It was a long days night...

[Gail]

The second PZB, the injured one, decided to shed last night too! She was too weak to roll over onto her back though. She just sort of propped herself up against the side of the shoebox ICU. I was a nervous wreck - both of them shedding at the same time! The first one, which was only having the fungal problems, shed OK and it seems as if the fungus went with the old skin. But the second one, as I suspected, has a few problems. She seems to have gotten all of the skin off except for in the pedicel area where the really deep scar was from her being almost broken in half. I didn't want to go digging at her but is looks like perhaps what happened was that the scar tissue stayed down in there, that the abdomen skin ripped where it met the scar and the carapace seperated from the scar too. It looks odd but I'm just not completely sure what's going on there. As for the leg that was gone, she re-grew one but it is deformed and useless - very pale, almost white, with practically no hair and deformed into a strange hooked shape. She seems unable to move it and it may have been leaking a bit at the joints. I think it was mis-formed because of the fungus and the infection. The inside of her skin had large lumps of some sort of blackish growths that I assume was the fungus.
Well, I got those two skins out ASAP, wrapped them tightly in paper towels and tossed them so that no fungal spores could get loose. I also decided that the risk of leaving them in their current ICU cages which would definately have some fungal spores was higher than moving them immediately into new, sterilized ICU's. I did so very very gently and carefully and they both seem no worse for the wear. I am going to keep them in ICU for at least a few more weeks to be certain that the fungus is gone.
I sure hope that they both fully recover, especially that one who was injured. I may have put more money into her in meds than she cost herself but if I saved her it was worth it.

Gail

 

[JacenBeers]

That spider sounds like quite a handful but you seem to be doing a great and valiant job nursing both of them back to health. Congrats and good luck.

 

[Nemesis]

Gail,
Please keep us posted on the recovery.
How did your spiders come to be in this situation? Did I miss something? Are they rescue spiders?

Pax,
Kelly O

 

[MrT]

Gail, you da woman.

Ernie

 

[Gail]

To Nemesis

I sent you a PM - just letting you know because :8o I was on these boards for a while before I realized you have to go to your user cp to know you have a message :8o

Gail

 

[Immortal_sin]

Gail,
thanks for the update....I would be on pins and needles if I were you (I am anyway LOL)
I sure hope they make it.
Holley

 

[kosh]

Gail, you can go to user control panel and then go to edit options...and in there you can click "yes" to box that says pop-up window when you get private message......that way it will pop-up and tell you when you get a PM.......no having to check user cp.....just F.Y.I.

 

[Weapon-X]

re

dam i'm sorry to hear about that, i read about that incident tonight in the watering hole, pretty ridiculous, hope that t of yours makes it:8o

 

[Wade]

Tarantulas with injuries at the pedicel usually have a poor chance for survival. The fact that this one survived the molt at all is a very, very good sign. Good job!

Wade

 

[Gail]

UPDATE 10/9/02

The PZB that was injured has eaten 2 pinkies! The other one has eaten one. I still see no sign of fungus. The injured one still looks a bit odd at the pedicel though - just not quite right. The wierd little leg had darkened to almost black but she still can't do anything more than move it at the first joint against the body. All other joints seem to be fused.

Gail