Impaction, how rare / common is this?

[BoyFromLA]

Past few weeks, I’ve seen a bunch of impaction related questions posted on board, and it got me curious. Luckily, I haven’t come across with this issue personally yet, but really, how rare / common is this, if at all?

With my search with a word ‘impaction’, I’ve got only ONE real case scenario, yes JUST one, by @boina, that happened way back in 2018.

Help with impaction, please

My prized AF G. iheringi has poop stuck on her butt: Now I know she has pooped only 2-3 weeks ago because I remember I had to clean her water bowl :shifty:. Still, this doesn't look good and I want to get it off. Nevertheless, this is a 6" defensive spider with still very healthy reactions...

arachnoboards.com

And rest were, just relatable, suspicion, in general questions about impaction.

So, my guess is, it’s not all that common after all.

Thus, my question for you would be:

1. Any of your tarantulas have / had this issue?
2. If yes, total how many times so far?
3. On what species?
4. Did it go well or bad?

 

[cold blood]

Its uncommon...way less common than most people think it is.

 

[BoyFromLA]

Its uncommon...way less common than most people think it is.

Yeah, that is my take on it.

 

[mack1855]

I’ve never experienced it in any animal I’ve had.Or known any other local keepers who have seen it in theirs.

 

[viper69]

I’ve only experienced it twice with 2 sac mates.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

It's more uncommon than you might think, but it still does occasionally happen. From what I've read and experienced, it's often preceded by a bad molt. I think that a lot of people online are concerned about 'impaction' , but more often than not other causes (such as poor husbandry) are to blame. A few prominent YouTubers have discussed the topic in the past few months which has led to a lot of people online being concerned about it.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

Never seen it and don't know anyone who has.
It probably happens but so does lightning.

 

[viper69]

Never seen it and don't know anyone who has.
It probably happens but so does lightning.

And they both kill their victims usually, they’re connected and they must be a gov’t conspiracy.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Never seen it and don't know anyone who has.
It probably happens but so does lightning.

I had it happen once to an Avicularia sling that had a bad molt. It got stuck in its molt and I was able to remove most of it but didn't see a tiny piece that remained stuck and was obstructing the anus. I think it's a lot more rare than people think though.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

I had it happen once to an Avicularia sling that had a bad molt. It got stuck in its molt and I was able to remove most of it but didn't see a tiny piece that remained stuck and was obstructing the anus. I think it's a lot more rare than people think though.

That sucks.

And they both kill their victims usually, they’re connected and they must be a gov’t conspiracy.

Bad luck.
Start selling lightning rods, though and quoting statistics released by that company and we got something i can work with.

 

[Baby T]

Never experienced it so far. Saying that, the butt plugs might be hiding the real issue

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

Not sure how one can determine how often impaction occurs when there is no proper diagnostic method to confirm it occurring in the first place. Does a messy behind always mean a tarantula is unable to poop due to a blockage? Maybe, maybe not. A photo taken at a distance doesn't reveal much of anything. Until there is a way to confirm the existence of impaction in tarantulas, I'm not convinced it is a real condition in any kind of spider.

 

[darkness975]

Past few weeks, I’ve seen a bunch of impaction related questions posted on board, and it got me curious. Luckily, I haven’t come across with this issue personally yet, but really, how rare / common is this, if at all?

With my search with a word ‘impaction’, I’ve got only ONE real case scenario, yes JUST one, by @boina, that happened way back in 2018.

View attachment 401315

Help with impaction, please

My prized AF G. iheringi has poop stuck on her butt: Now I know she has pooped only 2-3 weeks ago because I remember I had to clean her water bowl :shifty:. Still, this doesn't look good and I want to get it off. Nevertheless, this is a 6" defensive spider with still very healthy reactions...

arachnoboards.com

And rest were, just relatable, suspicion, in general questions about impaction.

So, my guess is, it’s not all that common after all.

Thus, my question for you would be:

1. Any of your tarantulas have / had this issue?
2. If yes, total how many times so far?
3. On what species?
4. Did it go well or bad?

Not very common.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

Extremely uncommon.

Faeces crusted around the anus doesn't automatically mean impaction. My T. cyaneolum female had a bit of a crusty bunghole towards the end of her last moult cycle and was still able to defecate normally, I guess she just couldn't be arsed to wipe properly at that point.

 

[Arachnid Addicted]

20+ years in this hobby, I had my first loss last month, with an impacted P. chordatus.

 

[BoyFromLA]

20+ years in this hobby, I had my first loss last month, with an impacted P. chordatus.

Oh no, I am so sorry to hear the news, but once in 20+ years, I see.

 

[Marlana]

I’ve watched a couple videos about impaction and I don’t think you can argue it’s not something causing massive backup of feces. I mean poop pouring out of the spider when they finally get it’s anus opened, for sure isn’t normal. However I’m sure it’s extremely rare. I’ve never had it happen.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Yes, lately we had a couple of threads about (supposed) dead T's by impaction. Now, starting from the point that we can't be sure if those T's died really for "impaction", my theory about is that such problem may be triggered by too much feeding.

In the wild T's are really opportunistic, they really eat when they can. This doesn't happens in captivity. Here we keep reading an helluva of legit threads with an helluva of legit questions (many of those, asking about already-answered by years questions) about absolutely non issues, if compared to what T's in the wild faces everyday.

I think that one of the cause of the very, real impaction death/s, may be the fact that T's in captivity eats like Kings on a regular basis. But captivity or not, they remain in their DNA opportunistic predators. So I love to keep my T's on a "slim fit" line

But that's just a theory of mine, nothing else.