Is she about to die?? Help needed!

[ratluvr76]

try not to beat yourself up to hard. learn from it, that's all you can do at this point. we all make mistakes and in this hobby, unfortunately, the spiders are the ones that pay for them. You think you'll get another GBB? You may have not been directly responsible for it in this case. Did your spider have hooks on the first two legs? Maybe it WAS a mature male, in which case it's passing was probably just it's time.

 

[Spidi]

try not to beat yourself up to hard. learn from it, that's all you can do at this point. we all make mistakes and in this hobby, unfortunately, the spiders are the ones that pay for them. You think you'll get another GBB? You may have not been directly responsible for it in this case. Did your spider have hooks on the first two legs? Maybe it WAS a mature male, in which case it's passing was probably just it's time.

I am almost 100 percent certain that she was female. No hooks whatsoever, and believe me when I say that I have checked thoroughly. I have a mature male G.rosea that has the hooks and the boxing gloves and he has been going strong for a year or more now. He is not eating much though and his abdomen does seem to be shrinking but otherwise he is doing what he usually does.

She was my favourite and I do want to get another GBB, I love them but I lack the funds to do so any time soon haha. I still cannot shake the feeling that something else was wrong though. Her behaviour compared to my two others was just so different with the way she would almost always have her knees pulled up over her head and how her abdomen never increased in size. She did seem a little thin. Hell, I feed my little B.smithi one roach and you can already notice that his abdomen is considerably larger (Only feed him one roach a week, skipping every other week). She was moving around yesterday, found her in multiple positions and then just... motionless today.

 

[Vanessa]

A week without water is not going to cause severe dehydration. Tarantulas go more than a week without water all the time. While it is not ideal, and it is far more dangerous for tarantulas who have just moulted and spiderlings to go without water, a week is not going to put them in this condition. Unless there was a heat mat or constant heat source present that would accelerate the dehydration process.

 

[Spidi]

A week without water is not going to cause severe dehydration. Tarantulas go more than a week without water all the time. While it is not ideal, and it is far more dangerous for tarantulas who have just moulted and spiderlings to go without water, a week is not going to put it in this condition. Unless there was a heat mat or constant heat source present that would accelerate the dehydration process.

That is why I am seriously doubting dehydration. She has not recently molted, she was kept in a room that is actually quite cold (since it is winter here) and there was no heat mat or anything that would speed up the dehydration. Unless it happened to be that time where she really did need some water and there was none. I do not know to be honest because she had not been eating either which was strange considering that she usually had no problem with that in the past.

 

[Vanessa]

Have you tried to flip her over and give her water? Or has she already gone?

 

[cold blood]

That is why I am seriously doubting dehydration. She has not recently molted, she was kept in a room that is actually quite cold (since it is winter here).

How cold?

That enclosure is basically a death trap....way too little floor space and way way way too much height....your insistence that it wasn't a fall is almost laughable....she's only got one place to roam, up, and a fall would almost certainly result in landing on something hard in that small space.

If its a fall, there's likely little that could be done....if its dehydration, flip the t on its back and administer water droplets to the base of its fangs. Lets hope its dehydration.

 

[kooky]

She may have fallen tbh. Even when i see my new avic sling fall off a side (pretty sure he is premoult) my heart skips a beat. I cant imagine finding out a species like the GBB fell from a drop like that.

 

[bryverine]

and why is that? is it not said pretty much everywhere that an ICU can save a spider?

It's also said everywhere Avics need constant misting. ICUs can be a death sentence for a tarantula - even one that's dehydrated.

It's better to have access to a large bowl of water, a water saturated cotton ball, or if they're in really bad shape use a dropper to put water directly on their mouth.

 

[kooky]

Let us know how the dripping water into its mouth goes. I hope your t makes it.

 

[Spidi]

How cold?

That enclosure is basically a death trap....way too little floor space and way way way too much height....your insistence that it wasn't a fall is almost laughable....she's only got one place to roam, up, and a fall would almost certainly result in landing on something hard in that small space.

If its a fall, there's likely little that could be done....if its dehydration, flip the t on its back and administer water droplets to the base of its fangs. Lets hope its dehydration.

Not cold enough that I need to put on layers of clothing but certainly not hot is what I am getting at.

Yes as I said it was a temporary enclosure and I was planning to rehouse her end of this week. The angle of the photo probably makes it seem a lot higher than it actually is because the enclosure does not have much height at all. Her leg span would be able to reach the top, so to speak. I am not ruling out the possibility that it could be a fall but it just seems unlikely in my personal opinion as she is a very good climber and never in nine months have I ever seen her climb upside down on the lid and then fall. My little B.smithi loved doing that but there is no room for it to actually fall so it is safe. However, it could explain why she seemed ok yesterday and then not so much today. No signs of improvement just yet.

