Nematodes :(

Rittdk01

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
258
Bought a juvie stirmi October 30th from a reptile show. was doing cleanup last night and peered into his log hide. white on his mouth heart sank fast. pulled him out and into a clear container to better see. yep, it was what i already knew it was. poor baby ate great and appeared healthy. now I'm afraid my others might get sick or could already be. once this has passed I am probably gonna keep one lp and move the rest or just retire from the hobby. I'm a big pussy and am soooooo sad for my poor boy not going trhough this ordeal again. didn't sleep much last night and feel kinda sick today.
 

Ghost56

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
Messages
443
Bought a juvie stirmi October 30th from a reptile show. was doing cleanup last night and peered into his log hide. white on his mouth heart sank fast. pulled him out and into a clear container to better see. yep, it was what i already knew it was. poor baby ate great and appeared healthy. now I'm afraid my others might get sick or could already be. once this has passed I am probably gonna keep one lp and move the rest or just retire from the hobby. I'm a big pussy and am soooooo sad for my poor boy not going trhough this ordeal again. didn't sleep much last night and feel kinda sick today.
http://thebts.co.uk/forums/archive/index.php/t-5420.html
Read that. Someone posted it over on another forum a while back. Might be worth a shot if you haven't euthanized him yet.
 

Rittdk01

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
258
He's gone. I didn't want to wait at all and risk infecting my other t's.
 

WeightedAbyss75

Arachnoangel
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Messages
921
Bought a juvie stirmi October 30th from a reptile show. was doing cleanup last night and peered into his log hide. white on his mouth heart sank fast. pulled him out and into a clear container to better see. yep, it was what i already knew it was. poor baby ate great and appeared healthy. now I'm afraid my others might get sick or could already be. once this has passed I am probably gonna keep one lp and move the rest or just retire from the hobby. I'm a big pussy and am soooooo sad for my poor boy not going trhough this ordeal again. didn't sleep much last night and feel kinda sick today.
I would hate to see a fellow enthusiast retire from the hobby :bigtears: It seriously is a shame that this happened to your T. Never had a problem with them myself, but I feel your pain. I hope you end up continuing the hobby. Hopefully it didn't spread, sometimes things just happen. My scorpling died for no reason a few months ago, and I was super sad. Fortunately my other is alive and well, but it does worry me when that happens if I take good care of them. Again, hate to see you leave the hobby completely.

Best wishes, Abyss
 

Spidermolt

Arachnoknight
Joined
May 29, 2015
Messages
203
I'm sorry that happened to you. Don't give up on the hobby over this one thing just remember these things happen, I had to euthanize a T once because of dks which only got worse over time and yet my collection always grows. I also had a leopard gecko that turned out to have nematodes and no matter how much i tried (i also worked at an animal shelter with onsite vets at the time so he was constantly examined/treated) no nobody could save him. this was years ago and yet i have many geckos now all healthy with no problems.

All in all always remember that the good things always out weigh the bad. :)
 

Rittdk01

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
258
There are no flies in the spider room at all, so I don't have to worry about them passing around that way. I got new feeder crickets and discarded whatever I previously had. I got individual tweezers for all juvie and adult t's. I changed the sub and cleaned most of the enclosures. nothing more I can do but wait and hope its just the one t that was sick.
 

Najakeeper

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 10, 2010
Messages
1,050
When I was new in the hobby, I gave a wild caught cricket to a juvenile Pamphobeteus. One was enough to get nemotodes, very hard lesson learned.

Sorry for your loss. It would suck to lose a Theraphosa.
 

Rittdk01

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
258
Mine only ate store crickets and a bunch of dub roaches. so, I imagine he was wild caught already carrying worms. lesson learned for me. No wild caught pets ever again.
 

Ghost56

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
Messages
443
Mine only ate store crickets and a bunch of dub roaches. so, I imagine he was wild caught already carrying worms. lesson learned for me. No wild caught pets ever again.
Ya I'd also say he was already infected when you received him. I guess that's one of the risks of buying WC.
 

Rittdk01

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
258
^^^he was really a good looking spider and ate good. "appeared" healthy and didn't even look or act sick. It never would have crossed my mind that he had worms.

