Opistophthalmus boehmi molt question

[BelfastScorpion]

Just wondering if someone could give me a bit of advice.

My Opistophthalmus boehmi has just recently molted. However there is still part of the old skin stuck to it's right pedipalp. This means at the moment it is unable to use it's pedipalp. The old skin just doesn't seem to be dropping off the right pedipalp. The rest of the body has molted fine.

I dampened the substrate to see if that would help, but no luck yet.

It will probably just drop off through time.

Any advice?

 

[Michiel]

Just wondering if someone could give me a bit of advice.

My Opistophthalmus boehmi has just recently molted. However there is still part of the old skin stuck to it's right pedipalp. This means at the moment it is unable to use it's pedipalp. The old skin just doesn't seem to be dropping off the right pedipalp. The rest of the body has molted fine.

I dampened the substrate to see if that would help, but no luck yet.

It will probably just drop off through time.

Any advice?

It might not drop off, but you can help a bit. Take an eyedropper and fill it with some tap water and and a few drops of plain glycerine (drugstore). Mix the little amount of water with some drops of glycerine, fill the eyedropper and drop some of the mixture on the piece of exuvia (old skin). Let it soak for 10 minutes and then gently try to pry or pull of the old skin using tweezers.
Make sure that the new skin underneath is hardened, to prevent to damage it.....

 

[BelfastScorpion]

It might not drop off, but you can help a bit. Take an eyedropper and fill it with some tap water and and a few drops of plain glycerine (drugstore). Mix the little amount of water with some drops of glycerine, fill the eyedropper and drop some of the mixture on the piece of exuvia (old skin). Let it soak for 10 minutes and then gently try to pry or pull of the old skin using tweezers.
Make sure that the new skin underneath is hardened, to prevent to damage it.....

Many thanks for this advice. The old skin is still there and hasn't dropped off yet. It is definately causing problems for the scorp.

I will take your advice on board and let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.

 

[BelfastScorpion]

I tried some water mixed with glycerine but I had no luck. I was stressing the scorpion out and it was striking at the tweezers.

On closer inspection this would now appear to be a bad molt. The poor scorpion has been left deformed as a result.

Hopefully this will not cause a lot of problems for the poor thing.

Here is some pictures. Any further advice would be appreciated.

 

[BelfastScorpion]

Does anyone have any more advice? Thanks.

 

[sfpearl300z]

That's unfortunate.

You can always amputate the limb at a joint if it seems to be causing trouble. I have a one-armed L.quinquestriatus who is doing just fine.

 

[telow]

thats a realy bad stuck molt
it may just drop its arm off after a while that doesnt look good

 

[Galapoheros]

What I've done is pick them up and wet the area that is stuck, they can't sting once they move their telson out of the old exo, even just a mm or less. I slowly pull, it can take several minutes, I let the scorp pull mostly while holding the exo stable, it takes patience. Too late for that one though, you have to catch the prob in a day or two. Also you can knock the scorp out with CO2 or just drop it in water for several minutes, until it stops moving. It will be OK later, they don't have the lungs we do, they can stay under water for hours and take several minutes to wake up. You can work on them before they wake up again.

 

[telow]

that sounds a bit on the nutty side haha i wouldnt do that with my scorps

 

[Michiel]

Me neither, hard to tell how long to submerge them or to gas them, a little too long and they might not recover.

I had a T.asthenes a couple of months ago with the same problem. I amputated the deformed chela with a scalpel, at the joint of the femur. It is still alive and able to catch crickets. I don't even take the crickets jumping legs off......