T owner's nightmare just happened

[Kate Arbon]

Just got a shout from my housemate, his G. rosea and B. vagans tanks got knocked off their shelf when something fell over and hit the wire of their heatmat. The vagans is okay, but the rosea is bleeding from the opisthosoma, right where it meets leg 4 on the right hand side

We have put some tissue on it to try and stop the bleeding and now he's gone to get some superglue from the shop. The T is in a dark shoebox with a waterdish. So far she looks ok but there was a lot of blood coming out, my hands were covered. She is the sweetest spider I've ever met and was his first, he will absolutely hate himself if this kills her. But I don't really know what else to do. This sucks so much

[Colin D Wilson]

Before using the superglue (which i've always used without problem) try putting flour on the wound to try and dry it up first.
A few people noted that they have had problems with moulting after a wound has been treated with glue.
Might be worth trying the flour before committing to the glue first, just to be on the safe side

Very best of luck with this, (try and use as little glue as you can if you do use it)

Let us know how it all turns out

[Kate Arbon]

Thanks Colin. We did put a bit of flour on before the tissue but it's in a really tricky spot. Anyway he's just got back so I better go see!

[Andrew Ferguson]

Hope everything goes ok Kate. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi kate,
yes the flour trick works, although I used talc on my Euathlus when it happened. It works by forming a crust like a scab, which sealt the wound until next moult. You'll have to keep an eye on the little one, if the crust comes off you'll need to re-apply. Good luck!

[Dee Pluck]

good luck with the spider
let us know how she does.

[jason holland]

i hope this never happens to mine. good luck. hope all works out

[Kate Arbon]

Well we didn't use any glue in the end. We couldn't work out exactly where the wound was, I think it's right up at the top join of the leg, and we didn't want to glue her leg to her butt! Also it was a bit close to her booklung for our liking. We put quite a lot of flour over the whole area, and then another bit of tissue.

Now she's in an ICU in her tank. She looks okay though she's acting very stunned. We are lucky it was her, the chilled out one, and not his A. seemani who is in the tank next to her. Doing that fiddly job on him would have been crazy. Now I guess we just keep an eye on her and hope she's still ok in a couple of days.

Thanks for all your advice and kind words. This forum rocks

[James Box]

poor thing! fingers crossed i'm sure what you've done will help and hopefully she'll be alright!

[Ray Hale]

Always keep unscented talc in the house. (boots own brand) I once had a Brachypelma that split its carapace. what a mess. we used talc ( thanks to the late Les Fuller for that) and she survived, She was never gonna win any beauty contest but she was alive, She moulted and was fine.

never give up on these guys........

[Richard Shah]

Always keep unscented talc in the house. (boots own brand) I once had a Brachypelma that split its carapace. what a mess. we used talc ( thanks to the late Les Fuller for that) and she survived, She was never gonna win any beauty contest but she was alive, She moulted and was fine.

never give up on these guys........

What?! The carapace split??? That's crazy! How did it manage that? Did it affect the eyes? How did it split (in terms of the actual body)?

Any way, good luck with the Rosea Kate!

[Kate Arbon]

Well it's been 2 days and the spider is still alive. She has been moving around, webbing, pooing, so so far it seems she's ok. He isn't feeding her, she is pretty fat already and we thought it would be a bad idea to put extra pressure on her abdomen, so we are hoping she will force a moult some time soon.

The area around the wound still looks damp, but she is not leaking and her abdomen isn't shrivelled. Hopefully it is just a really tiny wound. We aren't sure whether to leave it as it is or try to re-apply the flour to dry it up again. Any ideas?

[Colin D Wilson]

In my opinion, it's best to try and keep it dry if possible.
I think you're on the right track with halting the feeding for a while too.
Seems like she's coping quite well if she's carrying on with the activities that you mention above, hope the improvements continue.

Colin

[Kate Arbon]

Thanks Colin. We will give it another go later, and maybe try using a bit of glue this time if we can find exactly where the wound is. I'll try and get a photo too.