T. blondi sick?

[proper_tea]

So I rescued a dying T. blondi from a petshop recently. It was so dehydrated it was in a deathcurl. This was a little over a month ago. I kept it in ICU for about 2 weeks, and then moved it to a 10 gallon tank. The humidity is around 90% and there is a waterdish. It's abdomen started to darken, so I assumed it was pre-molt... but when nothing happened for about 3 weeks I decided to try feeding.

I fed it a dubia roach last week, which it grabbed immediately. However, when it started to try to web, nothing came out from its spinnerettes. It literally held the roach and didn't eat it for about an hour while it tried unsuccessfully to web. Then it pretty much tore the roach to pieces... dropping roach parts all over... but it didn't seem like it was actually able to swallow any food. I can't be sure if it was successful in getting any down, because I keep lots of isopods in there with it, and they gobbled up all the scraps pretty fast.

I'm concerned that looking closer at its abdomen, what I though was it darkening for pre-molt is actually some sort of cyst. It's abdomen looks deformed... it seems to be bulging on the right hand side and toward the back...

I tried feeding again last night, and got the same results... extended unsuccessful webbing and what seems like mostly or completely unsuccessful swallowing. I'm afraid that the dehydration has caused some sort of internal damage to the digestive tract. Anyone have experience with a spider not being able to web, or eat?

Anyway, here are some abdomen shots. The flash sort of flattened the abdomen so you can't see the bulging quite as dramatically as it looks in person. Any thoughts?

 

[blazetown]

Looks like pre-molt to me but I've never kept a Blondi

 

[Mushroom Spore]

So I rescued a dying T. blondi from a petshop recently.

Neverminding how counterproductive it is to pay a petstore for abusing their animals, it's almost certainly wild-caught and any weird bulges could be an internal parasite.

Also your blondi is WAY fat either way and you should stop feeding it whether it's in premolt or not.

 

[pinktoe23]

Another possibility is it could also be a hernia/ulcer. Sadly when it's internal there's not much you can do but just hope the prob is not a parasite and goes away within a few molts

Quick thread searches that might help you:

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=83069&highlight=hernia+tarantula

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=37079&highlight=hernia+tarantula

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=44794&highlight=hernia+tarantula

I hope that ugly bump goes away tea. Please keep us updated.

 

[proper_tea]

Neverminding how counterproductive it is to pay a petstore for abusing their animals, it's almost certainly wild-caught and any weird bulges could be an internal parasite.

Also your blondi is WAY fat either way and you should stop feeding it whether it's in premolt or not.

OK... first, the guy who works there (read: doesn't own the place, but is always in the reptile/invert section) had no idea how to care for it because the invert dealer who is sending them to him provides NO care instructions, and doesn't follow up. I have been working with him to help him better care for the inverts they get in, and he in genuinely interested and receptive. When I found it in a deathcurl, he was perplexed, and thought it was because he had fed it something that made it sick. He had no idea about the humidity requirements of this spider. He and I rehoused it together, and essentially put it in the ICU. I came back a week later to pick up some crickets and found that it had seemingly recovered. He ended up giving it to me at a price that I am quite sure was below cost... less than what the petshop had paid for it. This is one of the only independent petshops around, and if you want to talk puppy mills and pet abuse, we can talk about Petco. Independent petshops are getting squeezed out of existence just like independent coffee shops, hardware stores, department stores, etc. So, yeah, I'm gonna buy independent before I go to some giant that pays its employees $6/hr to throw out the dead frogs before the customers see them.

Second, I posted the pictures because I am concerned that something other than it being overfed is causing the swelling of the abdomen. To imply that I am overfeeding this spider when it has eaten 2 roaches in over a month, after nearly dying, is absurd.

I know it's the arachnoboards-way to be condescending to anyone you think you know more than... but please, save it, 'cause I don't have the patients. I posted this thread because I am genuinely concerned for this spider, and am trying to find out if anyone else has seen a spider that tries to spin silk, but can't, or tries to eat, but can't swallow.

 

[pinktoe23]

I know it's the arachnoboards-way to be condescending to anyone you think you know more than... but please, save it, 'cause I don't have the patients. I posted this thread because I am genuinely concerned for this spider, and am trying to find out if anyone else has seen a spider that tries to spin silk, but can't, or tries to eat, but can't swallow.

Tea, you think it could also be it has been de-fanged? can you see both of the fangs and are they moving? If not perhaps they could be broken and that's why it's having trouble feeding.

