Melly, the G. rosea with a LOT of issues!

Ixithel

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Apr 16, 2011
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Meecht- I have submerged a lump under water and saw nothing. The water simply got cloudy. I wouldn't know how to get her on her back either but if I took a clump from her mouth, placed it on some water and put it on a glass slide then maybe i'll be able to spot something..

PhobeToPhile- Dyes? I am confused..
 

demonanjel117

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Meecht- I have submerged a lump under water and saw nothing. The water simply got cloudy. I wouldn't know how to get her on her back either but if I took a clump from her mouth, placed it on some water and put it on a glass slide then maybe i'll be able to spot something..

PhobeToPhile- Dyes? I am confused..
Yeah I think if you just get some on a slide youd be able to see what it is without having to turn your baby on her back. If possible you should take pictures of what the microscope shows.
 

wesker12

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try using a dropper of methylene blue dye on the white substance, if it changes color then its a fungus. If you dont have any i suppose i can ship you some if i look around my house for it.
 
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Jacobchinarian

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Has anyone considered an antiseptic like zinc powder. The tarantula cannot eat it like a liquid but I think it will kill whatever the white stuff is. People use it for athletes foot and it can be bought on eBay or maybe even CVS.
 

Meecht

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try using a dropper of methylene blue dye on the white substance, if it changes color then its a fungus. If you dont have any i suppose i can ship you some if i look around my house for it.
If it were a fungus, wouldn't it have spread outside the initial area by now?
 

Ixithel

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demonanjel117- haha I don't think I could get pictures...these will be school microscopes. She hasn't got back to me yet of course. As for Melly I checked her again and it's like the white stuff forms into a hard ball at the base of her mouth. VERY strange.

wesker12- hmmm I wonder if my school has some.


Jacobchinarian I'm afraid to use anything on her that might end up killing her.
 

Ixithel

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Microscopic update

What did I say? It's not nematodes

I took about four slides, all pooling water at her mouth parts near the white and sucking up the water to dip them on the slides all at different times. What I found were not worms, instead little creatures that resembled mites. I saw eggs and about 3 different moving ones.

It would kind of make sense since she's always near her water dish, the mites are attracted to moisture correct?

I am going to clean her entire enclosure right now and give her new substrate and a much smaller water dish.
 

Meecht

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Mites are causing that? :eek:

People say that the water dish is more of a precautionary measure and source of small amounts of humidity. Would it be OK to remove the dish completely for a few days in hopes of drying the mites out? Is it possible that she's sticking close to the water dish because the mites are actually leeching the moisture out of her?
 

Hobo

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Nobody said they were mites.
It would be helpful if you could take a sample to an acarologist (if you can fin one) to be sure though. Try a university or something.

I don't think taking the water dish away, or making it smaller would help. That would depend on why she is at the water dish in the first place. Is she there because she wants to get hydrated, or have the parasites somehow compelled her to go there since they need water...
I doubt you could dry out things enough so that the parasites inside her (I'm assuming that's where they are coming from) would dessicate.

If it were me, I'd clean her mouth out, and rehouse her with all new, sterile materials/sub/whatever. Replace the water dish instead of cleaning it (drink lots of bottled drinks!). Clean her mouth and rehouse again when or if they come back.
 

Ixithel

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They looked like mites. Mite or not it's something alive inside of her thats laying eggs. But nematodes, no. Something parasitic and obviously affecting her badly.

Tomorrow i'm going to clean her mouth out, she's had enough tonight though I flushed her mouth pretty good while I was at the school. Maybe I should get rid of the dish completely and just syringe hydrate her for a bit?

---------- Post added at 11:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 PM ----------

Im removing her water dish, she has stopped drinking it seems and all she does is dip her feet into it and leans on it.
 

PhobeToPhile

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They looked like mites. Mite or not it's something alive inside of her thats laying eggs. But nematodes, no. Something parasitic and obviously affecting her badly.

Tomorrow i'm going to clean her mouth out, she's had enough tonight though I flushed her mouth pretty good while I was at the school. Maybe I should get rid of the dish completely and just syringe hydrate her for a bit?

---------- Post added at 11:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 PM ----------

Im removing her water dish, she has stopped drinking it seems and all she does is dip her feet into it and leans on it.
Is there a wax or something you can put on the spot to deny them oxygen?
 

