I've got the Wobbles!

[Serpent_Nirvana]

I can't answer question 1 for certain; the only way I think that the animal would die of its condition (without help) would be if it absolutely completely lost the ability to eat or drink and died of dehydration. Otherwise I am sure spiders have died because of the wobble -- not from it -- when their owners elected euthanasia, OR if an uninformed veterinarian condemned them with IBD and recommended euthanasia. (I'm sure it hasn't happened often, but I don't doubt that one or both things has happened at least a few times.)

I can't answer questions 2 and 3, either, but I can offer my own experience and opinions ...

I have a spider who is currently going through a somewhat similar thing. I've had her since she was a baby, and she never once showed neurologic signs until she was about 1300 grams or so. At that point she began holding her head awkwardly for very brief periods just prior to feeding. She has progressed, and at this point it may take her an extra strike to hit the rat. She's a very aggressive feeder and she still usually has the rat in her coils <30 seconds from presentation. The swallowing reflex does not seem at all affected (I have never heard of a spider whose swallow was affected and would be very interested to hear it if someone has one). If I open her cage to remove her, she hold her head at an awkward angle, but that's about it. She does not spin or loop.

My male bumblebee has always exhibited the same level of neurologic difficulty -- it hasn't gotten better or worse. In his case it is definitely exacerbated by stress -- he will spin if he is put in an environment in which he's uncomfortable, such as a strange tub. However, he has never (or very rarely, enough that I can't recall it) shown any signs during feeding. He feeds like a normal ball. I would say I only catch him spinning maybe a couple times a year.

My male spinner was slightly "off" when I got him; he's now about 1200 grams and acts pretty darn normal. So in his case, I'd say he improved.

I used to think (hope??) that maybe we could breed the wobble out of spiders. My logic was that, since variability exists in how the gene is expressed (degree of severity, age of onset, progression of condition, etc.) that there must be other gene factors influencing the expression of the "wobble" gene, and those could be selected for or against. (Same way that we can select for "pretty" or "ugly" pastels -- there are other, non-pastel genes that affect the way the pastel gene is expressed.)

However, while I still believe that's probably the case, at this point I think it's a bit hopeless to think we could really select for or against the wobble because the age of onset can be so late. Your bee didn't really get bad until a couple years after he'd been bred. My spider gal has gotten progressively worse as well. So either one of us could have bred our animals thinking we were selecting for pretty good, "non-wobbly" genes, when in fact they're just late-onset wobblers.

I would still advise someone against breeding a spider that was very severe and had been from birth. Maybe he'd throw all very mildly affected babies, but I wouldn't take that risk.

At this point, a couple of years after having gotten into BPs (with my spider gal as one of my first) and having bred the bee a few times, I'm still on the fence as to the ethics of propagating these animals. That debate has been hashed and hashed again so many times I won't even get into it, but from a personal standpoint, know that if you're wondering, you're not the only one.