Liquid on bum, sling . Concerned

[mjzheng]

Hey all , I've been keeping an eye on a P.cancerides sling of mine for a few days because I noticed it had a little web/poop sticking out of its butt the other day and it's fattened very fast for having just recently molted - though it had a few large prey items . I fed today and was hoping it would poop , as all these threads on impaction have me paranoid. Came up tonight to check on little one and there was a liquid all over it's spinnerets . It was grooming it's front legs. But was just wondering what this is . Poop? Grooming fluid ? A mix of the two ? Anything to be concerned about ? I was under impression poop was white and grooming fluid clear

Here is earlier , the white web/poop sticking out , between spinnerets not sure if you can see well.



And two photos of the liquid tonight . I apologize for these , this is a barely over an inch sling in a burrow so was very tough to get a shot . The white is with a bit more light so it's sort of a whitish color which makes me hopeful it's poop , just seemed like a lot .



In case someone asks here's an enclosure pic. 4 inch cube with 2 inches sub dampened around bowl and some moisture in under layer , water dish other side of cork


Almost looks like some type of rectal prolapse or damage actually. It's currently eating half of it's meal from earlier ..so not feeling bad


Edit , wiped with q tip to assess damage , not looking good

 

[Smotzer]

Almost looks like some type of rectal prolapse or damage actually. It's currently eating half of it's meal from earlier ..so not feeling bad
View attachment 346307

Edit , wiped with q tip to assess damage , not looking good
View attachment 346309

Is that a hole in its abdomen where you whipped away the fluid?

 

[mjzheng]

Is that a hole in its abdomen where you whipped away the fluid?

No, in person it looks like a protrusion or bump on the anus vs a hole

It's been all night and this morning there is liquid again .there was not an hour ago but it crawled out and it's there now , just like last night . I really expected to wake up to a dead T today

 

[Smotzer]

Okay i thought maybe it was a hole, but now i'm not sure what this is.

@cold blood @viper69 @EulersK do you guys have any idea of what could be causing this?

 

[mjzheng]

For several days I almost thought it was like a baby spinneret with how it sticks out a little . This thread from a month ago is sort of similar to how it looks, with the middle sticking out. The hemolymph like fluid is what's really concerning to me though . Not sure if right now I should swab again and corn starch or leave it be . :

Anything helpful for visible impaction?

I have a 1 inch B Smithi sling with a visible impaction. I don't have pics now and I don't want to bother her again for a few. It appears like it could be a small piece of substrate sticking out of her anus. I have observed it trying to kick it out with its rear legs several times. I took a wet...

arachnoboards.com

Edit it dried chalky white gonna assume it's poop and clean its butt ASAP

 

[Smotzer]

okay good!

 

[mjzheng]

Definitely a ton leaking out of this guy I'm trying it's so hard with a baby sling. It just molted 3 weeks ago and is obscenely bloated

 

[octanejunkie]

Slow down on the feeding until you get it sorted, maybe?

 

[mjzheng]

Slow down on the feeding until you get it sorted, maybe?

Yes it's had 3 meals since molting and it's super bloated so I'm planning no more food at all . It's huge .

 

[Smotzer]

Yes it's had 3 meals since molting and it's super bloated so I'm planning no more food at all . It's huge .

I think thats a good idea, hopefully some of the people I tagged will chime in, and give you some more info on what best to do. If it is indeed impaction I have never personally dealt with that so im not much of a help.

 

[cold blood]

it does look like a possible impaction....people have reported a lot of fluid and feces after clearing the anus, but it seem survival is still low....ive never personally dealt with this, so i cant offer anything...good luck, hopefully you caught it quick, ir its something it can make it to the next molt to fix.

 

[mjzheng]

Thanks all I will update this as things evolve.

Currently it's chilling having a happy grooming session . It was bolty, energetic and feisty during me cleaning it and all the bolting didn't cause any additional fluids to seep out . No lethargy yet . Some substance did come off on the qtip. Fingers crossed .

Just a mini update , spiderling spent most of yesterday soaking its own rear with grooming fluid and trying to dislodge the thing in it's butt , so we decided to again try to swab .

My husband and I made this little vial with q tips on both ends and a damp paper towel plug so you could rub either way the sling was standing (after spending a lot of time trying to rub a feisty baby cancerides , this worked the best . ) We cupped sling in and inserted paper towels , I had drilled a q tip sized hole into the end .


We got a little more poop on the q tip and moved the plug in the anus out a little. Was able to feel that the abdomen is not hard so that has me very hopeful there's not a bunch of stuff inside trapped (combined with all the goo yesterday) . The plug is not all the way out , but it looked like a hard little white spider turd- like what you find in your substrate doing maintenance . It's sticking out more now, but still stuck . We literally saw it move out just a tiny bit after all our rubbing and soaking , but unfortunately she wasn't able to get it the rest of the way out with her foot. I can see the anus skin stretching around the bulge blocking .




I am torn between trying again later today to get it fully out and cleared or just leaving it be . Spider is acting fine minus excessive grooming , and from last night to today the grooming has seemed to slow down. Because it's behaving somewhat "normally" I am almost tempted to just stop and hope for a molt, but with enough reading on here I know impaction is usually fatal if you catch it too late...and I'm cautiously optimistic that I've caught this early. Maybe I try one more time to get the little poop out ? Thoughts ? Unfortunately all the impaction information is related to large adults who already are acting off , I'm just an obsessive keeper who noticed the tiny "plug" before any behavior changes , and then the goo came . Really tough to decide, but I will say, despite all the poking and prodding this sling doesn't sit in a stress curl lol. As soon as it was back in it's home it did a happy dance

 

[Tarantula155]

Keep us updated

 

[Smotzer]

Just a mini update , spiderling spent most of yesterday soaking its own rear with grooming fluid and trying to dislodge the thing in it's butt , so we decided to again try to swab .

