Bit of a problem

[Lee Corless]

My local garden shop has recently started stocking pets. (snakes, rabbits, mice, budgies, etc). Last week they got a G.rosea T in. It was in a tuppaware tub underneath a infra red bulb on bark chippings with sponges in it's water bowl and it was dripping with condensation.... I bought it yesterday for way too much money for a sub adult rosie, just because I was upset on how it was being kept....

But I got her out of her enclosure to show my son, after all I bought it for him because he never sees his obt. Anyways, its 3rd and 4th leg on the left are very spasmodic, and when it tries to walk they point up in the air and have no co-ordination.

We all hear about DKS, but could this be an early sign? Should I return it to the shop where the people do not know how to look after it? Is there even a return policy on T's? Should I just keep it hope it moults out of the problem?

P.s. It's not affecting feeding

[Colin D Wilson]

It's a shame when pet shops have any animal in stock that they have limited knowledge how to keep.
Many shops just have the odd exotic in to get people into the shop.
If people buy it .. feeling sorry for it, (as you have done now and i have in the past) the problem is for that one we saved... another takes its place in the next order ... not good really but it's a moral issue .... do we leave it and let it live "substandardly" making this the only one thats put in this position.. or do we buy it, look after it and let the pet shop replace the animal.
Bit of a tough one eh!!

As far as the DKS (untill it's called something more appropriate) the usual signs people report are rapid moving limbs, totally uncoordinated and a rushing around sort of nature.
The few times we have seen spiders in the lab holding legs up was when they were infected by some form of parasite (more than often WC spiders) these spiders showed signs of neural issues and the inability to move certain limbs.
Quite a few keepers on here and other forums showing this have had WC that have contained an internal parasitic larvae, the spiders have passed on and the larvae has pupated in some cases when removed from the spider.
Another enigma i have seen is a spider owned by a member here that showed this lifted leg problem, when the leggs were "nipped off" to try and make life a little more "comfortable" the liquid that exuded was not like normal heamolyph (clear with bluish tinge) but a thick milky pus, not sure if this spider made it or not.

There seems to be a number of spiders becoming mentioned that are showing these neuralogical issues (mistakenly tagged as dyskenetic syndrome which is primarily a mammalian syndome), the majority, from research, seem to be wild caught. Some have managed to moult out several times and have showed increased mobility each time, some just dont make it at all.
The best thing you can do is keep the spider as you would any other Grammostola and see how it gets on, if it successfully moults and shows improvement then you can assume (as others have in the past) that it could improve further.
I would be inclined to go against "normal husbandry" and keep the spider a little warmer offering it as much food as it will take and see if you can spur a moult on a little quicker.
At the end of the day i hope it's just a reaction to the way it's been kept at the shop, wet and hot under constant light is not good for a grammie.

Good luck, hope it pulls through

[John chambers]

I agree 100% with Colin it's the shops way to get sales in and saving one will make room for another to safer.
Me I just report them to the councle as they have an inspector that visits to check on the live stock.
We had one such shop that in the end made the local press and the owner was taken to court and they can never open another pet shop and got a very high fine.
It's a shame when we know animals suffer but we must not give in to these money grabbing so and so's and use the law to stop then.. try the rspca and councle and hopfully one or both will take action.
Hope the t does good.

Regards
John

[Mandy Clinch]

I dida similar thing yesterday. Wentto get some crickets from a shop i had only been to once before and they had about 100 rosea slings and they were £2 each, so i ended up with one. All in camera film pods and no air holes, on wet vermiculite and far too big for the tub itself. I only got 1, and as it turns out she had molted and the broken up remains are mixed in with the substrate. Went to feed her last night and boy is she nasty! Flicked hairs at me about 3 times and posturing away as if her life depended on it!
I am not saying this shop was cruel (specifically trades in snakes, geckos etc) but they had 2 fishing spiders (which i had never seen before) with very dirty water.