H. lividium losing legs?!

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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Nov 27, 2004
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Long story short I havent been into work for a while. When I went int today I went to check on our resident monster- a H. lividium- only to find it is MISSING three of its legs and isnt acting half as mean as it usually is. Ive brought it home and am going to set up an ICU for it tonight. Im hoping some warmth and higher humidity will help it out....but I have a feeling this might be too far gone.

What would cause its legs to just fall off. Would too low humidity do it?

Any advice?
 

Scott C.

Arachnofloater
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Sep 17, 2004
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did you find the legs?
It may have recently molted, and lost them. It may have broke, ditched, and ate them.
T's can live through the loss of more than three limbs. I have personally seen four.
Good luck to you,
Scott
 

cheetah13mo

Arachnoking
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Not sure about humidity but maybe a bad injury of some sort made her drop the three legs. Are there other parts of her body that look like something might have happened to her. Maybe someone dropped the container she's in. ????
 

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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At first I thought she was just going to molt- she has that tell tale "bald patch" on her abdomen. But now I just dont know. To be perfectly honest she looks like absolute crap. Even some of her irridescent blue "fuzz" almost looks like its rubbing off.

I moved her over into a small gladware container with a piece of moist paper towel- and she didnt put up any fight. Just kind of plunked in there and stayed put. MUCH different than the girl who reared up so far back she almost fell over when she first came to the store.

Right now Im just going to leave her in there, keep the humidity up, keep it warm and hope for the best.

And we only found one of the legs- dont know where the other two went.
 

cheetah13mo

Arachnoking
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Is the skin at the bald paltch very dark? Almost black. If it is, that's a molt comeing but if not, we're back to square one. Even if it is a molt, they normally will loose appendages after a problem molt, not before.
 

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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Its more of a dark tan color. Looks kind of like all the "peach fuzz" on her rump got rubbed off or something...
 

cheetah13mo

Arachnoking
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She's not at a molt yet so we need to look into other possibilities.
 

cheetah13mo

Arachnoking
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What can you tell us about how she's acted in the last month or so?
 

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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Bitchy as hell and hiding. We were keeping her in an 12x12x12 exo terra tank with a good 4 inches of peatmoss and the back corner filled almost to the top. We used one of those half log hides to make an entrance so she could burrow. Most of the time when she wasnt plotting to kill us she was hiding out in there. Was eating fine up until a couple weeks ago, then stopped eating, started to lose some weight and dropped legs. She is VERY lethargic- hasnt raised up at me once today, even when catching her and transfering her to another container.
 

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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No idea what-so-ever. She IS a fairly decent size..but I doubt she is mature...and if she is actually a he, he isnt mature either. We got her (Im calling her Jez :) ) from a distributor...so who knows what the age is, where she came from etc.
 

Snipes

Arachnoprince
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Do you keep crickets in with her at all times?
 

Becky

Arachnolord
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Check that where she has lost her legs, that no fluid is coming out.. check it has all clotted... u got any pics of her in this state?

If it was a moulting bald patch, it'd be dark in colour, as her skeleton underneath is developing.
 

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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Everything has clotted- that was the first thing I checked. I didnt want her to "bleed" out. Im kind of worried that if she makes it and goes on to moult in the future that these spots will give her problems?

And I doubt the humidity was that high- which is why I was wondering if the lack of humidity is what was causing her to lose legs. Sounds crazy....but who know?

I guess I should add that she is still alive this morning. I checked on her not long ago and she is still very very lethargic. Everytime I open the container I expect her to come running out and eat my face- she barely flinches.
 

Leiurus87

Arachnobaron
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Is this something mites or parasites could accomplish? Just a thought. Ive never heard of something like this before.
 

GartenSpinnen

Arachnoprince
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Just keep her nice and humid and in a dark place and hopefully she will pull out of it. I would not offer food and make sure she constantly has a nice full clean water dish. If she doesnt make it feel free to pick up my girl, shes like satan reincarnate and should get you back to your daily "will i get my finger bitten off today" schedule, local pickup only though!!!! Good luck with your T
 

PrettyHate

Arachnobaron
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Just keep her nice and humid and in a dark place and hopefully she will pull out of it. I would not offer food and make sure she constantly has a nice full clean water dish. If she doesnt make it feel free to pick up my girl, shes like satan reincarnate and should get you back to your daily "will i get my finger bitten off today" schedule, local pickup only though!!!! Good luck with your T
GOOD NEWS!!

I just opened up her ICU to check on her and she reared up SO fast!! She is obviously feeling better! I was just telling my mom that I would be happy if she made any attempt to go after me cause it would mean she is on the mend! {D
 

daniel s.

Arachnopeon
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Feb 1, 2007
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Congratulations to you if she's getting better!:)

Out of curiousity........can this happen to a tarantula often and how can you avoid it?

-Dan
 
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