Very tough decision...

[N8tive556]

So, one of our little Pumkin patches is having a bad molt, it's rear 2 legs on one side are sick in a the molt I know you can usually possibly help them out of it, but he's tiny, and I think the molt may have hardened...
What on earth should I do? I'm concidering clipping the rest of the molt off, however I'm also considering possibly removing the the legs... I don't know what to do

 

[Tomoran]

Can you drip a bit of water on the back legs to soften up the molt? I've had a couple get stuck, and a little water did the trick. I would soften it up and use the soft end of a paint brush to help the molt free.

How large is the sling?

Or, carefully clip away as much of the old molt as you can so that it can move freely. If the legs are damaged or unusable, the spider can cast them away itself if it needs to.

Do you have a photo?

 

[RedCapTrio]

remove the legs... I guess.

 

[Tomoran]

remove the legs... I guess.

Perhaps before we start encouraging folks to pluck the legs off of their Ts, we should get a photo and some more info first? Maybe it comes to that, but there are some things that can be tried first.

 

[N8tive556]

He's small I want to say about 1/2 inch...

 

[N8tive556]

This is the best photo I got

 

[Tomoran]

He's small I want to say about 1/2 inch...

Yup, that's a tiny one. Is it in a burrow or out in the open. I've had good luck using a small, clean paintbrush, soaking the bristles with warm water, and carefully dabbing it on the stuck molt. If it's going to soften up, it usually doesn't take much. If the legs soften up, you can use the brush to pin the molt as the T frees itself.

Is it able to get around right now?

 

[Tomoran]

You beat me to it with the photos! I would moisten it up and see what happens. The back legs may be deformed a bit, but the T should still be mobile and able to eat. Also, although this T is quite small, I've used nail clippers to trim away molts before.

 

[N8tive556]

So should I trim and then soften up the legs or soften than trimoff the remainder? Hes sort of mobile moves around a little

 

[Tomoran]

I would try softening it up before you trim. If it works, the excess molt will give you something to pin down with the brush as it hopefully works its way out of the old molt. If that doesn't work, you can trim it.

If you grab onto the molt, it may choose to cast off those two legs anyway, which would also work.

Good luck!!

 

[N8tive556]

Makes sense, I'm running warm water now!

 

[Scoolman]

Removing some of the exuvium is all need be done. Your T will be fine, if it is too much of a burden the sling will drop its own legs.

 

[RedCapTrio]

The lesser you touch the T, the more it can recuperate and not be stressed out IMHO. I agree with @Scoolman , may be just remove most of the exuvium that is not attached and leave the legs.

 

[Tomoran]

Yay! And definitely less stressful than plucking legs.

Good luck, OP. The good news is, they have eight legs, so as long as it can eat, it will be fine.

 

[Kymura]

Keep us updated , think all of us are worrying about this little one.

 

[Enn49]

Keep us updated , think all of us are worrying about this little one.

I second that.

My A. laerta lost 2 legs moulting during transit but next moult they had grown back and it's doing fine.

 

[N8tive556]

Thanks for the support everyone I tried hydrating the legs but alas they would not come out, I clipped the excess molt and he seemed to get around a little better but not much I will be leaving him alone for a few days, I'll post pictures and update the little guys progress and status on this thread, thanks again!

 

[Scoolman]

Just keep water available, and feed like normal. It wil force an earlier molt to repair the damage, no need to do anything further.

 

[MassExodus]

Good luck N8tive. I'm sure it will be fine. By the way, does your group eat like Lps' do? I've never seen slings eat like these. Supposed to be pretty fast growing as well, so it should molt out of that fairly quickly.

 

[N8tive556]

They eat actually very very well basically if it moves it's on the menu