My tarantula seems injured in the sternum.

[Misanthrope]

Hi,

So my Chromatopelma molted recently (10 August), she was totally fine.
Usually i wait 2 weeks or more to feed my tarantulas, but i saw a freshly molted roach in my colony, so i gave her this poor one even if it was only after 7 days.
Her fangs was already black and hardened.
And today she was near the corner of her enclosure, then i saw a really bad spot on her sternum. I checked with my phone flashlight, and it look like she got injured.
So i took her outside and put her in a small box, to check closely. Look like a scratch or even worst. There is a small black dot too, and the color look the same as when a human is having an infection after a scratch.
I don't know why she got that and what is it, but i'm really worried about her right now.
I have no clue, maybe it could be the wood pieces in the enclosure, even if almost all is filled with web, or maybe something wrong when she molted, i don't know at all.
Here is some pictures of her, and of the enclosure. I put her back in, i hope she will be ok.

What do you think ?

 

[NMTs]

I think you're right that it's an injury of some sort. Who knows what it is from, though. It doesn't appear to be leaking fluid, so that's good at least. I see where you wet the substrate, but you should consider adding a water dish for her to drink from especially while she's healing.

I don't agree that her fangs were fully hardened when you fed her - they are still red at the base and only black near the tips in these pics, so they still have some hardening to do. I wouldn't expect that a freshly molted roach could inflict that injury, but if her exoskeleton wasn't fully hardened I suppose it's possible. Or maybe she rubbed it on something when she was subduing the roach. Either way, all you can really do is keep her hydrated and let her rest and recover.

 

[Misanthrope]

There is a water dish for all my true spiders and tarantulas, no exception, don't worry. I always keep them full of water every day, but i removed it temporarily to put the enclosure to the ground and take her out. The watered area in the pictures is where i place it.
About the black only near the tips i think i'ts because of the flash, while i was looking at her directly it was full black color if i remember correctly. Can't tell about the red, tho.
But i agree it was not fully hardened, i only gave her the roach because he was freshly molted, otherwise i would have waited.
I don't think she rubbed on something when she was eating him, because she ate him inside her "tunnel" of web and she made it really like a tube, but there is an area with a little piece of wood who can eventually hurt her. I think it could be the cause.
Maybe she walked to the water dish and rubbed her sternum against this area.
Here is 3 other pictures.
On the first one i am pointing with my finger at the area who is a bit sharpened.
On the second picture you can see the actual water dish.
And on the third one a view of her tunnel, the exact same place where she ate the dubia.

Do you think the scratch will heal after some times, or will she have to wait until next molt ?
Can she get an infection from this ?

 

[Smotzer]

Unfortunately there’s nothing you can do about the injury hopefully it makes it to its next molt and molts out of the injury. Perhaps it happened during molting or during the feeding, no real way to tell now.

 

[viper69]

Just observe- 1 molt at a time

 

[Misanthrope]

Hi,

Well i just checked her exuvia (dunno if you write it like that in English, in my country it's called "Exuvie"), and there is the same spot inside and outside of her sternum.
So i guess it's an old injury then, but this is really weird because she was totally fine before her last molt process.
She is usually hiding and when she walks in her enclosure i never see the ventral view, so maybe she was already injured, i definitively can't tell.
Thanks for the answers.

But can someone tell me about my previous important question : Can she gets an infection because of this ?

Pictures of the exuvia from both sides :

 

[Marlana]

Hi,

Well i just checked her exuvia (dunno if you write it like that in English, in my country it's called "Exuvie"), and there is the same spot inside and outside of her sternum.
So i guess it's an old injury then, but this is really weird because she was totally fine before her last molt process.
She is usually hiding and when she walks in her enclosure i never see the ventral view, so maybe she was already injured, i definitively can't tell.
Thanks for the answers.

But can someone tell me about my previous important question : Can she gets an infection because of this ?

Pictures of the exuvia from both sides :


View attachment 426903 View attachment 426904

It doesn’t really look open to me so I don’t think she’d be at risk of infection. I also don’t know much about how arachnids function in regards to infection. I can say I’ve had multiple spiders with injuries (missing legs, cracked carapace..etc) and have seen no sign of infection. However that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. There’s still much we as a hobby need to learn about tarantulas and first aid. Many unknowns.

 

[Misanthrope]

Just an update on my little cutie 2 years after her wound.
She molted 3 other times, she is completely healed and she is very healthy.
Still in the same enclosure, and she is gorgeous !

 

[WolfieKate]

It’s really interesting that you posted this. This was my GBB a few weeks ago, a few days post-molt. I wondered what those cephalothorax marks were but they’re all but gone now. I did wonder if they were an effect of molting or the growth process.

 

[Brewser]

Hopeful for Healing over time with New Growth / Molts etc.