Please help me figure out what's wrong with this Grammostola rosea

[ShamelessAardvark]

My friend rushed him over today. She doesn't know what's wrong, and I don't know, either. He's about 3 1/2 years old, hasn't eaten in a year, and hasn't molted since 09. There's some fluids oozing out of one of his legs, and his rear legs are shrunken and shriveled up. Is it too late for this guy? Or can something (preferably cheap) be done to help?

Here's the link to the pictures. I'll be keeping him over-night to monitor his behaviour. http://imgur.com/a/jYiu8

[purplemuffin]

Uhhh that looks bad. I don't know anything much about spiders, I'm sorry.

Could it be he's just old? I know males die super early compared to females, like sometimes less than a year after they hit maturity..

[ShamelessAardvark]

Uhhh that looks bad. I don't know anything much about spiders, I'm sorry.

Could it be he's just old? I know males die super early compared to females, like sometimes less than a year after they hit maturity..

I'm thinking it's old age, but I don't think I've ever heard about the legs shriveling up like that. Then again, I really don't know much about spiders, either.

[purplemuffin]

With old age means they are more susceptible to other types of diseases and infections, so i guess it could be anything. I'll wait for spider people to come by though and help.

[Alexandra V]

Can you describe to me the setup that the tarantula was kept in? It doesn't look too promising, and it may be too late. If you notice the other legs oozing at all, try to dry it up and use superglue to seal the injury, I've heard of that being done with success. Aside from that and not knowing the setup, theres not much more I can tell you :S

[ShamelessAardvark]

Can you describe to me the setup that the tarantula was kept in? It doesn't look too promising, and it may be too late. If you notice the other legs oozing at all, try to dry it up and use superglue to seal the injury, I've heard of that being done with success. Aside from that and not knowing the setup, theres not much more I can tell you :S

Well, like I said, he's not mine, and the last time I saw his setup, it was a ten gallon tank with a little log hide and wood chip bedding. When I asked my friend about her humidity, she said she keeps it around 60%, but I didn't ask what substrate she uses.
I'll tell her what you said about the super glue, as I'm just keeping him over night and she's had more experience handling them. (I'm not afraid, but I'm not to the point where I'm exceedingly comfortable with excessive handling.)

[Alexandra V]

Well, like I said, he's not mine, and the last time I saw his setup, it was a ten gallon tank with a little log hide and wood chip bedding. When I asked my friend about her humidity, she said she keeps it around 60%, but I didn't ask what substrate she uses.
I'll tell her what you said about the super glue, as I'm just keeping him over night and she's had more experience handling them. (I'm not afraid, but I'm not to the point where I'm exceedingly comfortable with excessive handling.)

Okay. From the setup and the picture, I may hasard a guess that she's using pine chip bedding? (just because it looks like pine bits on the paper towel in the pic). If that's so, it could be that the tarantula is suffering from the oils in the pine, which are conjectured to be toxic (if that's so, then there's not much you can do) or if it's chips like you said, then it may have punctured its exoskeleton on a sharp chip shortly after a molt, while it is still soft and not fully formed, in which case the super glue may help (but you need to be careful with that method, not to get it in the joints of the legs). Also as an aside, it could be a problem caused by the humidity in the tank, which is on the high side. These guys are desert dwelling and need literally no extra humidity in the air, so keeping it at 60% is really unnecessary and may have contributed to the leg issue if it was damp and may have gotten a form of jungle rot in the joints.

[ShamelessAardvark]

Okay. From the setup and the picture, I may hasard a guess that she's using pine chip bedding? (just because it looks like pine bits on the paper towel in the pic). If that's so, it could be that the tarantula is suffering from the oils in the pine, which are conjectured to be toxic (if that's so, then there's not much you can do) or if it's chips like you said, then it may have punctured its exoskeleton on a sharp chip shortly after a molt, while it is still soft and not fully formed, in which case the super glue may help (but you need to be careful with that method, not to get it in the joints of the legs). Also as an aside, it could be a problem caused by the humidity in the tank, which is on the high side. These guys are desert dwelling and need literally no extra humidity in the air, so keeping it at 60% is really unnecessary and may have contributed to the leg issue if it was damp and may have gotten a form of jungle rot in the joints.

Thank you so much for the help, I'll be sure to give this info to my friend. I really hope this guy makes it, he's a rather interesting fellow.

[Boanerges]

You say him, are you sure it's a boy? If so is it a muture male? Also, my stupid computer will not let me see the pics I would not be of much help anyways as I have never delt with this type of injury personally but you never know. I hope you can save him and he makes a full recovery though