Paralyzed abdomen??? (need help, please)

[Static_69]

My A. moderatum has been in premolt for a while now. But today i noticed she was kinda sitting in a death curl. I checked to see if she was alive, and she had very minimal movement and seemed to be dragging around her abdomen and not being able to move it. I know she hasn't fallen or anything and she isn't dehydrated because the abdomen is still nice and plump.
Any ideas on what this could be and if she's gonna make it?



thanks,


Risto

 

[Immortal_sin]

Risto,
is she captive bred, or wild caught, and how large is she?
How long have you had her?
If it's not normal premolt behaviour, I'm not sure what it could be....
At this point, as far as advice goes....I would say if her abdomen is black, make sure that she has a full water dish, and disturb her minimally....hope she'll put through for you...
keep us updated..
Holley

 

[Static_69]

I'm pretty sure she is captive bred, and she is about 2 1/4 inches in legspan. I've had her for about 4 months now and this will be the first time she's molted for me. Her abdomen has be pretty black for a while so maybe she'll just end up molting.






Risto

 

[Immortal_sin]

Risto,
then I'd just leave her be.....
maybe it's just normal molting behaviour for her....since you haven't had her molt yet...
It seems that the Aphonopelmas take FOREVER to molt....
hang in there!
Holley

 

[Static_69]

well...it seems as though she was molting. I woke up this morning to find her all the way out of her old skin...except the end of her abdomen was still in there...I put some warm water and increased the humidity but no dice. So I put more warm water and had a spray on bandage can and some cotton swabs ready. I took a pair of tweezers and very very gently pulled the rest of the abdomen off. Everything seemed to go good except it's like she is bald on the end of her abdomen and the last leg on her right side is paralyzed and limp. And her spinnerets are totally smoked..can she survive without her spinnerets?





Risto

 

[TheDon]

I would think she would be able to live, as I think they only serve to spin the web. But maybe it will be stressed out if it isnt able to spin a web. Im no expert but I would think she would survive and dont worry about a bad leg my cobalt has a bent back leg and trust me she still gets around fine and fast to boot.

peace

TheDOn

 

[WYSIWYG]

Originally posted by Static_69
well...it seems as though she was molting. I woke up this morning to find her all the way out of her old skin...except the end of her abdomen was still in there...I put some warm water and increased the humidity but no dice. So I put more warm water and had a spray on bandage can and some cotton swabs ready. I took a pair of tweezers and very very gently pulled the rest of the abdomen off. Everything seemed to go good except it's like she is bald on the end of her abdomen and the last leg on her right side is paralyzed and limp. And her spinnerets are totally smoked..can she survive without her spinnerets?





Risto

Since you don't know how recently she finished molting, I think it would have been better to leave her alone for a couple hours to see if it didn't come off on it's own, though you could try increasing the humidity and seeing if it came off then. If after a few hours it was still stuck, then maybe that would have been the time to physically remove it yourself. Your help may have come too soon.

Wysi

 

[Static_69]

i woke up at like 7 am and found her like that...then I left her until about 10-10:30'ish.

 

[WYSIWYG]

Originally posted by Static_69
i woke up at like 7 am and found her like that...then I left her until about 10-10:30'ish.

Ah. Well then you probably did the right thing. I probably would have waited longer myself. I would have increased the humidity (like you did) and maybe waited until the next day....but that doesn't matter. What matters is that your spider is ok because in the end, that's what really counts. We all have our different ways of dealing with situations like that.


Wysi