join (called the trochanter), it'll seal off the hemolymph supply to the leg using special muscles in the trochanter that act like a valve, which causes the affected leg(s) to drop off. I would expect this to happen in your case, especially if the rest of the molt is still attached here - she won't want to drag it around.

Once again, I wish you luck!

 

[Charliemum]

I meant that she would self amputate the legs if they were an issue for her. You might try the wet paintbrush/q-tip trick to see if you can help the exuvia slide off those legs, but don't pull hard enough to remove the legs yourself. Generally speaking, if the T is leaking hemolymph from the part where the leg and body join (called the trochanter), it'll seal off the hemolymph supply to the leg using special muscles in the trochanter that act like a valve, which causes the affected leg(s) to drop off. I would expect this to happen in your case, especially if the rest of the molt is still attached here - she won't want to drag it around.

Once again, I wish you luck!

Learn something new everyday I knew they could shut valves in the tops of their legs but didn't know they could shut off sections down the leg . Spiders never stop amazing me.

 

[NMTs]

Learn something new everyday I knew they could shut valves in the tops of their legs but didn't know they could shut off sections down the leg . Spiders never stop amazing me.

That may have been confusing... The trochanter is the joint where the leg joins the prosthoma, so it would be closing off fluid supply to the whole leg. They are still amazing, though!

 

[Hellbender]

Hey all, thank you for your replies. While you guys were posting I gently took her out and used the qtip method to remove the old exuvia. I painstakingly bit by bit removed what I think is all of it.Her two rear legs are mangled and she's missing part of her right rear. She lost her whole second rear left leg where she had the wound at(it appears to have stopped leaking now). The leg above the missing one is intact but mangled as well. The rest appear to be ok. She is barely moving right now and I gently put her away. She has fresh water. i'm really upset about all this. This molt was supposed to heal her previous mangles leg not make everything worse and/or killher. Does anyone think she'll recover?

 

[Charliemum]

Hey all, thank you for your replies. While you guys were posting I gently took her out and used the qtip method to remove the old exuvia. I painstakingly bit by bit removed what I think is all of it.Her two rear legs are mangled and she's missing part of her right rear. She lost her whole second rear left leg where she had the wound at(it appears to have stopped leaking now). The leg above the missing one is intact but mangled as well. The rest appear to be ok. She is barely moving right now and I gently put her away. She has fresh water. i'm really upset about all this. This molt was supposed to heal her previous mangles leg not make everything worse and/or killher. Does anyone think she'll recover?

I do not know, I am sorry, no one can answer that, all I can say is these animals are resilient but only time will tell , it doesn't help your situation but its all any of us can offer.

You have tried your best and done all you can it's down to her now.

 

[NMTs]

Leg issues aren't usually life threatening, so unless she was so exhausted and overworked from the difficult molting process, she may very well pull through. You will need to make some changes to ensure she can easily access water and potentially offer prey she can catch if her mobility is limited, but that's not a difficult task.

For some hope, check out this post from a few months back about the 2-legged Avic that survived it's ideal:

First Bad Molt

I've unfortunately experienced my first bad molt :sad: One of my tiny Aphonopelmas (max 1/4" after molt) began molting before I went out of town for New Years. I came back last night and it still had 3 legs stuck inside. I've managed to help it out with a paintbrush, but the rear 3 legs on one...

arachnoboards.com

Unfortunately, though, it seems like in some cases that once a T has had issues molting they tend to compound until they are too much to overcome. We'll hope that's not the case with your girl. Please keep us posted.

 

[Charliemum]

I will probably get slated for this coz it's u tube but there is a video on there by Tom Moran about his pokie that had a bad moult he has also done updates on her since it may help ease some of the anxiety you have with her. I am not saying your situation is the same as his is ow arboreal not nw terrestrial but I have seen a few people say it has helped them when their t's have had bad moults. I hope it helps.
The upload is called bad tarantula moult and it's from about a year ago and I think he has done 3 updates since.

 

[ThatsUnpossible]

@Charliemum I doubt you'll get slated for recommending Tom Moran, he's got a good reputation and he cares about his T's.

OP, I hope your girl pulls through, fingers crossed for her

 

[Dorifto]

Hi @Hellbender sorry for your T, arrived at this point you only can wait and see what happens. Leave the T undisturbed.

You mentioned that the T had a previous issue while molting. Can I ask how you keep your T, in which enclosure (looks exo terra) and which are your room conditions? (Dry/humid). It could be just bad genetics or environment related issue, just for discard and help your T if it makes it through.

 

[Hellbender]

Hey all, just wanted to say thank you all for taking the time to reply and help out. Sadly, Charlotte passed away friday afternoon and I just didnt want to log on just yet.
Dorfto: I had her in an exoterra, the 12" cube one. I kept her at standard socal room humidity with a hide, a branch to climb on and a fake plant and a fresh water bowl. Kept her on several inches of dry AGB mix.
Again, thank you all for the well wishes, I wish she would have pulled through. I do still have my 2 year old funnel web tiger spider, my 3 year old singapore blue and 3 slings, a suntiger a versicolor and a salmon pink. Although Charlotte was my fav since she was the first one I had. I hope to have many more good experiances with tarantulas and hope to see you all again soon!

 

[Charliemum]

I am sorry for your loss hun. You tried everything you could no one could have done more than you did for her. Thank you for letting us know the outcome even if it wasn't as hoped. My heart goes out to you.

 

[NMTs]

Hey all, just wanted to say thank you all for taking the time to reply and help out. Sadly, Charlotte passed away friday afternoon and I just didnt want to log on just yet.
Dorfto: I had her in an exoterra, the 12" cube one. I kept her at standard socal room humidity with a hide, a branch to climb on and a fake plant and a fresh water bowl. Kept her on several inches of dry AGB mix.
Again, thank you all for the well wishes, I wish she would have pulled through. I do still have my 2 year old funnel web tiger spider, my 3 year old singapore blue and 3 slings, a suntiger a versicolor and a salmon pink. Although Charlotte was my fav since she was the first one I had. I hope to have many more good experiances with tarantulas and hope to see you all again soon!

Dang, that's too bad. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Dorifto]

Dorfto: I had her in an exoterra, the 12" cube one. I kept her at standard socal room humidity with a hide, a branch to climb on and a fake plant and a fresh water bowl. Kept her on several inches of dry AGB mix.

Sorry to hear that.

Socal it's pretty dry and warm, if you keep any species in big enclosures always provide a nice moisture source to raise the humidity, specially with humid species like GBBs and more specially close to a molt.

This should help preventing future molting issues.

 

[Matt Man]

as others have sad, so sorry for the loss. Sadly it happens, all we can do is learn from it in hopes of reducing the risk of it happening again

as for Climate, SoCal is pretty close to where the GBB is from. The area is the Paraguana Peninsula and the ecosystem is Paraguana xeric scrub, so it is far drier than most people imagine.

 

[Hellbender]

hey all,
I was going to say i hope I've been keeping her the right way, everything I have read about care says she's from an arid area. Humidity in my room usually fluctuates somewhere in the 20% - 50% range depending on how long and how hot i take a shower for every day lol. I also have a mistking system for my humid loving reptiles and i keep the substrate moist or dry depending on spider species for their humidity levels.