Freaky growth on blondi's abdomen

[kennfreeloader]

my 7" female blondi molted and appeared to have some sort of growth on her abdomen. I thought it was odd that there was a spot that wasn't darkened when she was in premolt (as circled in the first pic).

premolt


growth visible after she molted


She appears to be fine and doesn't show any "death-curl" signs yet. she tried kicking hair when I was cleaning her growth with an alcohol swab but there was no hair to kick. The white stuff was solid and appeared to be rooted in the abdomen.

does anyone have any idea about what I should do about it? it looks like an open wound and I'm thinking of super-glueing it.

[Peter Lacey]

That really doesnt look good. Sorry I can't provide any advice but I'm sure you'll get some here.
I'll try to preempt the questions which might help.
Could this be caused by her getting too close to the heatmat?
Is there some kind of abrasive surface in the enclosure?
Your substrate seems very moist is this because you've just sprayed it or the norm for your enclosure?
How long have you had her and do you know the source? wild caught?
Is there any leakage or is the wound hard?
How long has it been there and have you considered an ICU?

Best of luck on a quick response, I'm sure it will follow.

[kennfreeloader]

Thanks for the quick response Peter,

I live in Malaysia so I don't use a heatpad since we have a tropical climate. I don't think she injured herself in my tank because I had a very basic setup, peat soil+waterdish.

I got her at this size about 3 months ago and do not know if she is WC or not since it was a 2nd hand import. (perhaps she could've gotten injured during shipping? not even sure if it's a result of an injury though)

Her tank was not always as wet as seen in the pic, I just wet it for her molting.

The spot on her abdomen that did not darken along with the rest of the abdomen was there since it i saw the first signs of darkening.

The spot is quite dry now and not wet and icky like it was in the picture. There are no visible leaks but the solid white stuff are still protruding. (as seen in the below pic).


She molted about 5 hours ago and is resting. I'm keeping her in bone dry peat with a large waterdish. ICU is an option but she doesn't seem to be losing any fluid from the deformed area and has no sign of death curl. Would you recommend it?

thanks again!

[Peter Lacey]

thanks for the response, that will eliminate certain questions.
The ICU is certainly an option for open wounds as it reduces the result of secondary infection.
Again, I hope someone can shed some light but your pictures and info will certainly help.
Good luck, and please keep us posted.

[matthew spooner]

hi kenn, thats looks really bad mate. it looks like it could possibly be some sort of parasite maybe. i would recommend using something like betadine to clean the area, just dab it on with a cotton bud or similar ecery day and see what happens, might i suggest getting some long cotton buds, dont want you to have to get your hand too close to her, she might not appreciate you doing it lol

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Kenn, sorry to see that on your Blondi. We had something not too dissimilar to that on a Cobalt Blue, wc, which turned out to be parasites, hope that's not the case with yours as ours didn't live, but good luck with yours.

[Adam S]

I saw similar thing on one of the biggest Polish tarantula boards.

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arachnea.org%2Fforum%2Ff18%2Fblondi-rana-na-odwloku-t7753%2F&sl=pl&tl=en&history_state0=

(translation isnt that good but u can still see the pics)

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arachnea.org%2Fforum%2Ff26%2Fheteroscodra-teraphosa-poecilotheria-t17647%2F&sl=pl&tl=en&history_state0=

It looked just as nasty as your T. blondi. However, the spider presented on that board miraculously recovered and is healthy and alive I hope the same will happen to your spider.

[kennfreeloader]

thanks for replying guys. and thanks a lot for the links adam! I am a bit more optimistic now seeing that other blondis have recovered from this!

[Adam S]

How is your spider now?