What causes a spider to act like it's "drunk"?

[spoper]

I've had this amazing, beautiful and huge Hogna Radiata for a while, caught it when it still had her babies on her back. She was not interested in eating until the babies crawled off her, after which she ate ravenously. She was doing well until one day to the next, I noticed that she was moving weird, the only way I can describe it, is as if she was drunk. The onset was rapid, not gradual. She's been like this for a while now, I dont remember exactly when it started but I'd say about a week. I thought she might be old and just close to dying, thought she might die overnight at first but this seems to be her new baseline. She's still active, still has appetite, still goes around and hangs out in her favourite spots...

One evening I found her on her back in her waterbowl, motionless, I thought she was dying (wasnt in a death curl) but then when she sensed movement she got up, although very jerkily. Considering I found her with babies on her back, I will assume she's not going to molt anymore, so that's probably not it, right? It also wouldnt explain the jerky movements as far as I know.

There was no chemical contamination I know of. No contact with chemicals and she was given grasshoppers and flies to eat, so she wasnt attacked by anything with venom (like another spider).

Here's a video of what she moves like: around 1:25 you can see she flips to her back, not even seemingly confused, it's like she forgot how gravity works she also seems to have some "brain lag", where she keeps "washing" her leg after she already pulled it away and sometimes struggles to reach for another leg. It's just so strange.

Has anyone else seen anything like this before? What causes it?

 

[The Snark]

Possibly a fungal infection.

 

[spoper]

How could she get a fungal infection in her enclosure? I've had her for about a month-ish. Or are fungal infections slow onset like that? Is there anything I can do to help her? Is this something she can recover from at all? Thank you

 

[Mustafa67]

I've had this amazing, beautiful and huge Hogna Radiata for a while, caught it when it still had her babies on her back. She was not interested in eating until the babies crawled off her, after which she ate ravenously. She was doing well until one day to the next, I noticed that she was moving weird, the only way I can describe it, is as if she was drunk. The onset was rapid, not gradual. She's been like this for a while now, I dont remember exactly when it started but I'd say about a week. I thought she might be old and just close to dying, thought she might die overnight at first but this seems to be her new baseline. She's still active, still has appetite, still goes around and hangs out in her favourite spots...

One evening I found her on her back in her waterbowl, motionless, I thought she was dying (wasnt in a death curl) but then when she sensed movement she got up, although very jerkily. Considering I found her with babies on her back, I will assume she's not going to molt anymore, so that's probably not it, right? It also wouldnt explain the jerky movements as far as I know.

There was no chemical contamination I know of. No contact with chemicals and she was given grasshoppers and flies to eat, so she wasnt attacked by anything with venom (like another spider).

Here's a video of what she moves like: around 1:25 you can see she flips to her back, not even seemingly confused, it's like she forgot how gravity works she also seems to have some "brain lag", where she keeps "washing" her leg after she already pulled it away and sometimes struggles to reach for another leg. It's just so strange.

Has anyone else seen anything like this before? What causes it?

Vodka or Jack D‘s

 

[TheraMygale]

For the fungal possibility: it can be slow or quick.

can’t say thats what it is. Its not impossible. Any kind of contamination can do this.

could be getting ready for a molt?

depends on this species life cycle.

for tarantulas, they can get wobbly before a molt and after a molt. So can’t say if this is whats going on.

she could be at the end of her road too.

 

[spoper]

But she had offspring, can she still molt after that? I thought once they reach maturity they no longer molt.

 

[The Snark]

How could she get a fungal infection in her enclosure? I've had her for about a month-ish. Or are fungal infections slow onset like that? Is there anything I can do to help her? Is this something she can recover from at all?

Mold and fungus spores are everywhere all the time. Without their continuous contribution life on this planet would die off quite quickly. The front line of the organic recycling business. If your spider has a fungus infection it is prematurely getting recycled.

 

[TheraMygale]

Even id she had babies. You dont know what happened “before”

many spiders can do multiple broods, and some can molt. Its a species things.

your situation is way too general. Its going to be ambiguous from now on. And prepare yourself for death.

theres nothing else you can do at this point. Especialy with wild caught.

 

[Spifdar]

If you're giving her wild-caught grasshoppers there's still a chance she ingested some pesticides that they ingested. But it kinda looks like she's recycling web to me. She's laying it out behind her and pulling more up from underneath/eating it. It also looks like something's causing her to itch--maybe parasites/mites or just stuck web. Ballpark guessing there but I'd start by giving her only captive-bred prey & having a close look for mites if you can.

 

[Brewser]

I hope Hogna radiata overcomes Her abnormal behavior perhaps that's all it is.
Other possibilities include Injury, Dehydration, Poisoning, Infection, Old Age, Parasites, etc. etc.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

I was wondering that too about the feeders. Is she given wild caught feeders or those purchased from a store/breeder?

 

[spoper]

Yes the grasshoppers were wild caught. I dont really have options to give her captive-bref prey, the only thing I can get are crickets but they're quite large. Last time I had a wolf spider, it was a lot smaller and wouldnt take even the smallest cricket, it was just too large for it, but maybe it'll work given her bigger size, so I'm going to try and get some. In the meanwhile I isolated her from her normal enclosure into a different one, and hope she improves.

This (when the video was taken) was the first time I saw her doing web, I found it quite strange. I dont think she's done it since, and it was right after feeding, dont know if that's relevant. I am positive she has no mites, I regularly look at her through a macro lens and see everything in quite good detail, I have not noticed anything out of the ordinary on her body.

 

[spoper]

Oh my god, I have no idea what just happened but I just looked at the enclosure and saw her doing something weird; upon closer inspection, I noticed she tore off one of her own legs why would she do something like this? And now she's... eating it?? She ate not long ago!
What should I do?