My first T might be dying...don't know what to do (A. seemani)

edesign

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Well...I'm really torn as to what to do here. The first T I ever bought, "Elsie", has not been right for about 2.5-3 weeks now. She rarely moved so I wasn't really surprised when she hadn't moved in a week. After that week I took her tank down to give her some crickets and noticed that her legs were kind of curled underneath her. At first I thought she was dead but when I took the forceps and touched her her legs kinda of moved a bit.

So I removed her from her tank and placed her in an ICU. I dampened a paper towel and put it in another container, put a thin milk cap of water in there and placed her on top of the cap in case she wanted some water. Well, it's been about 1.5 since I did that and there is no sign of improvement whatsoever.

I bought her in April of 2004 and she was around 4". She has molted a few times in my care and is now around the 5" mark so being an Aphonopelma species I'm sure she is pretty old. I just have never had a T die from old age and am not sure what to look for.

Her abdomen is not shriveled at all, in fact if it weren't for the curled legs you'd never know anything was wrong with her (aside from the fact you can pick her up and she doesn't move either). I can stretch her legs out and am either met with a lot of resistance or she slowly retracts them (or possibly it's involuntary retraction). She sometimes has one fang sticking out straight down as if she's using it for traction.

If she really is on her "death bed" i'd rather put her in the freezer and put her out of her "misery" (I know they don't suffer, but it bothers me to see her like this). Any advice? I can post some webcam pics but they don't show anything out of the ordinary...just picture an adult female A. seemani with her legs curled up :(

Any advice? :(
 

Nitibus

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If she isn't suffering ( which they can't )why freeze her ? Are you doing it for her, or yourself ? Just leave her. You never know, she may bounce back, and I know I'd always wonder if she could have bounced back if I froze her. It's not like she's a mature male on its way out. Stranger things have happened...
 

KaineSoulblade

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If it's a female she should not be at the end of her rope yet. You say she grew boyond when you got her in 04, which means she wasn't fully mature. So she should have many years left in her. I would look for anything that could have caused severe stress or an environment change. She may pull through keep at it untill the end man.
 

WARPIG

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On another site an individual posted a similar story about his seemani with almost identical details. he stated that the T was seemingly healthy, young and full abdomen, when she took a bad turn. He placed her in ICU and braced himself for the wosrst, what he did was force a little water in her fangs and within a short time she was her old self.

I hope your girls stay in ICU mimics that other ladies story.

Good luck!!!
 

KaineSoulblade

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On another site an individual posted a similar story about his seemani with almost identical details. he stated that the T was seemingly healthy, young and full abdomen, when she took a bad turn. He placed her in ICU and braced himself for the wosrst, what he did was force a little water in her fangs and within a short time she was her old self.

I hope your girls stay in ICU mimics that other ladies story.

Good luck!!!
Force a little water in her fangs? I don't buy that, nor would it make sense. The T would have to use its sucking stomach to pull water in it's mouth. The Fangs have three purposes, masticating, injecting venom and last resort of mobility.
 

edesign

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yeah, T's do not suck anything up through their fangs...period. It's exit only...venom.

But, I think I'll keep her in ICU for a while...if I euthanized her it would be for me but as long as her abdomen is fine I'll keep my fingers crossed. If it shrivels up a bunch or she takes a turn for the worse I'll freeze her.

Thanks everyone, just never had this kind of thing happen to a T. I've had em die for unknown reasons and a few from dyskenetic syndrome but this isn't anything like that.
 

cheetah13mo

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If you want to try and see if she'll take in some water, Soak a clean q tip and put that between her fangs. She'll pinch it and be able to have a little drink. I've done this with a sick G. rosea and it works pretty well. At least you would know she got some water.
 

Schlyne

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No drooling at all?, no signs of a possible nematode infection? :?
 

edesign

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If you want to try and see if she'll take in some water, Soak a clean q tip and put that between her fangs. She'll pinch it and be able to have a little drink. I've done this with a sick G. rosea and it works pretty well. At least you would know she got some water.
wow...good idea! I had not thought to try that. At least then I could observe if she tries to or not.

No drooling at all?, no signs of a possible nematode infection? :?
nope...no drooling whatsoever.
 
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