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DKS chance of survival?

Seekeroftruth

Active Member
Messages
115
Location
Tenessee
I noticed my t albopolosum tarantula molted when I saw it outside it's burrow. I thought it was weird it hadn't taken it's molt out of the burrow. It looked weak and the legs bendy like they do after a molt but over a week later it's still weak, not standing right and I noticed a couple of it's legs making throbbing\ twitching motions. I dug the molt out of it's burrow to see if it came out complete and it's normal. I've tried feeding it three times and nothing... It's never refused to eat in the past. It's normally overweight so this is a big red flag. It does have fangs and yes they are black. Since the dks seems mild compared to videos might it recover? ? Does it keep getting worse over time? I'm trying to keep from crying. Plz help
 

Jenniferinfl

Active Member
Messages
113
Location
Florida
Hopefully someone more experienced will come along, but, in the meantime, here's my version of things.

DKS is just a symptom that something is wrong. You know how humans can have a fever and it could be any of a number of things wrong? Well, DKS is like that fever, something is definitely wrong, but, no idea what specifically.

Because your tarantula just molted, it seems more likely that your tarantula's symptoms were brought on by something going wrong with the molt. Molting does use a lot of fluid, so if something went wrong it could be as simple as dehydration or something bigger than that.

Unfortunately, the answer doesn't help you much because there's really not much else you can do besides help it get hydrated if it's dehydrated.

Now, did you use any different aerosals in the home, pesticides, essential oils or so on? DKS can by a symptom of pesticide exposure. It could also be that something you've been using your tarantula was fine with until it was freshly molted and more sensitive.

I had a really bad suspected pesticide incident that killed most of my tarantulas years ago. The smallest ones died in under 24 hours, the larger ones took longer. I had some adults, a stripe knee, a rose hair, a P. murinus and a couple others that made it to their next molts and the next molt resolved it. But, they weren't severely twitchy, they could still eat if you mostly prekilled the cricket.

Hopefully you're lucky and your tarantula is just dehydrated and you slide a lid of water or something under them and that resolves. If not, then it's going to depend on whether or not it can make it to the next molt. If it can drink and at least stay hydrated, it may molt sooner to correct what went wrong.

But, again, I'm sort of an idiot so this is just my experience with it 12 or so years ago and what I can remember from that awful experience.
 

Seekeroftruth

Active Member
Messages
115
Location
Tenessee
I sprayed pufume on me. The timeframe makes sense. :( i feel really bad about it. My son wanted me to put it on do he could smell it so he brought it to me in the room the tarantulas are in. I'm have 10 other tarantulas on the same shelf. All seem unaffected besides the one although two are in burrows or webs so I have no idea with those. I hope all is well with them all and my t albo gets better.
 
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