Help! Strange behavior

[WebBrowser]

So about a week ago now I noticed my juvenile G. pulchra in an odd position, turned somewhat sideways up against the side of its enclosure, on top of its hide. I thought that it would be molting soon and just hadnt flipped over completely. Since, I have noticed that it has been acting erratic, seemingly struggling in a non typical aggressive behavior clawing at the substrate with its legs and fangs. I began to think it had gotten poisoned somehow, bad cricket maybe.. over the past few days it has gone from being on its back to being on its legs multiple times. All the while exhibiting this strange struggling any time it senses vibrattion or a breeze is caused by walking past its enclosure. Has anyone had any experience with this behavior in G. pulchra or tarantulas in general? Having gone on this long I dont think it would have survived a poisoning but it also hasnt molted. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as I dont want to lose this little girl, still small but years old at this point..

 

[Swagg]

Please post pictures of the tarantula, it’s entire enclosure and if you are able a video of the erratic movement. Without those things really nobody can guess what might be wrong. Hope things get better for it.

 

[Cemykay]

Yeah a picture would help greatly.

 

[WebBrowser]

https://arachnoboards.com/attachmen...336751/?hash=345e6993082db818c85ae1aa5bad2dbb I hope you can see it with the link, havent entirely figured out the new photo upload method since the site renovation... tried on previous occasion and it never showed up in the gallery. Anyway, its of her flipped over onto her back, a little bit of substrate near her fangs where she probably grabbed some during an episode before flipping over again. She has done this multiple times, I've never had a T that was about to molt flip over and over again in its attempts. Though, this has been going on over a week now and imagine if she had consumed some kind of contaminant she would have passed by now. Im at a loss for what is going on. I can post up a video on instagram if you want to check it out, though it just looks like minor movements from a T that is in the process of molting. I will try to get one when she eventually flips back over and starts doing the spastic leg and fang movement again.

 

[Cemykay]

She could be stuck in her molt and tries to free herself but isn´t able to. Have a look at this thread:

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

 

[WebBrowser]

She could be stuck in her molt and tries to free herself but isn´t able to. Have a look at this thread:

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

There does not appear to be any progress whatsoever, if it truly is a bad molt scenario. In that thread OP only suggests methods if you are sure it is indeed molting and only to do so after carapace has popped and chelicerae atleast are out

It appears I cannot upload to the website so if you would like to check out video, I just posted a short example of the behavior Im talking about to my instagram "the_web_browser"

Ok. So someone already commented on the video "DKS" and after a quick google found a video of Tom Moran's A. insubtilis displaying similar miscoordination. Im afraid Im going to have a dead T soon but its already been suffering for a week now, probably longer. I havent intentionally killed an invert since discovering their beauty and intrigue over 6 years ago but would the humane thing to do at this point simply to put her out of her misery? Im saddened either way, its been terrible watching her go through this and from what I gather it seems an insurmountable condition.

 

[PidderPeets]

Have you seen any feces in the enclosure or even see it poop? It looks VERY big, and I almost wonder if impaction could be an issue. With no way to release waste, toxins would build up in it's body and it would essentially poison itself. I'm not saying that's what it is, it just might be a possibility.

Other than that, it could be having an issue trying to molt.

In either case, there's really nothing you can do other than wait and hope for the best. I would not euthanize it. Inverts can and have survived some pretty remarkable things, and they don't feel pain in the way that vertebrates do. It may very well be able to resolve the issue itself, so I wouldn't want to end it's life prematurely.

 

[cold blood]

I agree with the above....if it is DKS symptoms from something, its not an automatic death sentence.....I had a bunch poisoned by a pesticide spraying neighbor (it was hot and the window in the t roon was open)....i did lose many, but just as many survived and are still with me today.

 

[WebBrowser]

I agree with the above....if it is DKS symptoms from something, its not an automatic death sentence.....I had a bunch poisoned by a pesticide spraying neighbor (it was hot and the window in the t roon was open)....i did lose many, but just as many survived and are still with me today.

Thats good to hear. Yeah Im doing what I can to keep her enclosure warmer at the one end by having it near a heat source and continuing to wet down the sub around her. I dont see any kind of impaction signs, build up around the rear end, unless its internal.. but also I end up only feeding crickets to my Grammostola's due to their slow moving nature the quicker prey items seem to trigger a feeding response more readily and Im very careful not to use tongs contaminated by calcium for my reptiles. Ill continue to keep an eye on her and keep up her enclosures increased ICU parameters. I dont think it wise to try moving her to a smaller container at this point, not worth the risk of harm to me or her.