 

[kooky]

Not cold enough that I need to put on layers of clothing but certainly not hot is what I am getting at.

Yes as I said it was a temporary enclosure and I was planning to rehouse her end of this week. The angle of the photo probably makes it seem a lot higher than it actually is because the enclosure does not have much height at all. Her leg span would be able to reach the top, so to speak. I am not ruling out the possibility that it could be a fall but it just seems unlikely in my personal opinion as she is a very good climber and never in nine months have I ever seen her climb upside down on the lid and then fall. My little B.smithi loved doing that but there is no room for it to actually fall so it is safe. However, it could explain why she seemed ok yesterday and then not so much today. No signs of improvement just yet.

Well hopefully it is just dehydration and she'll recover. if it is a fall, then i dont think there is much you can do. Her abdomen may not be split but there could be all sorts of internal damage.

 

[sdsnybny]

Have you considered that it could be getting ready to molt? Occasionally an adult T will molt upright and scare the hell out of you the keeper. Do you know when the last molt was?

 

[Spidi]

Have you considered that it could be getting ready to molt? Occasionally an adult T will molt upright and scare the hell out of you the keeper. Do you know when the last molt was?

I have no idea when the last molt was but there are no other signs of premolt other than not eating for the last two or so weeks. She is quite literally lifeless, I mean it would make sense but as I said, there have been no other signs of premolt. No swollen abdomen, nothing as far as I can tell.

 

[Spidi]

Have you tried to flip her over and give her water? Or has she already gone?

So I have decided to put her into an ICU as I was not getting much results, and could practically assume she was dead. A couple hours have passed and she has appeared to have moved very little and her one leg is twitching as if she is trying to almost move. Should I keep her in here and if so, for how long? There seems to be some condensation on the lid. Not a lot though.

 

[Toxoderidae]

So I have decided to put her into an ICU as I was not getting much results, and could practically assume she was dead. A couple hours have passed and she has appeared to have moved very little and her one leg is twitching as if she is trying to almost move. Should I keep her in here and if so, for how long? There seems to be some condensation on the lid. Not a lot though.

Remove her from the ICU. It's already been explained how an ICU is bad for this situation.

 

[Spidi]

Remove her from the ICU. It's already been explained how an ICU is bad for this situation.

With no further evidence and keeping her over the bowl was not doing anything so...

 

[Toxoderidae]

With no further evidence and keeping her over the bowl was not doing anything so...

So? The ICU is almost NEVER good for an "ailing" spider. Just continue the water dish/cotton ball. Anything more aside from administrating water could do more damage than good.

 

[Vanessa]

They do not want to be in an ICU because they do poorly in humid conditions. Since she is very weak, you will need to flip her over and put some water directly into her mouth. The below video will show you how to do that.
Put her into a different enclosure, one that is much more shallow. You can put some paper towel on the bottom, but it cannot be wet. Make sure there are air holes in it. Put a very shallow water dish in with her in case she can make it in there on her own. Make sure you can see through the container. If you don't have a clear container, then get a nylon stocking and place it as a lid with some elastics. She is too weak to break out of it right now.
If it is an injury, then you still need to move her to another enclosure, where she can just try to recover, and see if that does any good. Rig it up the same was as above. Just please do not make it wet inside and do not use any heat source.

 

[Spidi]

They do not want to be in an ICU because they do poorly in humid conditions. Since she is very weak, you will need to flip her over and put some water directly into her mouth. The below video will show you how to do that.
Put her into a different enclosure, one that is much more shallow. You can put some paper towel on the bottom, but it cannot be wet. Make sure there are air holes in it. Put a very shallow water dish in with her in case she can make it in there on her own. Make sure you can see through the container. If you don't have a clear container, then get a nylon stocking and place it as a lid with some elastics. She is too weak to break out of it right now.
If it is an injury, then you still need to move her to another enclosure, where she can just try to recover, and see if that does any good. Rig it up the same was as above. Just please do not make it wet inside and do not use any heat source.

Thanks! Will just have to move her over now. That might be quite a challenge because I do not want to stress her out or cause any further injury.

 

[Vanessa]

Thanks! Will just have to move her over now. That might be quite a challenge because I do not want to stress her out or cause any further injury.

It is much more stressful, and more damaging long term, for her to be on wet paper towels. Don't worry.