Ixithel

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Is there a wax or something you can put on the spot to deny them oxygen?
Wax on the spot to deny them oxygen? The parasites? I'm not sure how I could even accomplish that. I might try putting her in a watery ICU like so

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL6Or-TGUdE

and see if that helps her any. But doing that might encourage whatever mite-like thing thats inside of her to reproduce more....I'm not sure what to do
 

astraldisaster

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Whatever the parasites are, could they perhaps be killed by 38ºC + temperatures, like nematodes? Maybe somebody more knowledgeable than me could weigh in on the subject. Of course, it's risky for the T as well, but it sounds to me like she's doomed if you can't get rid of the infestation.
 

Ixithel

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I;m not sure because if it IS some type of mite then I read they thrive in hotter temperatures
 

Verneph

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I;m not sure because if it IS some type of mite then I read they thrive in hotter temperatures
I think it would depend heavily on the type of mite. Of course, we don't have any idea if these things are mites at all. Without knowing exactly what the parasites are, any real solutions are going to be almost impossible to find, let alone suggest. I believe someone in an earlier post suggested taking the sample of the parasites you have to an expert and have them take a look. That's probably your best bet at this point.
 

Ixithel

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Update

Well I was going to try the Watery ICU method but she didn't like it at all so what I did was took about 15-20 minutes to turn her over and deep clean her mouth. What I did was squirt water onto her mouth parts and use a Q-tip to swish around her mouth, around the white chalky area, around her fangs. She was very cooperative too as I was able to get under her fangs and between her palps. I'd then suck up the pooled water and rinse, repeat. At the end of the session I ran water over her mouth parts to rinse it off and then returned her to her enclosure with a clean, new water dish.


I actually SAW one of the bugs that live in her mouth so you can see them with your naked eye if you look hard enough. Teenie tiny white bug things around her mouth parts. I only really saw one though but I know there is more.



Her abdomen still looks the same and she's getting really sluggish. I'm going to repeat the mouth cleaning maybe...every other day? Or should I do it every day? What do you guys think? I don't want to stress her out but I'm not gonna let her die from dehydration/parasitic infection.
 

Hobo

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I would do that whenever it gets crusty, I guess.
I bet that whatever these things are, they are not only inside/on her, but most likely crawling all over the sub and ornaments of her cage. Cleaning her mouth then sticking her back in would just give the parasites a new, clean place to set up shop again, so perhaps provide new/sterilized sub, water dish and cage after every cleaning to at least prevent any of the sub crawlies from hopping aboard.

Unfortunately, I don't see how this can end well. If they are indeed inside her, I don't think there's any amount of cleaning or drying you could do to get rid of 'em, short of trying to use some kind of medication to kill them. And even then, we don't know how it will affect your spider, or even what the parasites are.

Like I said, get a sample to someone in the know, so you'll at least know what the heck they are, and might provide clues on how to deal with it next time if it ever crops up.

Good luck, though. Keep doing what you are doing. In the end, I don't think you can do much else.
 

Moonface

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Like I said, get a sample to someone in the know, so you'll at least know what the heck they are, and might provide clues on how to deal with it next time if it ever crops up.
Exactly. What if what you saw were just regular mites and they're there due to necrotic tissue in/around her mouth? I don't think we can even be certain that they're what's causing the problems.

Were the mite-like things floating around in the goo, and if so, what did the actual chalky stuff look like under the microscope? Were you able to do a stain?

Regardless, I admire how much you care for Melly. I know people who don't even treat their dog or cat with such compassion... Best of luck with her.
 

Ixithel

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Hobo- I did a huge clean of house when I brought her home from checking her stuff under a microscope. Got her new everything, have a bunch of caps at the ready so I can dispose and a brand new bag of substrate.

I'm not sure I know where to go to bring her to identify these things. I mean, the science department of my highschool didn't really know but then again those are teachers. I'm super broke so I am unable to do anything costly for a while. Would any vets perhaps be able to identify these things? Or would I have to try and find a place more...exotic.

Moonface While I was cleaning her mouth there was a lot of old sub caught up in there. She was very cooperative once I started dripping water onto her though, stopped struggling and such.

Under the microscope I observed lots of dirt, chunks from dead roach when I attempted to syringe feed her, occasional single celled things that looked like an oval with small circles in them, eggs I believe. And that exact same oval with legs and a head that looks very mite-ish to me. I couldn't get a CLEAR look cause the few I saw were stuck in dirt but thats what they looked like.

I was unable to do a stain, forgot completely.

The chalky stuff kind of blended in with the water and made a whitish looking milky liquid that didn't appear any different under the scope. Its just really hard and probably goes deep into her body. Whatever it is i'm unable to remove it, it's hard like chalk and I don't want to cause her discomfort by prodding around and stabbing at her mouth too much.

And thanks so much, that means a lot to me. She's my little girl and I will try everything I can think of to save her!
 
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