Parasitic worm?

padkison

Arachnoangel
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I checked in on my new G. pulchra male and saw this. I pulled it out of there with tweezers and it fell apart into mush. This is fresh eco-earth that went through the oven to get moisture out, so it is not from the substrate.

I searched on parasites and got way too many hits to sift through.

Questions.

Is this a parasitic worm?

Intestinal?

From food items?

Prognosis?

Can the T come clean eventually?

Will it infect other Ts in the same room?

T looks healthy and appears active. Not skinny at all.

Vent shot in case it helps.



 
Last edited:

Masurai

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I checked in on my new G. pulchra male and saw this. I pulled it out of there with tweezers and it fell apart into mush. This is fresh eco-earth that went through the oven to get moisture out, so it is not from the substrate.

I searched on parasites and got way too many hits to sift through.

Questions.

Is this a parasitic worm?

Intestinal?

From food items?

Prognosis?

Can the T come clean eventually?

Will it infect other Ts in the same room?

T looks healthy and appears active. Not skinny at all.

Vent shot in case it helps.







I do not think it's parasitic, but i could be wrong
 

Talkenlate04

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It's no where near normal that is for sure. As for if it's parasitic or not, I don't see how it couldent be, but you said it was mushy and not moving so that kinda throws me off.
Did you see it come out? Or just find it like that?
 

Talkenlate04

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Was it chalk white?
??? You can see that tanish worm like thing thats almost an inch long coming out of the mouth parts area can't you? I know id freak and put that thing in another room if not the shed.
 

verry_sweet

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Is this one of the male you just purchased in a large lot of males? If so I would separate him and the others from your collection…. keep him separate from the other new males as well…did that make sense?

I have nothing to add here. But I’m pretty interested to see what you find out or what happens with the T in the long run so If you could keep us all updated that would be great. Good luck with it.


Steph
 

Gigas

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??? You can see that tanish worm like thing thats almost an inch long coming out of the mouth parts area can't you? I know id freak and put that thing in another room if not the shed.
didn't even notice it!
 

Taceas

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Eww? If the substrate is freshly baked, I doubt it came from that.

And it clearly looks like its coming from the T's mouth area...it almost reminds me of a roundworm, although I've never seen a tan colored roundworm.

Do you have a better picture of the worm even though it was mushy?

Not sure there's much you could do, as I'd be afraid that any worming medicine would also kill the tarantula.

I would definitely isolate it and the others that came with it and use separate tools for them, or sterilize them in between uses to avoid cross contamination.
 

P. Novak

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Wow ok, if that did come from the Ts mouth then wouldn't it be considered parasitic. Did you pull it out or did it go back in?
 

padkison

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I found the T just like this after it had been in its new enclosure for an hour or two. I took the picture, then reached in under the T with tweezers and picked the thing out of there. It had no firmness and broke apart and became like a paste. That kind of threw me. I would have expected a worm to have some integrity. This was about like toothpaste. No lumpiness, almost like a big snot string.

Anyone getting hungry?
 

Taceas

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I am. No really, it is past my dinner time. :drool:

Seems strange to me too, even long dead round worms are stiff and wirey.

Did the T recently eat? Maybe he had a bit of bug innards stuck. Other than that, no clue.
 

Talkenlate04

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:8o :8o :8o Yes I am starving now. Yum yum. :}

Really though did you keep it at all or just get ride of it? For now keep it away from all other Ts and look for that to happen again. Can T's vomit ? I remember seeing something where this lady that extracted venom had a vomit vacuum because the electrical shocks they gave the spider so the venom would be secreted and collected also caused the spider to vomit. I wonder if Ts can actually vomit. I have a mission tonight.......... find out if Ts can vomit. True spiders can, but can Ts.. :confused:
 

P. Novak

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I found the T just like this after it had been in its new enclosure for an hour or two. I took the picture, then reached in under the T with tweezers and picked the thing out of there. It had no firmness and broke apart and became like a paste. That kind of threw me. I would have expected a worm to have some integrity. This was about like toothpaste. No lumpiness, almost like a big snot string.

