strange blondi sickness

[ghost6303]

i have a 3-3.5" blondi, captive bred, that i got about 8 months ago. its been doing fine up until about a month ago, it stoped eating which i thought was normal, premolt or just not hungry so i let it be, until i looked in last week and saw it out of its burrow, it could barely walk its abdomen was very thin. i removed it from its house and it has been in a small tupperware container with paper towels and a water dish in a dark corner of my room for about a week with little improvement. it used to slowly stumble around, now that it has been hydrated more it can move when it wants to, its slightly quicker, still wont eat and seems to want to drown itself in the water dish. ive been hand feeding it mushed up crickets/meal worms every other day, most of which it doesnt eat, other then that it doesnt eat at all, it doesnt seem to have an interest in catching prey, even when i pre-kill/injure it. its soggy from sitting in the water dish all the time and still has trouble walking. theres no signs of injury and mold isnt a problem. im out of ideas of what to do... sit back and hope for the best? is it ok to let it sit half submerged in the water all day? also i noticed while feeding that the underside of its spinnerettes turned white, im assuming just from soaking up all the water it was sitting in but thought id mention it.

 

[Talkenlate04]

Ok well it does sound like there is a problem.... now what problem I am unsure of..... you mentioned something turning white or something like that...... is it T poop? Or is it something else..... Something else would be bad...... white anything but fecial material is bad bad bad...... make sure for now if you have other Ts to keep it away from them.

 

[Brian S]

still wont eat and seems to want to drown itself in the water dish. ive been hand feeding it mushed up crickets/meal worms every other day, most of which it doesnt eat, other then that it doesnt eat at all, it doesnt seem to have an interest in catching prey, even when i pre-kill/injure it. its soggy from sitting in the water dish all the time and still has trouble walking. theres no signs of injury and mold isnt a problem. im out of ideas of what to do... sit back and hope for the best? is it ok to let it sit half submerged in the water all day? also i noticed while feeding that the underside of its spinnerettes turned white, im assuming just from soaking up all the water it was sitting in but thought id mention it.

That is usually a sign of being dehydrated. Is the substrate bone dry or is it a little moist?

 

[Talkenlate04]

I was thinking the same think based on the fact that he said he saw the T trying to submerse itself in the water bowl. They do that when they really want water bad.

 

[ghost6303]

I was thinking the same think based on the fact that he said he saw the T trying to submerse itself in the water bowl. They do that when they really want water bad.

in its tank (5 gallon) its got about 4" of peat thats kept moist all the time and a decent sized water dish i keep filled. for the last week to 10 days its been in a 8x8x8 inch tupperware dish lined with damp paper towel so i can keep an eye on it. its got a small deep plastic lid which is about as big as the Ts legspan as a water dish. it just sits in the dish all day and comes out looking like a drowned cat. the white i mentioned is just on the underside of its spinnerettes where webbing is produced, im thinking that its just silk turning white after soaking up water, it goes away when i dry the T off and remove the dish for 30 miuits or so. i think it might have just been dehydrated but the question is how long does it take to recoup after that? its been quite some time and shown little improvement and still wont eat without me squirting mushed up cricket in its mouth, and still its only eating about a drop or two, it barely makes an attempt to chew. i got a bottle of Vitamin Water, i read someone used that to feed slings, im going to try that and see if it perks up a little.