 

[proper_tea]

Another possibility is it could also be a hernia/ulcer. Sadly when it's internal there's not much you can do but just hope the prob is not a parasite and goes away within a few molts

Quick thread searches that might help you:

Thanks PinkToe,

Yeah, hernia is what I was kinda thinking, although those seem to be more associated with asian species from what I've heard. One of those threads actually mentions blondis and some brachys having lumps similar to this one. They seemed to recover after a few molts. I followed a thread recently where Ryan operated on his herniated pokie. I don't know that I'm ready for those kinds of measures, but it seems that sometimes they do molt out of this.

My main concerns are the symptoms that indicate that there's something internal going on... the lack of silk production and the trouble eating. I haven't seen those associated with hernias...

I hope it's not a parasite, because those seem to be consistently fatal.

 

[proper_tea]

Tea, you think it could also be it has been de-fanged? can you see both of the fangs and are they moving? If not perhaps they could be broken and that's why it's having trouble feeding.

It has fangs intact, let me tell you... it's given me a monster threat display, and it decimates the roaches I give it, it's just that it seems like they end up in pieces on the ground, rather than in its mouth... like it's sucking stomach has lost its sucking quality.

I mean, maybe it's a messy eater... but I dunno...

 

[robc]

Thanks PinkToe,

Yeah, hernia is what I was kinda thinking, although those seem to be more associated with asian species from what I've heard. One of those threads actually mentions blondis and some brachys having lumps similar to this one. They seemed to recover after a few molts. I followed a thread recently where Ryan operated on his herniated pokie. I don't know that I'm ready for those kinds of measures, but it seems that sometimes they do molt out of this.

My main concerns are the symptoms that indicate that there's something internal going on... the lack of silk production and the trouble eating. I haven't seen those associated with hernias...

I hope it's not a parasite, because those seem to be consistently fatal.

Hey, get that T away from your collection and far away until you can rule out a parasite....you don't want something spread to your other T's.....rob

 

[Mushroom Spore]

So, yeah, I'm gonna buy independent before I go to some giant that pays its employees $6/hr to throw out the dead frogs before the customers see them.

Thank you for that rant, I guess I deserved it for not automatically knowing something you didn't mention in your original post at all? All you said was you "rescued" a dying T from a petshop, fullstop.

Second, I posted the pictures because I am concerned that something other than it being overfed is causing the swelling of the abdomen. To imply that I am overfeeding this spider when it has eaten 2 roaches in over a month, after nearly dying, is absurd.

The fact that you got all that personal insult out of "your spider is fat and doesn't need to be fed anyway" is what's absurd. I don't care how it got fat, it's still fat and doesn't need to be fed any more until it molts.

I know it's the arachnoboards-way to be condescending to anyone you think you know more than...

Classy.

 

[kc7wdg]

Good luck with your Tand don't let "those" type of people here bug you. I "rescued" a male g. rosea off a existence on sand with no hide and got flamed.

 

[Talkenlate04]

It really does not look all that fat to me. I am not to sure what everyone is having a moo moo about. Just about every single one of use would feed a new T from a pet store no matter what the condition of the T was. And I have yet to see something bad come from being a little thick. But that T is by no means "fat".

I bet she looks pretty when she does molt!

 

[Zoltan]

That T is nowhere "fat". The T. blondi that Ryan posted recently would have more chance to qualify as "fat", but that T is a healthy one. Anyway, a T is not gonna molt until it's fed the amount it needs for the molt, whether that be in 1 year or 1 month (in normal circumstances).

 

[proper_tea]

Hey, get that T away from your collection and far away until you can rule out a parasite....you don't want something spread to your other T's.....rob

Wow... yeah... thanks for that... I hadn't even thought about it. I'll move it today. I'm beginning to lean towards it being a parasite, and/or internal damage from severe dehydration...

I think I will keep on a schedule of light feeding unless is rejects the food. Does that make sense? I figure if it is trying to molt out of something, it will need nutrients to do so, but I don't want want to stress is.

 

[Atreyuhero4]

t blondis need a lot of humidity when they molt or it could have a potentually fatal bad molt

 

[proper_tea]

t blondis need a lot of humidity when they molt or it could have a potentually fatal bad molt

Yeah, I've got it at 90% humidity, with a water dish, and I mist.

I'm leaning more and more toward this being a parasite. The lack of silk production, combined with the miss-shaped abdomen, has digestive tract parasite written all over it IMO. Of course, I have no experience with spider parasites, so I could be totally off. If I'm not wrong, I'm assuming that the parasite is eating some essential protein out of the spider's food, and without that protein, it can't produce silk. I hope I'm wrong... but it's what makes sense at the moment.

If it is a parasite, it's probably also taking vital nutrients that it will need to successfully produce a new exo-skeleton... so a bad molt very well might be unavoidable.