Help! I think I accidentally exposed my tarantula to pesticides!

[gregorious slim]

I tried setting up a bioactive enclosure for my Ephebopus murinus, and made the incredibly dumb mistake of buying a plant from Walmart. Two days after planting in the enclosure, she was noticably very I'll, and that's when it occurred to me why. Most likely pesticides. I immediately removed her from the enclosure and placed her in ICU. That was 5 days ago and every day she seems to improve but is still noticably weak. I change out her moist paper towels everyday and alternate between two containers to prevent bacteria/mold growth and the container she is in is always resting on a very mildly warm pad. Does anyone have any experience with this or know what else I can do to help her recover? Does anyone know if it's possible for her to recover?

 

[cold blood]

There's not much you can do, but I will say an ICU will not help and will likely only make things worse......ICUs are almost never the right solution to any tarantula problem.

 

[Spoodfood]

Bioactive enclosures, tarantulas, and new keepers don’t mix well.

If you want to do a bioactive enclosure for any animal, you typically want to buy your plants and things from a place that sells things meant for enclosures. You run the risk of pesticides, parasites, and all kinds of things buying plants from box stores. They weren’t meant to be put in an enclosure.

As far as weather or not she will recover, that is up for speculation. The only thing you can do is get her in a proper enclosure, and wait it out.

The ICU would do nothing for a tarantula exposed to pesticides except stress it out more and make the condition worse. Usually, the only thing it could potentially help with is extreme dehydration. In which case you would need to reevaluate your husbandry in the first place if your animal is so severely dehydrated that it is dying. And there are better ways to rehydrate a tarantula.

 

[rock]

You’ve been given good advice already, only time will tell if she can recover. You mentioned her condition has been improving, has she eaten anything? That would be a good sign

 

[gregorious slim]

Bioactive enclosures, tarantulas, and new keepers don’t mix well.

If you want to do a bioactive enclosure for any animal, you typically want to buy your plants and things from a place that sells things meant for enclosures. You run the risk of pesticides, parasites, and all kinds of things buying plants from box stores. They weren’t meant to be put in an enclosure.

As far as weather or not she will recover, that is up for speculation. The only thing you can do is get her in a proper enclosure, and wait it out.

Yeah, I feel awful about it and I can't believe I didn't think about that before I bought the plant. Like you said, in the future I'll only use plants intended for enclosures. Since she is showing improvement in the ICU, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and wait.

You’ve been given good advice already, only time will tell if she can recover. You mentioned her condition has been improving, has she eaten anything? That would be a good sign

She hasn't eaten anything yet but thankfully she had a large roach the day before I planted it. Her movement/coordination has significantly improved and the past two days she started extensively webbing her ICU.

 

[Spoodfood]

Yeah, I feel awful about it and I can't believe I didn't think about that before I bought the plant. Like you said, in the future I'll only use plants intended for enclosures. Since she is showing improvement in the ICU, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and wait.

The “ICU” will do nothing for pesticide exposure. I don’t know where the idea came about that any dying or injured invertebrate should be put in a deli cup with wet paper towels. Logically thinking, how would wet paper towels help with pesticides? It wouldn’t. It would only potentially help with severe dehydration.

If your tarantula is recovering in an ICU, from an issue an ICU could not possibly help with, I think it’s safe to say she would recover even better in a proper enclosure.

To reiterate: ICU-not helping. Get her out of it. You probably simply noticed the issue fast enough that she has a chance to recover.

 

[gregorious slim]

The “ICU” will do nothing for pesticide exposure. I don’t know where the idea came about that any dying or injured invertebrate should be put in a deli cup with wet paper towels. Logically thinking, how would wet paper towels help with pesticides? It wouldn’t. It would only potentially help with severe dehydration.

If your tarantula is recovering in an ICU, from an issue an ICU could not possibly help with, I think it’s safe to say she would recover even better in a proper enclosure.

To reiterate: ICU-not helping. Get her out of it. You probably simply noticed the issue fast enough that she has a chance to recover.

Good point. I'll try that then and see if she continues to improve. Thanks for the advice!

 

[viper69]

Just have to ride it out

 

[Smotzer]

Only time will tell; it might make it; it might not.

Did you just put in a plant from Walmart straight in there without cleaning it whatsoever?

 

[rock]

Yeah, I feel awful about it and I can't believe I didn't think about that before I bought the plant. Like you said, in the future I'll only use plants intended for enclosures.


She hasn't eaten anything yet but thankfully she had a large roach the day before I planted it. Her movement/coordination has significantly improved and the past two days she started extensively webbing her ICU.

Hopefully she continues to gain strength and gets back to normal soon don’t beat yourself up too much, we all make mistakes and now you’ll be more vigilante in keeping chemicals out of the enclosure.

 

[gregorious slim]

Only time will tell; it might make it; it might not.

