Please help! chilean rose stuck in moult

[Eleanore Clein]

My mature chilean rose (unoriginally named "Rosie") turned on her side to moult exactly one week ago about wed 10pm. Thurs 530am checked on her and she was getting on nicely almost out of her moult. 8am she was still on her back stopped with part of her attached still (it wasnt' clear at that time that it was just her pedipalp - it looked like several legs were stuck too). 10pm thurs night she was still in exactly the same position looking to be struggling to do anything, flinching her legs every once in a while. So we carefully took her out and cut away the cast gradually and put her back. I looked up in a few places that it was ok to do this is extreme cirumstances. I seemed like the right decision and she let us do it without complaint. When we put her back in she started trying to get the pedipalp off so we left her to it. She was doing this till about Saturday. She can't get it off and it looks like she might have damaged her pedipalp. She has been not moving much since then. She is sat holding her body lower to the ground than usual as if she is weak. The half off pedipalp cast is hanging underneath her body.

She isn't taking care of it herself so I feel some kind of intervention is necessary now. I don't see how she will be able to feed properly if the situation remains. Should we take her out again and try to pull the cast off?

What possibilities should we prepare ourselves for? Could her pedipalp come off or what?

I am inexperienced so I really need help here. We also have an A. Seemani but these are our first spiders and we have only had them only a couple of years so have witnessed about 3 moults in total ever.

I don't know if this is relevant but the pedipalp in question has been really limp and not functioned for about 6 months now and she hasn't moulted for about 22 months.

I really don't want to lose her. We love her very much and want her to be back to her usual happy self so any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Elly

[Phil Rea]

This will have to be a brief reply as I am browsing from my phone and the signal keeps dropping. It doesn't matter if she loses one pedipalp as she can function perfectly well with just one.

As long as she is not losing hemolymph from a wound then she should be ok. As a very very last resort you can try and remove it yourselves but as long as she makes it to her next moult, she has a chance. I stress that it is absolutely a last resort.

Keep her hydrated and don't worry too much about food. Maybe try and up the humidity in her tank in the meantime and see if that helps her to shed it.

[Oliver Jones]

Hi Elly,

I have had a very similar experience in the past month, my juvenile Avic versicolor had a bad molt and now has 1 entire leg missing, the feet ends of 3 legs missing and two useless legs with the old unmolted skin still attached. After a very nervous two weeks of TLC (plenty of water available, feeding 'stunned crickets' etc), 'Stumpy' has pulled through and is happily limping around, catching and eating like normal.

My advise (and it is based on my limited knowledge, recent experience and much research into my problem above), leave the pedipalp as it is. Nature will take charge and the situation will resolve itself. As long as the main body has molted correctly, the Tarantula will probably be able to adapt to a missing or useless pedipalp.

Hope everything works out

Ollie

[michaelmckinney]

I would'nt worry too much about broken or lost limbs and appendages, as tarantulas regenerate lost limbs. Like Phil said, keep the humidity higher than normal, because if she moults, and the pedipalp is withered, it will cause problems during the next moult.

It's also better most of the time to let nature take it's course with broken limbs. yes, you could remove the broken palp with little or no effort, but it tends to be unnecessaryly stressfull for your tarantula as she should remove the palp before a moult, or it will simply be lost during her next moult. Like phil said aslong as there is no haemolyph (spider blood) being lost, there is little or no danger. I have found whena tarantula casts a limb, there seems to be little or no haemolymph lost, as they have a special hinge between the coxa and trochanter that drys quite rapidly to seal off the wound, unlike opisthosoma (abdomen) wounds which have to be stemed externally by the keeper.

Michael.

[Peter Lacey]

Hi Eleanore, and welcome to the forums.
I had a similar experience recently and sought advice on how to proceed.
My chili rose had moulted but the carapace was still attached like a flip lid and the rest of the shed skin was still attached to her spinnerets which trailed after her. I raised the humidity and on the advice of Colin Wilson used a water and washing up solution around the areas of the attached shed skin. The flip lid of the carapace was removed easily and after a day or two the rest of the shed skin fell away. Unfortunately a large portion of the abdomen still remains but I'm advised this will cause no problems and may fall off on its own accord or on the next moult.
Good luck and please keep us informed.

[Colin D Wilson]

Hi Elly and welcome to the forum, hope you continue to visit and post.

I attempted to post a reply last night but there was a server error (as I found when I pressed submit …obviously )

As Phil said above, there’s no real worry with a spider losing a palp, or having a palp in the situation it’s in now. I have had spiders with five legs and one palp make it through to the next moult successfully and then on to adulthood.
Also Phil said to increase the humidity for a short period…I agree…Grammostola don’t really like a constant humid environment so this should be returned to warm and dry as soon as any improvement is seen really.

The fact of her laying flat would, in my opinion, be her hardening out. They will lay low to minimise the pressure on the legs so they harden with no deformities etc. she may continue to do this for a while yet.

Peter mentioned the washing liquid solution; this has been proven to work on abdomen and carapace problems with great success, I would be a little hesitant to try on a palp as it is near the mouthparts and quite a difficult area to administer the solution to. (the best washing liquid would be the unscented and non bio “cheaper the better” style)

If it’s possible for you to post a picture of the spider, with the relevant area shown then we may have some additional advice to offer, you appreciate it’s hard to get an accurate mental image, as there are so many variables.

Hope this and the above posts have put your mind at ease a little.

Colin