Moult damaged foot, Brachypelma Bohmeii

[WolfieKate]

My juvenile female Boehmei moulted out recently and the first few days I was worried as she displayed some weird behaviour - shaking her legs fast and randomly. This happened a few times and I was googling.

But upon closer inspection it looks like her foot was weeping and stuck to the side of her tank.. The discarded moult looks normal but the foot doesn’t. Ive given her some decent feeds and the foot has healed as it is. She seems fine but I’m posting the photo for info in case anyone has seen or experiences the same. Thanks. She seemed to find it uncomfortable at first but has got used to it

 

[viper69]

Should be fine- Ts will amputate if necessary- enjoy

 

[ThatPlebOverThere]

Accidental feeder left in? Foot stuck in the terrain? As long as weeping stopped.

 

[WolfieKate]

Thank you. Definitely no feeders. But it could have got stuck in or on something. She’s eating well and has stopped the random leg shaking so hoping it was just a response to the foot being odd and not feeling right. She’s kept the leg thus far and it seems to have healed albeit a bit odd looking.

 

[Muffinforall]

It happens! If she doesnt self-amputate it she'll fix it on her next moult. I'm also fairly certain they know when they're injured like this and speed up their moulting cycle so you might not have to wait as long for another moult.

 

[darkness975]

It will be fine. They self amputate when necessary.

 

[TheraMygale]

It happens. Sometimes there is no known reason, because we don’t have a lab. It happened to one of my g pulchripes slings.

It was shyer during this period, but still molted sooner, and with a fresh leg. It didnt amputate.

However, the leg was just handicap. There was no fluids or breaks.

it molted again, recently. First time since last year. And i cant tell it had a bad leg.

 

[Moakmeister]

It happens! If she doesnt self-amputate it she'll fix it on her next moult. I'm also fairly certain they know when they're injured like this and speed up their moulting cycle so you might not have to wait as long for another moult.

Is there any real evidence of that?

 

[Malcontent]

I’m in no way an expert but my g pulchra has suffered a bad molt resulting in a weird foot for a few weeks or was it a couple months….? it’s so long ago I can’t remember but she was not tiny she was about 1”1/4’ at the time. Her behaviour was normal from what I saw other than sometimes seemingly avoiding putting the leg all the way onto whatever surface she was on or she would awkwardly lift and drop the leg almost like she couldn’t find a comfortable way to put 1/8 of her weight on it? All this to say, she really didn’t seem to be affected by it much. After what felt like forever (because of anxiety) she molted (she didn’t seem to do so any sooner than on average but I am so inexperienced I wouldn’t take my word as anything other than my opinion on my situation) and everything was fine afterwords. WITHOUT ANY INTERVENTION.
Now a story that I will try and keep brief as I can, for context of my last statement. I have an example of intervening but I am not saying to do anything and that is why I prefaced this story with the other story…. The foot will be fine and needs no human intervention.


I have not witnessed a SINGLE sling or T of mine molt UNTIL the same g pulchra’s (who had the bum foot from the first story) most recent molt. If I had to wait to see one after all these years and losing all my other slings and one T then I am SOOOOO GLAD I did finally witness this one because if I hadn’t I probably wouldn’t have a T at all today. I came in JUST BEFORE she flipped over after pulling her feet from the molt. Initially I thought she looked ok but she had been sitting surrounded by freshly discarded exoskeleton and when she left the pile I noticed something off, her abdomen appeared to be stuck on the top. I left it alone to give her time to handle it herself but as the minutes turned to an hour I started to worry because she wasn’t doing anything herself. I decided that I needed to at least determine if it was stuck or not. I used tweezers and grabbed at the bit of carapace that was hanging off the piece that was seemingly clinging to her abdomen. It broke off but nothing budged from her abdomen. I began googling as much as I could to refresh my memory of the do and do nots in this situation. I got a q-tip and I dab a couple water droplets on it before I gently swipe at it. A large part of it came off fairly easily and I thought I was possibly overreacting but what I didn’t see initially, was that when it did come off it separated from two small bits that remained attached to her abdomen on either side of the initial problem area. She was irritated and scared (understandably so) so she took the opportunity to run into the area she was digging out for her new hide before I could be sure if I had removed it all. She came out of her hide and that is when I saw the remaining stuck molt. I dampened another q-tip and swiped gently at the tiny bit on one side… SUCCESS! I got a new q-tip as I wanted to be able to keep track of my progress or lack thereof so if something came off her and was stuck to the q-tip I would get a new one. It only took a couple more swipes but I was so relieved when her bum was that brilliant black she was finally becoming!! I am so lucky her molt was her last brown molt of her life as it made it much easier to see what was stuck.