My little rose hair had been acting "funny", but I assumed that was because I cleaned her enclosure out a couple weeks ago. She webbed all over and then rolled the webs into a ball?? Then I saw that some symptoms of infected t's are restlessness and they web a lot. Today was feeding day and she lunged at the cricket I threw in. Feeling pretty relieved, since she prob wouldn't have an appetite with worms.

Checked every last t's mouth and none have anything. Was scared to inspect Doomsday, since I would be heartbroken if she got sick.
 

Rittdk01

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
258
When I was new in the hobby, I gave a wild caught cricket to a juvenile Pamphobeteus. One was enough to get nemotodes, very hard lesson learned.

Sorry for your loss. It would suck to lose a Theraphosa.
Yeah they are amazing and pretty horrible to have to put down. They are my favorite kind by far. I'm pretty po'd at myself for buying a second stirmi though Im not sure how old my big girl stirmi is, so I figured I could raise one up and know pretty closely its actual age.
 

cold blood

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,223
I would hate to see a fellow enthusiast retire from the hobby :bigtears: It seriously is a shame that this happened to your T. Never had a problem with them myself, but I feel your pain. I hope you end up continuing the hobby. Hopefully it didn't spread, sometimes things just happen...Again, hate to see you leave the hobby completely.

Best wishes, Abyss
Agreed. In time many of us go through these moments. A year and a half ago my T. cyaneolum, which happened to be about my most favoritest t, froze up trying to molt upright. I honestly considered walking away I was so upset.....generally a random death isn't a huge deal, yeah it sucks, but it happens, nothing lives forever, but when its one of your special ones, its different, or at least if feels differrent. But the truth is, that like your incident, it was just a blip in the radar, and not indicative of a keepers failure or future bad things, just some crap luck.

This was almost certainly infected in the wild, so it was happening no matter who had that spider, no matter what they did, it just happened to be the one that you grabbed.

An incident of bad luck alone isn't a good reason to leave the hobby or any hobby. Heck, if that were the case I would have stopped fishing decades ago....heck, there might not be any fishermen.
When I was new in the hobby, I gave a wild caught cricket to a juvenile Pamphobeteus. One was enough to get nemotodes, very hard lesson learned.

Sorry for your loss. It would suck to lose a Theraphosa.
I don't think losing a Pamph us any better than losing a Theraposa....Pamphs are amazing....that was a hard lesson:sorry:
 

Rittdk01

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
258
I've calmed down a bit. It's a combination of worrying about my other t's getting sick and from having to put him in the freezer. I looked up humane ways to put one to sleep cuz I've never had to kill one or even had any die on me. I went back and forth (literally paced around the freezer with him for an hour)wondering if there was a quicker way and delaying the inevitable.

I know it's goofy to some, but I name them and they are more than specimens in tanks to me.
 

Cassiusstein

Arachnosquire
Joined
Dec 9, 2016
Messages
102
I've calmed down a bit. It's a combination of worrying about my other t's getting sick and from having to put him in the freezer. I looked up humane ways to put one to sleep cuz I've never had to kill one or even had any die on me. I went back and forth (literally paced around the freezer with him for an hour)wondering if there was a quicker way and delaying the inevitable.

I know it's goofy to some, but I name them and they are more than specimens in tanks to me.
I'm really sorry this happened to you and your T. I dread the day I'll be faced with a similar situation, or even just the death of a n aged T. The thought makes me sick to my stomach. Compassion is important though! There's plenty of people who would've smashed it with a rock without compunction. Please DO NOT retire from the hobby, I consider everyone here my friends and I'd hate to lose a friend :( especially one with strong love for these beautiful animals
 

KezyGLA

Arachnoking
Joined
Apr 8, 2016
Messages
3,013
Sorry to hear this man :(

You have done all that you could do so dont beat yourself up. I hope this one instance doesnt deter you from the hobby. I name some of mine too and can understand your feelings. I lost one of my favourite Ts recently due to bad molt and mites :(

Nematodes are a niggtmare from what I have read. I own a few WC specimens but havent had issues yet*touch wood*

They thought of an outbreak and others catching is pretty scary but if you have isolated the T in subject and replaced sub/rehoused the others then I guess that is all you can do apart from keeping your fingers crossed.

I wish you all the best luck with the rest
 
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