G.rosea post mortem anyone ?

[Matthew Davies]

one of my adult female, G rosea has went from feeding on 4 waxworms to death in just over 2 weeks, I fear nemotodes and or dyskinetic syndrome are to blame, so was wondering if there is any one out there who would be willing to perform a post mortem, so I can evaluate the risk to my other spiders, please pm me if interested

this female was one of five wild caughts i purchased in early feb with the aim of breeding, she was the largest of the five, although she had the smallest abdomen, she was also the only female not to take straight to feeding , she fed for the first time 2 weeks ago on 4 waxworms
( I offer all my Ts a wide variety of feeders) she refused anything after.
monday this week she seemed very unsteady on feet, I inspected her mouth area suspecting nemotodes. although no worms present she had a amount of subsrate stuck around her fangs and mouth, i cleaned this away with a q tip and sterile water and placed her in a isolation tant with nothing but a water bowl and a paper towel substrate, I checked on her daily she progressivly got more unsteady on her feet, I observed her rapidly twitching her second and third pairs of legs when ever disturbed unable to move, thursday morning i found her laying upside down she stayed this way untill the evening when she righted herself , at this point she was in a slight death curl, I placed her in a shallow dish of water were she stayed until found dead this morning,
Cheers
Mattie

[Colin D Wilson]

There's a distinct possibility she was attempting to moult, and the transferal to the isolation tank disturbed her natural "moulting routine".... i've had a lot of rosea be very awquard when moulting so it's not that unusual.
After having 4 waxworms there shouldn't really have been any risk of dehydration that could explain the slight death curl.
As a concern (not critisism) were the spiders booklungs clear of the water when she was placed in the dish ??? if not then this would, unfortunately, explain finding her dead. (i'm just reading the above as the whole spider was placed in the dish, appologies if i'm mistaken)

Colin

[Matthew Davies]

thanks for the reply colin, yes the spiders abdomen was completely away from the water, i placed her so head was inside abdomen outside.
2 weeks seems a very short period of time for a adult rosea to go from feeding to molt, usually this takes around 6 - 8 weeks in my experiance that is, just to clarify when i say unsteady on feet she was pacing up and down enclosure with no co ordination at all, falling to one side and then the other before spazzing out with her legs

[Bruce Maclean]

one of my adult female, G rosea has went from feeding on 4 waxworms to death in just over 2 weeks, I fear nemotodes and or dyskinetic syndrome are to blame, so was wondering if there is any one out there who would be willing to perform a post mortem, so I can evaluate the risk to my other spiders, please pm me if interested
Cheers
Mattie

Hi,

If you've already sorted something, please ignore this post!
For a post mortem exam, she would need to be done within 24 - 48 hours (best kept in a fridge), or preserved in formalin or alcohol for histopathological sectioning. Any vet should be able to arrange a post mortem exam, although from experience getting results back from the lab can take a while! Also obviously there would normally be a charge, at least for any lab fees. However, worth considering.
Another possibility to look at (again via a vet, although you would need to look more for a vet willing to do it) would be haemolymph sampling from both the dead animal and your other ones. Haemolymph sampling is still in its infancy as a useful veterinary tool, but may give some information. Your local vets may have someone local that they would refer such cases to, or they should be able to find someone.
If I can help any further please let me know, although I'm in the south - if the animal was preserved, you could ship it down, if you can't get anything sorted closer.

If you do get it sorted, I'd be very interested in any findings - I'm investigating an outbreak of neurological signs in a group of tarantulas at the moment.

Hope this helps,

Bruce.