P. metallica parasite help

[DianeDFisher]

Update

There has been no change in her condition. She did not eat the roach and when offered a cricket last week she declined it as well. The wound appears the same-no size or appearance differences discernible. She is still back in the controlled environment room and I check on her daily and replenish water as needed and give her cube a little misting of water weekly. It took her eight months to molt this first time, so I'm not expecting a molt anytime soon, although several people have mentioned that due to the wound she may molt sooner to try to heal herself. Di

[alex smith]

Thanks for the update Dianne, keep us posted.It will be interesting to see the outcome.Good i hope!

[DianeDFisher]

She finally ate something!

Well, my little P. metallica finally found a small silkworm to her liking and devoured it entirely. Except for the missing 'palps and the abdominal "wound" she is doing fine. The "wound" is not increasing in size and there are no noticeable changes in her appearance or activity levels. Di

[Craig Mackay]

Pleased to hear that Dianne. Fingers crossed her next moult sorts things out a little. Keep us updated.

[James Box]

well eating is always a good sign! hope things continue to improve

[DianeDFisher]

Update: New molt 21-12-08

I'm happy to report that my P. metallica with the "boo boo" has molted. It's only been 24 hours post-molt but so far it appears she has survived the molt. She's sporting a new pair of pedipalps but the "boo boo" appears unchanged but no larger. She is really spastic right now, so I couldn't get any photos of the wound. Here are a few shots of her and the molt as well as a few scope shots of the "boo boo" in the exuvia. As you can see, the "boo boo" appears very three dimensional with something that was imbedded in the spider. In the last molt, I could "probe" the blob in the exuvia and then saw the moving thing that prompted this thread. On this exuvia the red blob is hard and I am unable to probe it with a pin. I'm still pretty bad with sexing via scope on poecilotheria but I think this is a girl. Maybe when I get some ventral shots of the "boo boo" someone can confirm.
If she is still with me next week, I will have something to celebrate in 2009.




Merry Christmas! Di

[mary walters]

I know it sounds daft, but that looks like the head of a mealworm, probably not, but looks like one.

[alex smith]

Fab news Diane, heres to a great 2009 with your spider.It looks well.

[Steven Williams]

Hi Diane, I have only just seen this thread.

This is the 2nd P. metallica I have been unfortunate enough to own with this same "condition". The other was a 1 inch sling and passed away within weeks of purchase.

Did you keep the old P. metallica sling in the same container as this current one? Either way I would suggest that you take the current P. metallica out of her container, wrap the container in a black bin-bag (garbage sack), tape up any gaps and put the whole lot into your freezer for at least a week (the longer the better). I recently had an infestation of booklice in my dried insect collection and was advised by experienced entomologists to freeze the whole lot as 'nothing' would survive past minus 21 degrees c. I don't know if this would apply to your 'parasite' but it doesn't take very long to do and worked really well for me - though booklice are not that tough... I would also suggest not putting the P. metallica back into the same container as before, and not to put any other spiders into that container, until you know it is clear, just to be safe.

Best of luck,

Steven

[Craig Mackay]

Yay, that is really great news to hear!

[DianeDFisher]

Steven: No, neither T was kept in the same container. In fact, the little one that passed on I had only had for 6 weeks and it was less than 4 cm. I just thought it odd that 2 of them had similar abdominals anomalies.

I am sending the slide of the exuvia and the "wound" to Christian Elowsky so he can peruse it further utilizing better equipment. I am just so happy that she has come through this in such good shape. I am glad that I followed the advice to just let nature take it's course.

Merry Christmas to you all!
Di

[DianeDFisher]

Update: New successful molt

Just a few lines to let you know that my P. metallica has molted again successfully and the "wound" area or "boo boo" as I call it, is looking very much improved.
This is a photo of the freshly molted T:

And another of the vastly improved "boo boo"

We are pretty much inagreement that the T is a male. He grew quite a bit with this latest molt and has been rehoused to new living quarters.

Again, thanks for the help and support. I'm so glad I didn't slice into him.
Di

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Di, nice to see the T has improved, that's a nice tank he's in, is that a custom made one?

[Graham Mudd]

Just read this whole thread from start to finish lol
Im glad the beautiful pokie is doing good, the "boo boo" area looks pretty good now
Im also curious about the tank lol where did you get it or if you made it
how? lol

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Graham, I've just noticed that Di is the USA, so their probably not available over here