 

[WolfieKate]

Thanks everyone who has added to this thread. . I’m interested as to whether detaching a limb is usually an immediate response to trauma or can be a delayed reaction by weeks due to prolonged issues.. She is still using the leg but it appears weaker and annoying. The damaged foot is clearly still an irritant.

But other than that she is fine and beautiful! Eating very well. I think I posted because her frustrated movements to use or free her foot looked like DKS videos. TBh I’m much happier to have a damaged foot even which clearly still causes some discomfort. She’s very pretty.

 

[TheraMygale]

Sometimes, i think that an injured leg, is a leg that couldnt be expanded properly during the molting process. For whatever reason, fluid did not make it all the way quickly enough, and leg hardened. Blocking the necessary fluid to do its job.

thats my only personal theory.

i am basing that on what happened to my g pulchripes. It had more then enough space to molt, it also was in the perfect spot to do so. Did it lack extra fluids? Were my prey not hydrated enough?

who knows.

many people who experienced such injuries, in their tarantulas, witnessed their tarantulas in tight spots.

this could have happened in nature.

i think we don’t like it when this happens, because its like a dog breaking its leg after chasing a ball. The thing is, with tarantulas, its almost impossible to get the answer.

even when we do everything right, bad things happen.

of course, im just as curious. In my case though, i have detached myself from that.

i spent to many hours researching things even scientists don’t have answers too. So now, i just accept it. I see my tarantulas like any insect or invert i come across in nature.

something small and fragile, yet amazingly resilient and suprising. Thats about it: constant suprises.

for eveything else, its become an experiment for me. I treat my tarantulas with respect, but i don’t live within rules and dogma. I approach every situation with an opportunity to learn and discover something.

 

[Muffinforall]

Is there any real evidence of that?

Ehhhhhh. No. There's alot we don't know about tarantulas in general, let alone specifc genera. It's something alot of keepers have reported and it is something that, from a biology standpoint, would not at all be surprising. It could also be partly due to in the hobby, keepers do take more care of Ts with damaged or amputee legs. And that could speed up the cycle.

 

[Moakmeister]

Ehhhhhh. No. There's alot we don't know about tarantulas in general, let alone specifc genera. It's something alot of keepers have reported and it is something that, from a biology standpoint, would not at all be surprising. It could also be partly due to in the hobby, keepers do take more care of Ts with damaged or amputee legs. And that could speed up the cycle.

Well sadly, the only way to scientifically test it is to, well, tear off a tarantula's leg and compare it with a control tarantula on the same molt cycle. Of course, far crueler things are done to far more cognizant animals all the time in the scientific field, but... it ain't gonna be me! I'm not injuring my tarantula just to find out if they'll heal the injury faster.

 

[Muffinforall]

Well sadly, the only way to scientifically test it is to, well, tear off a tarantula's leg and compare it with a control tarantula on the same molt cycle. Of course, far crueler things are done to far more cognizant animals all the time in the scientific field, but... it ain't gonna be me! I'm not injuring my tarantula just to find out if they'll heal the injury faster.

There's a handful of other questions you'd have to answer to get to that point. Including observing Ts in the wild, and good luck with that.
The best we could do is have several hobbyists be incredibly diligent in making recording observations about moult cycles. But yeah, im going to lean on the side of "the spider knows how to spider." And so will probably moult sooner to recover a leg or other injury if resources and environment allow.

 

[cold blood]

Is there any real evidence of that?

anecdotal

I’m interested as to whether detaching a limb is usually an immediate response to trauma or can be a delayed reaction by weeks due to prolonged issues..

both

 

[TheraMygale]

the good news is, its not a dog. Fixing that leg will cost nothing. Just time.

and we surely have that with our tarantulas.