Umm.. silly question regarding death....

AneesasMuse

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I think Grundo, my rescued B. vagans.. probable male... is seeing his last days. :( He doesn't eat much anymore and he barely ever comes out of his hide. He doesn't even try to eat my face with fervor now. His abdomen looks like a sickly, shriveled pink raisin and his remaining legs (he still has the 6 he came here with) are so skinny and dull.

Is this what death looks like? I only have s'lings, and Grundo was my first BIG spidey kid... already in pretty bad shape, hence the reason I rescued him.

What can I do? He's still drinking and he "looks" at the crickets, but doesn't really try to eat them. Should I pre-kill them, so they don't move as fast?

The sight of him brings tears to my eyes.. I feel helpless.


Thanks!
~Aminah
 

Talkenlate04

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Sadly you are watching the ending days for that fellow. When it gets to the shrivled abdomen part of life I pop them in the freezer. Hes just going to decline more till he dies. Pre killing things is something I guess you can try but I bet he ignores that too. That's just the way it goes I'm afraid. :(
 

AneesasMuse

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Will he just go to sleep in the freezer or will he suffer?

Oh God... this is awful!

I hope he was at least "content" here with me... after being tortured and mistreated in that stupid chain pet store.

So, do you recommend the deep freezer or the one on top of my fridge? Geeesh! :(
 

Talkenlate04

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Both freezers will put him to sleep forever. Some put them in the fridge first then the freezer, I just freeze. Freezing will take about 15 minutes maybe less and thats it. It sucks I know I feel for you.
 

Mina

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Oh, Hon, I'm so sorry!!!! Ryan is right though. There is nothing you can do for him now. He will continue to decline. You need to decide if you think he is suffering, and if so, let him go to sleep. I'm so sorry Aminah. *big hug*
 

AneesasMuse

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Thank you, both... I am such a softy and this is so hard.

I think Grundo knows what a soft heart I have... the bugger threatened me and now his "butt" is poofed out again. No wrinkles to be seen! :?

He was even grooming himself earlier! {D

I think I'll give him another day or so and see how he does. I really don't want him to suffer unnecessarily.

Thanks so much!
~Aminah
 

Mushroom Spore

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I wouldn't freeze them. I don't think they suffer when just quietly winding down from old age, but freezing to death? Yeep. :eek:
 

AfterTheAsylum

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Others beat me to it! Damn. Don't freeze until you know the spider is, in fact, dead. I almost put one in the freezer a few years ago, and found out I would have been wrong. She is still alive today.
 

AneesasMuse

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Well.. Grundo is still with us. Freezing will be a last, last, last resort... like bleeding severely or "squished" badly or something awful like that. I'm just too soft for euthanizing when I still see life (read: threats! {D ) and he's drinking and perking back up a bit.

I do think it would be easier for me to freeze a "cold blooded" critter as opposed to a "warm blooded" one... however bad that makes me. :eek:

In the meantime, Grundo LIVES!!

...and I am probably getting a couple of little "mini me's" in a week or so.. just so I can raise one up and see what untraumatized B. vagans are like ;)


Thanks again!
~Aminah
 

Rigelus

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I wouldn't freeze them
Don't freeze
Absolutely....freezing is not a pleasent death.
Ice crystals enter the book lungs and your spider will die of a combination of body function collapse and asphyxiation..

A heavy blunt instrument is by far the quickest method and if you don't want the cleaning up afterwards put it in a bag first..
 

Varden

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Do you know what, I'd let him just live out his days. Pre-kill his crickets, make sure he has access to water. He's not really suffering. He's just really tired. If his condition is as you say, within the next week or so, he's going to start curling and then he'll just go. It's natural. It's the price of living. And it's really sad to watch, but as far as I can see they aren't in any discomfort so just let him live it out.
 

DrAce

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Absolutely....freezing is not a pleasent death.
Ice crystals enter the book lungs and your spider will die of a combination of body function collapse and asphyxiation..

A heavy blunt instrument is by far the quickest method and if you don't want the cleaning up afterwards put it in a bag first..
There is nothing to back up the "Freezing is not a pleasent death" comment.

Spider metabolism is dependant on the external environment. Internal cellular respiration ceases long before freezing takes place. This means that the internal nervous system and heart etc stop WELL before there are ice crystals forming.

There should not be any ice crystals entering the book lungs if the spider is placed in the freezer in a container. I certainly have never placed a spider in the freezer to let it wander about on the ice cream (see my signature) as it dies.

The spider does not asphyxiate. It goes to sleep in the same way as a dog or cat does when they're 'put to sleep'.

And all this is, yet again, based on the fact that spiders do not 'feel' discomfort like we do. But we should not go down that thread again! There are plenty of threads on it.

Certainly, death by cold is the most commonly administered euthanasia technique about for spiders (probably most/all inverts?).
 

peterspiderling

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im soooo sorry to hear this, i just had to put down a chilean rose. i just put it in the frezzer for 10 mins. and it was dead, very sad time (she was my 1st tarantula):(

but there was a substance that the in the contaner with the tarantula after i frezzed it, doead any body know what that could of been?:?
 

DrAce

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Describe the substance. Are we talking some sort of liquid, or a powder? Was it sticky? Runny? Clear? Coloured? Opaque?

Can you give us something to run with, apart from 'substance'?
 

kimski

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I'm so sorry to hear about your big guy. I had an A. avic die and had her in an ICU till the end hoping to revive her. I did save her in the freezer after she died. She's still in there covered in white rose petals. I take her out and look at her at lot; I just imagine she's Sleeping Beauty. And, the good part is that I've taught my 3 yr. old grand-daughter about Tarantulas by using Boshia as an example. (Mayli lives in Costa Rica where there are a lot of nice T's) So it helped Mayli to learn to love Tarantulas; and get to know thier anatomy and now she's a real little Arachnophile!

Still, I know it doesn't help to hear it at this point but whatever happens you can still preserve him. Take care, Kim Ski
 

AneesasMuse

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Sorry... it got pushed down to the next page.. so I thought it was over :rolleyes: Umm, Grundo is back in his regular viv now... still not eating, but drinking a little. His "butt" looks better... could be fuller, more chunky, but I ain't complainin'. He's alive! :)

Once he's gone, I will put him in the Zoo grounds... there's flowers, trees and herbs, etc. He won't be out there "alone" anyhow.... plenty of fish and frogs and mice and a rattie kid, and so on.

Thanks for asking....
 

kimski

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Well, thanks for the update... Hang in there, maybe Grundo will make a recovery... Kim Ski
 
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