- Joined
- Aug 16, 2002
- Messages
- 2,929
I got a bit of a shock last night. I was going through and feeding the collection, when I took the lid off my M. velvetosoma's cage. To my surprise, she sudennly spazed out and went skittering out of the box and tumbled onto the floor! Fortunately, her abdomen did not appear to have ruptured (she wasn't especially big butted...if it had been my N. carapoensis 
). She was bleeding from several leg joints, however.
I had several possible ways to stop the bleeding on hand, including nail hardener, super glue, and NuSkin Liquid Bandage. I went with the nail hardener, as it applied with a brush and that seemed to be the best way to apply it to this very upset and angry spider. I brushed it on everywhere I could see the little "pearls" of hemolymph leaking out. This seemed to stop the bleeding. I moistend the substrate a bit more and put in a larger, shallower water dish (in case she couldn't get to her reguler one). Hydration is very, very important during bleeding emergencies! Needless to say, by the end I was covered with her urticating hair! After I was resonably sure she wasn't bleeding anymore, I went to bed, hoping for the best.
When I got up in the morning and checked on her, she looked pretty good...she had a nice bald patch from flicking at me, and the patches of nail hardener are quite obvious, but she was standing and walking normally, so far so good. It'll be a little while before I know for sure she's going to be OK (probably until she molts again), but I feel pretty optimistic about it right now.
There are two morals to the story-
1. Always pay attention to where your spider is when you open the cage! If I'd been a little sharper at that moment I might have prevented the whole thing in the first place.
2. Always have something to stop bleeding on hand. If I didn't already have the "triple nail hardener" (or super glue or new skin, etc..) on hand, I have no doubt that this spider would have died while I was out buying it. If you don't have one of these products already, I strongly suggest getting it BEFORE you need it. No arthropod first aid kit should be without it!
Wade
). She was bleeding from several leg joints, however.I had several possible ways to stop the bleeding on hand, including nail hardener, super glue, and NuSkin Liquid Bandage. I went with the nail hardener, as it applied with a brush and that seemed to be the best way to apply it to this very upset and angry spider. I brushed it on everywhere I could see the little "pearls" of hemolymph leaking out. This seemed to stop the bleeding. I moistend the substrate a bit more and put in a larger, shallower water dish (in case she couldn't get to her reguler one). Hydration is very, very important during bleeding emergencies! Needless to say, by the end I was covered with her urticating hair! After I was resonably sure she wasn't bleeding anymore, I went to bed, hoping for the best.
When I got up in the morning and checked on her, she looked pretty good...she had a nice bald patch from flicking at me, and the patches of nail hardener are quite obvious, but she was standing and walking normally, so far so good. It'll be a little while before I know for sure she's going to be OK (probably until she molts again), but I feel pretty optimistic about it right now.
There are two morals to the story-
1. Always pay attention to where your spider is when you open the cage! If I'd been a little sharper at that moment I might have prevented the whole thing in the first place.
2. Always have something to stop bleeding on hand. If I didn't already have the "triple nail hardener" (or super glue or new skin, etc..) on hand, I have no doubt that this spider would have died while I was out buying it. If you don't have one of these products already, I strongly suggest getting it BEFORE you need it. No arthropod first aid kit should be without it!
Wade
