Tarantula impaction, what causes it and what can we do to prevent it

[BillsSpider]

I've searched through posts for a while and wasn't able to get an answer
This hasn't happened to me and I've been told it's a fairly rare occurrence but a member of a tarantula group I admin asked me what causes it, and I really didn't have an answer, just speculation. Rather than give him speculation and conjecture I figured I would ask here.

 

[Poonjab]

Not enough fiber. Why I give my T’s Metamucil every night before bed.

 

[mack1855]

We only have theories and speculation as far as I know.

1:Lack of hydration.
2:Over feeding captive animals.

 

[spideyspinneret78]

At this point, nobody really knows. From what I've read and experienced it can sometimes occur after a bad molt, but again it hasn't been proven.

 

[Tarantuland]

No one knows and no one knows. I've only seen it once, I tried every thing I read about to try and mend it. When it happens, sadly the spiders don't have a great chance.

 

[courtney1027]

There’s lots of different things
- bad molt
- over feeding
- bad conditions (to dry)
Hopefully in the future we can find out more about what causes it, I feel like the only things we can do to attempt to prevent it are provide a water dish, correct conditions and make sure we are only feeding the necessary amount of food.

 

[BoyFromLA]

Read on:

Impaction, how rare / common is this?

Past few weeks, I’ve seen a bunch of impaction related questions posted on board, and it got me curious. Luckily, I haven’t come across with this issue personally yet, but really, how rare / common is this, if at all? With my search with a word ‘impaction’, I’ve got only ONE real case scenario...

arachnoboards.com

 

[The Grym Reaper]

No-one knows, no-one knows.

It's extremely rare, five and a half years in the hobby with well over 100 specimens in that time and I don't recall ever having a single case.

 

[Neonblizzard]

Easiest way to significantly reduce your T's chances of impaction, is to click the unfollow button on exotics lair's youtube channel

 

[viper69]

Ive had it happen 3 times, one shortly after a molt. The other 2 were sacmates not due to molt.

No-one knows. I generally think it’s due to hydration levels

 

[gneissspiders]

Hello, I have a MM avic that had his ultimate molt 16 months ago (!) and he still occasionally eats, drinks water, and slowly roams his terrarium like a senile old man. He doesn’t stick to the glass as well as he used to, so he’s spent the last ~4 months primarily on corkbark or in the substrate.
About 3 weeks ago I noticed what looks like dried poop on his anus (pic attached), and it has slowly become more caked up. I’ve used wet cotton swabs but it’s pretty difficult to remove.
He doesn’t show any usual impaction symptoms, such as lethargy or curling up. But it looks like impaction to me, and I am curious if anyone else had experienced this with MMs.
Thanks