Pterinochilus lugardi

Stuck Molt / Rupture

I received this P. lugardi from a pet store on October 6th, 2006.  It appeared to be a little shaky and was missing the tarsus and part of the metatarsus of leg IV on the left side.  I placed it in an appropriate setup with access to water.

On Monday, October 9th, I noticed that it had molted, but the legs were curled under and although all legs were free from the molt, it was struggling the move.  The abdomen appeared to be dehydrated and sunken in.

I gently took a wet paintbrush and tried to "brush" off the old skin, but it would not budge.  I saw what I thought was hemolymph leaking and, upon looking at the other side, noticed that there was some type of sore or rupture and was indeed leaking hemolymph.  I took a syringe and put some water near the spider's mouth and added a bit of extra heat.

On Tuesday morning, October 10th, it appeared that overnight the spider had freed itself from the molt entirely and had moved away into a small burrow and was deceased.

Later in the day I opened up the molt and saw that there appeared to be some damage at that area.  I'm not sure what, exactly, happened.  Maybe the new skin just didn't form right underneath?  Maybe a parasite of some kind?  The steps that I took - making sure there was access to water and it was kept warm, were really all the intervention that I could offer.  Unfortunately, these things happen sometimes and there is just nothing that can be done about them.  Below are a few final pictures that I took of the damaged area of the molt and the continued swelling of the ruptured area.