My husband and I made this little vial with q tips on both ends and a damp paper towel plug so you could rub either way the sling was standing (after spending a lot of time trying to rub a feisty baby cancerides , this worked the best . ) We cupped sling in and inserted paper towels , I had drilled a q tip sized hole into the end .
View attachment 346487

We got a little more poop on the q tip and moved the plug in the anus out a little. Was able to feel that the abdomen is not hard so that has me very hopeful there's not a bunch of stuff inside trapped (combined with all the goo yesterday) . The plug is not all the way out , but it looked like a hard little white spider turd- like what you find in your substrate doing maintenance . It's sticking out more now, but still stuck . We literally saw it move out just a tiny bit after all our rubbing and soaking , but unfortunately she wasn't able to get it the rest of the way out with her foot. I can see the anus skin stretching around the bulge blocking .
View attachment 346488



I am torn between trying again later today to get it fully out and cleared or just leaving it be . Spider is acting fine minus excessive grooming , and from last night to today the grooming has seemed to slow down. Because it's behaving somewhat "normally" I am almost tempted to just stop and hope for a molt, but with enough reading on here I know impaction is usually fatal if you catch it too late...and I'm cautiously optimistic that I've caught this early. Maybe I try one more time to get the little poop out ? Thoughts ? Unfortunately all the impaction information is related to large adults who already are acting off , I'm just an obsessive keeper who noticed the tiny "plug" before any behavior changes , and then the goo came . Really tough to decide, but I will say, despite all the poking and prodding this sling doesn't sit in a stress curl lol. As soon as it was back in it's home it did a happy dance

I think you should keep monitoring closely, it sounds like you may have caught it early enough. It good to hear it is not acting abnormally or showing signs of stress. Definitely keep us updated, rooting for your little guy!

 

[Goopyguy56]

I had a sling with an impaction die recently. I saw what looked like a little stick picking out of its anus. It went into premolt so I thought it might molt out but whatever was in the anus ended up popping the abdomen and it died. If I could have gone back in time I would have tried to remove the obstruction. I hope you can get it out.

 

[mjzheng]

Nothing really special to update. I've been gently cleaning its butt every couple days. Unable to get something large out or budge any type of possible plug , but it's still seemingly fine. Struck at some water drops the other day. It isn't fixating on cleaning its rear anymore , it will groom after I clean it but stops after about 30 min. I clean when I notice it's butt looking like the spot is whiter , as I don't want anything to dry excessively there. I won't touch when I notice premolt

Was going to ask you all - is this little guy fat enough to molt? I'm thinking yes. Zero premolt signs yet of course . I was just curious what happens when you just quit feeding and the tarantula isn't full. Do they just go to premolt over time anyway ? Or just draw out their cycle and wait for more food? I know they quit when they've had enough (and I've manually stopped feeding some of my hungrier t's) but not experienced with just deciding to not feed anymore unless they're super fat lol.

It molted exactly a month ago so hopefully will molt again in a month or so if it continues to be okay

 

[mjzheng]

Update : not sure if this is a positive or negative yet ...this is indeed impaction . Today I got the plug out and COPIOUS brownish white feces just started pouring out.

Positives : my sling has still been acting completely fine. I only tried again today cuz it was grooming in the morning and it usually doesn't touch it's rear (no activity there for a few weeks ). Praying I caught this before sickness . I didn't finish cleaning it cuz I was worried I had ruptured it's abdomen cleaning . I will know by tomorrow probably if this sling is going to instantly die. I know many do after release.

here it is back in enclosure , I stopped cleaning cuz I was worried I killed it. It was bolting around leaking feces everywhere


Here it partially started drying. If the sling does not groom I will clean it again soon


Fingers crossed for my little guy everyone. I know survival of this is slim but I'm hoping so hard because I caught it before it acted sick things may be okay ... :/ I am not feeling hopeful. It's rear is so dirty I am terrified I accidentally hurt the abdomen near a spinneret and this is leaking through a wound vs the anus. I could be wrong.

It started oozing out even more poop an hour later, but now it's actually looking like a normal sling vs the funky bloated shape . That part is good news

 

[mjzheng]

Update, a sad one : this slings sacmate molted yesterday and this one began to darken the last two days. I was very excited it was getting close to molting out the problem , noted it seemed extra sluggish last night , then woke up this morning to a death curl . It's fully gone .


I don't think this is a normal blockage / impaction . Something was very wrong with it's anus and you can see it on my microscope:


Very very sad

 

[EpicEpic]

Sorry for your loss!

I had my first recently and it really does suck!

Enjoy the rest of your spiders and if you CAN...order something new to try and keep your mind busy and collection growing!

Either way! Hope you are OK

 

[mjzheng]

Sorry for your loss!

I had my first recently and it really does suck!

Enjoy the rest of your spiders and if you CAN...order something new to try and keep your mind busy and collection growing!

Either way! Hope you are OK

Thank you for the kind message. I'm shocked at how crushed I was over losing this one. Really would like to order some distractions soon!