Help

[Ozzy]

I need to put my rose hair down. She's either dying from old age or a bad molt. She is almost dead already and I can't stand to watch her suffer anymore. What is the best way to put her to sleep? I am thinking of putting her in the freezer.

[Mark Pennell]

Ozzy
Are you sure she is dying? If shes molting give her a bit of time. Other than that yes the freezer would be best way of Euthanising you tarantula.

All the best
Mark

[Ozzy]

Yes I'm sure she's dying. She's been acting weired for about a month. Just over a week ago she curled up in the death curl, and have been in it ever since. I think she was about to molt, so after she was in the death curl I put her in a humidity box hoping that she could pull through. The only movement she makes now are very faint jerks. She also started a small white discharge from her mouth.
Thanks for the help.

[Mark Pennell]

Ahh I see.

Sounds really sick indeed. Do you have other tarantulas? If so it might be wise to remove this spider from the rest ASAP. There may be a distinct possibility of nematode worm infection.

Also contact the person you bought this tarantula off of they may be unaware that they may possibly have infected tarantulas.

Its sounds to far gone for help so best put her to rest in the freezer. Make sure you dispose of the substrate and tank contents too.

Also if you have other tarantulas, suspend a fly strip in the room, to catch any of the phorid flies, that possibly spread these nematodes.

All the best
Mark

[Ozzy]

Well, I have put her in the freezer. I knew she was too far gone. This was my only spider. I won her from the pest store that I buy the crickets for my reptiles and carnivorous plants. I had her for about 3 months. I have a friend that's has a lot of spiders and he gave me the info I needed to give her the right conditions so I know that I provided her with the right temps, substrate, ect. By looking at her he said she was probably pretty old. I've already threw out the substrate and washed the tank with bleach water. If it was the worms, do you think it's possible for the nematode worms to spread to the reptiles?

I just want to thank you for your help.
Thank you
Mark

[Layla McInnes]

sorry to hear about that. Shame u only had her for 3 months, seems thats y the pet store was giving her/him away.

[Angela Hale]

I am so sorry to hear of your loss. It is always hard to except that your spider may be ill. You have done the right thing. Please dont let it put you off keeping tarantulas. It has happened to us all at sometime.

Angela

[Ozzy]

Thank you,
One thing I have learned from this is that spiders are really great creatures. I have already been offered two spiderlings but I declined them both. For now I'll just stick with my reptiles.

Here's some pics I took of her a day after she went into the death curl.












Again thanks for the help and for the support
Mark

[Layla McInnes]

whats that red stuff. Looks like cat litter or stones?

[Ozzy]

That's ground walnut shells. The reason I added that is because she started acting weird about a month and a half ago. She would run around her tank like she didn't want her feet touching the bedding, which was peat moss. I know that they sometimes don't like certain beddings and in the pet store she was in a plastic case. So to see if she would prefer something else, I covered half of the tank with ground walnut shells. She still acted the same with no preference with the shells or peat moss. After that I notice a tiny spider (about the size of a gnat) kept crawling on her. When it did she would run around just like she had been doing. So I caught the little spider and removed it. After I removed it she still ran around as before, but there was not any more tiny spiders on her.