Did you just put in a plant from Walmart straight in there without cleaning it whatsoever?

Yep, I just planted it right in there without doing anything to the plant or the soil it came in. I now know what a terrible idea that is. My biggest regret since getting into the hobby is that careless move right there.

 

[Smotzer]

Yep, I just planted it right in there without doing anything to the plant or the soil it came in. I now know what a terrible idea that is. My biggest regret since getting into the hobby is that careless move right there.

Ahh yeah that explains it, really sorry that happened to you, regardless of where you get plants from, I completely bare root every plant and wash off all the soil completely from the roots and then wash off all the leaves and stems thoroughly. Unfortunately accidents happen and I know you won’t be making that oversight every again. Hopefully the exposure wasn’t enough to cause a fatal toxicity.

Has it made any improvement?

 

[gregorious slim]

Ahh yeah that explains it, really sorry that happened to you, regardless of where you get plants from, I completely bare root every plant and wash off all the soil completely from the roots and then wash off all the leaves and stems thoroughly. Unfortunately accidents happen and I know you won’t be making that oversight every again. Hopefully the exposure wasn’t enough to cause a fatal toxicity.

Has it made any improvement?

She seemed to be making improvement while in the ICU. But I thoroughly washed out her enclosure and replaced everything in it yesterday, then returned her to it (without the plant) and she seems to have worsened. Now she seems dead or on the brink of death. Should I euthanize her or keep waiting? I hate to see her suffering, but it breaks my heart to think about putting her down.

 

[Smotzer]

She seemed to be making improvement while in the ICU. But I thoroughly washed out her enclosure and replaced everything in it yesterday, then returned her to it (without the plant) and she seems to have worsened. Now she seems dead or on the brink of death. Should I euthanize her or keep waiting? I hate to see her suffering, but it breaks my heart to think about putting her down.

It was likely to happen either way to be honest,Put her mouth over a water dish and see how she does.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Leave all of that "bioactive" stuff/ideas for the 'Chad' T's of the wild, we keep (well at least mostly, majority of us) the 'Virgin' CB T's, which in certain days are like: "Oh my God, that cricked touched my leg!" so fake plants and other harmless fake stuff as decor all the way

 

[PidderPeets]

She seemed to be making improvement while in the ICU. But I thoroughly washed out her enclosure and replaced everything in it yesterday, then returned her to it (without the plant) and she seems to have worsened. Now she seems dead or on the brink of death. Should I euthanize her or keep waiting? I hate to see her suffering, but it breaks my heart to think about putting her down.

What is she doing that makes you feel like she's getting worse/dying? Just trying to get a better grasp of the situation. As for whether to euthanize or not, personally I would not. Tarantulas have a very different nervous system in comparison to us, and so they don't seem to experience pain or similar. Tarantulas can manage to surprise us sometimes, and there's been plenty of instances tarantulas being pulled from the brink of death. Ultimately the choice is up to you, but I know that if it was me, I would rather have it die on it's own knowing it was unavoidable rather than possibly euthanize it when it could have pulled through.

I believe there is a thread somewhere on here from a member who managed to save a few of her tarantulas after an incident of poisoning. I'll see if I can find it. I believe she kept them in particularly warm enclosures to boost their metabolisms
EDIT: I managed to find the thread, Treatment for DKS



And finally, as much as it seems like the ICU "helped", I need to warn that that's often the response from the tarantula trying to escape the enclosure because the conditions are uncomfortable. Many people have gone the ICU route, thought the tarantula was improving because it was more active again, only for it to suddenly die afterwards. The problem is, no matter how weak the tarantula is, it's instincts are likely telling it to remove itself from that environment because it's a death sentence. Meaning it could be using up the very last reserves of energy it has left in order to escape. So don't get fooled by the perceived improvement

 

[gregorious slim]

Update: I decided not to euthanize her. I just left her in the enclosure, kept her water dish full, and waited. She eventually did improve by moving around normally and seemed to have regained her energy. So I started leaving a roach in there and would rotate it out with a fresh roach every day that she did not eat. Then finally on 9 April, she ate it! Now it's like the poisoning never even happened.

I'm incredibly relieved and impressed at how hardy she is for bouncing back from my terrible blunder. Thanks for the advice everyone! Glad I listened and removed her from the ICU when I did. Most importantly, I'm very glad that I decided not to euthanize her. From now on, I won't euthanize any of them. I've never done it before anyway, but now I won't ever do that because this proves there is always a chance of recovery.

 

[DaveM]

That's great news! A lot of pesticide neurotoxins bind with such high affinity to neuronal ion channels that the binding is practically irreversible, so it doesn't wear off in just a day. But over a longer timescale from a few days to several weeks, the bound ion channels are recycled and replaced with fresh new ones. If the spider can survive the first few days, it might be fine thereafter, which seems to be what has happened for you. Great outcome! Congratulations!