Weird shaking behavior in A. genic

[Fred Draven]

Help! My A. genic is experiencing some shaking leg behavior after her food escapes.
This is the same A. genic that I asked in the boards two weeks ago. So far she's settled in and actively taking prey after I left her alone for a long time.
The new worrisome behavior emerges after I tried to feed her with a mealworm and it escapes, possibly startling her. She was lunging at it before she exhibits this behavior. No running or kicking hair observed, though she used to do these in the past.
I'm started to suspect an early sign of DKS, but no pesticides or others that could do harm to spiders exist in her room. She was placed alongside my other Ts and they haven't exhibit the odd shaking of legs so far. All signs are normal before the feeding.
Is it just a normal stressed behavior in tarantulas? I'm very worried about her well-being.

View attachment 27403AB9ABEC36035BE2D471AF0EB28A.mp4

 

[sasker]

How does your tarantula move when walking around? Does it move a bit uncontrollably? Or just normally? I have an A. geniculata with mild dyskinesia. I got her like that from a friend of a friend. Whenever she moves, she does not seem to be able to 'stop in time'. It is almost as if when she moves, her body parts want to continue the movement for longer than necessary. This results in odd, dramatic looking take downs of prey with wild leg movements. It is much less severe now than before her moult and I expect her to be totally fine the next moult (she is in premoult now, so we will soon find out).

At any rate, if it is just one 'drumming' leg, I wouldn't be too worried about it. You bought it at this size, right? If it is indeed dyskinesia (not DKS, that's not a thing), it is possible that she has been exposed to chemicals before you purchased her. She is then likely to be alright next moult.

 

[Fred Draven]

How does your tarantula move when walking around? Does it move a bit uncontrollably? Or just normally? I have an A. geniculata with mild dyskinesia. I got her like that from a friend of a friend. Whenever she moves, she does not seem to be able to 'stop in time'. It is almost as if when she moves, her body parts want to continue the movement for longer than necessary. This results in odd, dramatic looking take downs of prey with wild leg movements. It is much less severe now than before her moult and I expect her to be totally fine the next moult (she is in premoult now, so we will soon find out).

At any rate, if it is just one 'drumming' leg, I wouldn't be too worried about it. You bought it at this size, right? If it is indeed dyskinesia (not DKS, that's not a thing), it is possible that she has been exposed to chemicals before you purchased her. She is then likely to be alright next moult.

No I raised her as a sling. No odd movements observed currently though I rarely see her actually move in recent days. Just spotting her switching positions.I only spotted the drumming behavior after the nearest molt.

So far she's moving pretty normal but the first pair of leg on the left side is always shaking when she makes a stop like she can't control it. I dunno if early DKS involves the shaking of one leg then all of the body when time goes.

 

[sasker]

Dyskinesia (again, DKS does not exist and is a confusing term) could have many causes. The most common one is poisoning with, for example, bug spray, flea treatment, etc. If you haven't used any of that, and she has 'always' done this, as you say, the tarantula is no longer exposed to the harmful chemical (if that's what's caused it). In that case, the symptoms should not worsen. I think you should not worry about it. If it gets worse, there is nothing you can do. If it continues to be like this, there is nothing you can do either. My best guess is that your tarantula will be totally fine next moult.

 

[Fred Draven]

Dyskinesia (again, DKS does not exist and is a confusing term) could have many causes. The most common one is poisoning with, for example, bug spray, flea treatment, etc. If you haven't used any of that, and she has 'always' done this, as you say, the tarantula is no longer exposed to the harmful chemical (if that's what's caused it). In that case, the symptoms should not worsen. I think you should not worry about it. If it gets worse, there is nothing you can do. If it continues to be like this, there is nothing you can do either. My best guess is that your tarantula will be totally fine next moult.

I only spotted this behavior after she ate a recently bought super worm. However, my B. smithi ate the same super worms two times and hasn't exhibited the shaking behavior. It's very strange to me. Perhaps I should leave her alone for a few days then feed again.

 

[Dorifto]

It could be from a injury to poisoning. Try to keep her warm and well hydrated.

 

[Fred Draven]

It could be from a injury to poisoning. Try to keep her warm and well hydrated.

Update:
She's switched her position and is currently grooming. From her voluntary movements I hadn't observed any signs of jerky behavior like I showed in the video. Could that simply be a sign of sudden stress?

 

[Dorifto]

I have seen the same shaking movement in my old C. sanderi when she injured her front leg. In my case the movement was gone in the next molt.

 

[Neonblizzard]

She's curled up in the video in a stress like position, but I've not heard about that shaking because of stress.

I think you can only continue to observe, if it doesn't worsen and she can eat and function ok it probably won't be much to worry about

 

[Fred Draven]

I have seen the same shaking movement in my old C. sanderi when she injured her front leg. In my case the movement was gone in the next molt.

Thank you for letting me know that. My T's been crawling quite a lot these days so that's possible that she injured this particular leg(only this leg shows shaky behavior and it was bent in the tip the night before), though I checked her leg that shows no obvious sign of injury. All her other movements is normal so far. I think the best thing to do is to observe & leave her alone.

 

[viper69]

There is no early DKS, it’s not like dementia or Alzheimer’s.

 

[Smotzer]

I don’t know but to me nothing seems to be concerning. My foot slightly twitches sometimes too.

 

[WolleWolf]

My Pampho. sp mascara had similar symptoms, after I had used parfum in the same room where my Ts are (normally I never do it). He had the symtoms maybe for 2 weeks or so and then was okay again.

 

[Fred Draven]

She’s still twitching and lifting this leg after I bothered her but no other abnormal signs so far. I don’t think this could be a life endangerment. Maybe gone within one molt.

 

[Fred Draven]

EMERGENCY UPDATE:
My T's that front leg is still twitching even when she SITS STILL! The leg shakes slightly when she's in a relaxed position so this is very troublesome for me as I fear that dyskinesia may take her life. No other abnormal sign so far. Is it a sign of injury or poisoning? I recall my mom sprayed some air freshener in the bathroom 3 days ago which is very near my Ts. No other Ts exhibit this kind of problem. What should I do?

 

[VaporRyder]

I am by no means qualified to help but, from what I’ve read here, I feel that we can rule out chemical poisoning (by aerosol at least) as your other Ts are not exhibiting symptoms. If I understand correctly it is just one leg? If so, I’m also leaning away from central nervous system issues. I would guess, and it is a guess, that it is some type of injury.

 

[Fred Draven]

I am by no means qualified to help but, from what I’ve read here, I feel that we can rule out chemical poisoning (by aerosol at least) as your other Ts are not exhibiting symptoms. If I understand correctly it is just one leg? If so, I’m also leaning away from central nervous system issues. I would guess, and it is a guess, that it is some type of injury.

I hope so. Even though she's CONSTANTLY(newly observed) twitching that leg in a small degree, it's just one leg so far which means all her other movements are OK. Despite no other Ts show similar signs(slings included) there's lots of reports that only one or a few out of many in others' collections exhibit dyskinesia, many of which are from exposure of toxins, though their dyskinesia involved the whole body.

 

[VaporRyder]

Just read back again and you mentioned that there were no obvious signs of injury to the leg. It sounds like some kind of spidey trapped nerve to me!

 

[Fred Draven]

Just read back again and you mentioned that there were no obvious signs of injury to the leg. It sounds like some kind of spidey trapped nerve to me!

Yeah... and that's why I'm super concerned about it.

 

[Dorifto]

Injuries can be internal too. If you pinch a leg for example, externally it can be perfect, but have some kind of internal damage.

Don't worry, if that's the case it will heal by the nex molt or sooner.