Tarantula First Aid (leaking from mouth)

Riska

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Jan 10, 2017
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I AM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG. This is my first T and I have had her for three days and we already had an incident. PLEASE ADVISE. I feel like the WORST!

I have a young chaco I recently took off a breeder at Repticon who was trying to downsize. During my move, her cage did not fall, but it sustained a quick jerking motion that could have caused her to fall off the top (she likes to cling to the sides). I quickly checked on her, she looked fine, phew. I have a lot of substrate in her cage for digging (she has not) so the fall wouldn't be more than 3 inches or so. But I am more worried about possible FORCE than distance.

When I arrived home (hour drive), I noticed her mouth area was all wet along with a little of the substrate around her. Assuming the worst, I fear internal damage (nothing outwardly injured) because I know how fragile their bodies are. She walked herself to the corner of her cage and laid down. Meanwhile, I'm researching T ICUs and if it's appropriate for me to do or not. I checked back on her and thought she had passed. Gently, I prodded her back leg. She reacted (yay, not dead, but now I disturbed her during recovery >x<) and walked across the cage (walked well) and crawled back to her normal spot on the side of the cage. She had another droplet on her mouth... along with a small trail of white and clear droplets on the substrate where she walked (pic below). I have not observed anymore "leaking" since she the last observation.
T2.JPG

From "fall" to present it has been about three hours. Should I setup an ICU? I do not want to move her if I do not have to. I have water in her cage.

Extra info: she was extremely dehydrated from her previous owner. When I setup her cage and added a water dish, she walked over and drank straight from it for a solid 10m. This might not matter, but this was Sunday. I fed her crickets the following day (Monday, yesterday) and she ate well.

Here she is presently:
T.JPG
 

Venom1080

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looks like bleeding to me.. thats the color of tarantula blood, if its dripping out like that its probably pretty bad. nothing you can do except leave it be with a full water dish and hope it recovers. can you see any cuts on the abdomen or carapace? if its bleeding from the legs it should be fine but a wound on the carapace or abdomen is much more serious.

hopefully im wrong and thats just poop, they looks fairly similar but ive never seen poop look like that..
 

Riska

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Jan 10, 2017
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Thank you for responding so quickly. She does not have any outward physical distress. No cuts or scrapes on her legs, abdomen or carapace. She has stopped signs of bleeding as of right now. Unless I should setup an ICU, I'll leave her be with clean, fresh water available.
 

Venom1080

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Thank you for responding so quickly. She does not have any outward physical distress. No cuts or scrapes on her legs, abdomen or carapace. She has stopped signs of bleeding as of right now. Unless I should setup an ICU, I'll leave her be with clean, fresh water available.
i would not recommend a ICU, they do more harm than good for arid species. just leave it be with a water dish. best of luck. if shes eating and drinking and not curled up, i think she'll be just fine. ive had a B boehmei with a abdomen cut and just let him be water, he was fine in a couple days.
 

viper69

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Drinking 10 mins- usually quite thirsty for SOME reason IME.

Pic too small for me to tell what that white is.

It's eating and THAT is a good sign.

Monitor and go about your business-- Keep a watch on abdominal SIZE and position of legs. Those are typically the first indicators of dehydration due to something.
 

Riska

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Jan 10, 2017
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Thank you, both! Nothing quite makes you realize how attached you are when you fear the worst. I greatly appreciate the advice. I vow to be more careful when transporting Ts, if never again .___.
 

cold blood

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Ts regurgitate water when grooming....considering it just had a big drink, this would be my assumption. I dont think you have anything to worry about.

Definitely do not put it in an icu....thats basically torture for a species that prefers it dry most of the time. ICUs are highly overrated....too many people jump right to this as a blind solution....most of the time its totally unnecessary, sometimes it just compounds the problem.

If you dont know the problem, its best not to guess on the solution.
 

Philth

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I've seen spiders drip fluid from their mouth before. I've never seen it to be a problem. Your spider looks like a male btw ;)

Later, Tom
 

Riska

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Thanks all! That was very helpful, cold blooded. She is doing fine and I'm pretty sure I super overreacted! The chaco was sold as a female but I'm waiting for her (him?) to molt to sex her myself. But if you anyone is able to sex her/him, that'd be awesome! Shelob might be renamed to Helob, haha.
 

BrachyMan

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I've seen spiders drip fluid from their mouth before. I've never seen it to be a problem. Your spider looks like a male btw ;)

Later, Tom
Mine dripped 2 drops from its mouth. I fed it 2 crickets last night. Rehoused this morning and she ran to the corner and noticed the water drops
 

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