Anyone getting hungry?
wow. That really throws me as well. Too be on the safe side I would monitor and isolate her(if you haven't already). I sure hope she ends up ok; it would be aweful to lose such a beautiful T.
 

Python

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is it possible that it could be an unfortunate earthworm or some other type of worm that was in the substrate, got baked, then the T found it and was trying to eat it? Was the worm alive or moving? If not it might have been dead already. If it was moving then it couldn't have been in the substrate. It's hard to say what it is without better pics of the worm itself.
 

P. Novak

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:8o :8o :8o Yes I am starving now. Yum yum. :}

Really though did you keep it at all or just get ride of it? For now keep it away from all other Ts and look for that to happen again. Can T's vomit ? I remember seeing something where this lady that extracted venom had a vomit vacuum because the electrical shocks they gave the spider so the venom would be secreted and collected also caused the spider to vomit. I wonder if Ts can actually vomit. I have a mission tonight.......... find out if Ts can vomit. True spiders can, but can Ts.. :confused:
I think your on the right track Ryan. Makes perfect sense too me, especially since it looks like a mucky paste and all. I believe, BELIEVE, that I have read that Ts can vomit somewhere before. I'll look into it as well.
 

P. Novak

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is it possible that it could be an unfortunate earthworm or some other type of worm that was in the substrate, got baked, then the T found it and was trying to eat it? Was the worm alive or moving? If not it might have been dead already. If it was moving then it couldn't have been in the substrate. It's hard to say what it is without better pics of the worm itself.
I'm pretty sure a earth worm would have been burnt, black, and shriveled if it had actually been baked.
 

lunixweb

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I don't have any idea, but i'm really interested to know what was that... I'm with the idea of Ryan, that could be vomit :?
 

Python

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I'm pretty sure a earth worm would have been burnt, black, and shriveled if it had actually been baked.
Yeah I thought about that too, but the OP just says that it was run through the oven to remove moisture. No mention is made of temps or length of time in the oven. I've seen earthwoms left out in a cup of peat in the sun turn into mush like described. Growing up on a lake we had many such cups of worms lying around after a hot day of fishing. Plus if there was moisture in the stuff to begin with, the worm would be steamed instead of fried. Of course, I'm just guessing here and I really have no idea.I hope whatever it turns out to be is benign and does no further damage to the owners nerves and especially to the T. Good luck with it whatever it is.
 

Drachenjager

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:8o :8o :8o Yes I am starving now. Yum yum. :}

Really though did you keep it at all or just get ride of it? For now keep it away from all other Ts and look for that to happen again. Can T's vomit ? I remember seeing something where this lady that extracted venom had a vomit vacuum because the electrical shocks they gave the spider so the venom would be secreted and collected also caused the spider to vomit. I wonder if Ts can actually vomit. I have a mission tonight.......... find out if Ts can vomit. True spiders can, but can Ts.. :confused:
put a pic of rosie odonnel and donald trump making out that would make anything vomit i think
 

IdahoBiteyThing

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not hungry now!

When I first looked at the pic, I too thought "roundworm", but the pasty, mushy part doesn't fit. I hope it just had an upset stomach and hurled! To be definitive, you could attempt to collect some feces and have an ova/parasite check done. I'm sure you're local vet would look at you with raised brows, but it could be done. Presence of parasite eggs would be what to have them look for, although I have no idea of what intestinal parasites T's might potentially harbor. I agree with Taceas; if it does have some type of roundworm, not sure what you could do. Most anthelmintics (worming meds) are pretty toxic. I wonder if it DID have an intestinal parasite if you could gut-load a cricket with something that might be effective, but again, I have NO idea what that would be. Any arachno-parasitologists out there?
 
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