i got this female phormictopus one months ago,she was doing allright with good appetite all the whiles.
until today evening after a heavy rain,i notice something was not right with her.her two front legs are bending while the other legs are curling sidewards.i seriously dont know whether its a dyskinetic syndrome or not,or may be im too new to the defination of the term dyskinetic syndrome.all i need is u guys help
i have seen the videos in youtube,regarding the way tarantulas walk with the syndrome,then i went to check mine,with tweezers.well ,she tend to attack the tweezer,with front legs up.after i take away my tweezer,her legs remained at the position,but keep giving a slight shaking movement..
i have checked the humidity,so it wont be any dehydration.i dont think there is any air contamination as thats our store room where only me and my brother going in out.
yes,she was currently in a premoult state with dark abdomen,was that simply a sign of premoult?or its something bad happening around.oh god,i cannot afford to loose this one as another phormictopus in coming around tomorrow,hopefully a male to proceed the breed.
a comparison of the standing pose,with some old photos.

notice the legs.

photo taken when i first bought her.
see the differences of the legs,one is standing rigid while the others curling.

front legs


comparison with old photos again


bald and dark abdomen,obvious premoult


well,i hope its simply a sign before moult instead of DS..
hope someone is there to help me out

Hi Jun, i recently had a Chilobrachys cf andersoni acting like this, but post-moult. she had plenty of water but was still curling as if dehydrated. she also "shivered" a bit, or rather her legs did.
i actually ended up picking her up, holding her upside down and dribbling water into her mouth. i stroked her chelicerae to open them so some made its way into her mouth.
after a few drops, she perked up, then weakly tried walking or darting somewhere (still had some life!)
i repeated this treatment every day for nearly a week. on Saturday, i went to repeat it, and she gave me the fright of my life, darting from one side of the tub down her burrow! such speed!
but anyway, she appears to have recovered fully.

it sounds like yours might need similar forced watering, but the fact she is new world (with urticating hairs) and still defensive means you have to be careful, perhaps you'll have some success if you tub her, and place a fresh lot of kitchen roll (or kitchen towel, whatever you call it there? or even toilet paper would do) soaked with water, sit her on it with her mouth over it, and repeat this daily. if her problem is like my spider's, she should recover soon.
i'd be cautious about overdoing it, i think treatment once or twice daily is enough. i think leaving the spider in the tub with so much water is why i failed to save a few sickly spiders in the recent past.
good luck, mate!

ok mate.heres what i did after our conversation.






im afraid im making the situation worse.look at the last photo,it looks bad.
so whats next?

i think that's the best for now, try again tomorrow. make sure she has plenty of water available in her tank. perhaps raise the temperature a bit if you can.
this is all that i did with my Chilobrachys, and she has improved alot.

ok,thanks for your help mate.
the abdomen is not at the right position,should i turn it right?

i am cheering for it as i reading..

all the best to you ..

me too!

Jun, i wouldn't fuss her too much, she does look quite close to a moult...

see how she is tomorrow, maybe try some tissue paper rather than a towel, and make sure it's wet enough to soak into her mouth a bit.

i've found so far that it doesn't take much fluid for the spider to perk up, almost scarily so! hehe so all the best and good luck to you and her!!!

thanks mate.will keep update.

thanks to corpselight,without your kind advise,i wont be steady enough to control myself from flipping her back when she is about to moult.

has the T been dropped at all?

nope。anw,she moulted few hours ago.

okay,this is her photo


i assume her to be okay after the moult,but things are not as good as what i expected.
after the moult,i can see her walking style was still the same,still in ds,which suspected to be dehydration.or is that its normal for a tarantula to behave that way after moult?so should i do the forced watering?or later when the exo harden?

thinkng of putting her in my bathroom where there is a lot of humidity.
is that better to leave her alone on the first day after moullt?

hi mate, wow! that looks ok, she's bound to be a bit soft now, so don't bother her too much.
making sure water is available should be enough.

i have a Grammostola pulchripes (formerly aureostriata) that has weak leg joints, even after moulting. this hasn't stopped her eating or even mating, though. could this be what's wrong with yours?
i wouldn't assume "DS" it just sounds like she's a little weak, which having water to drink and plenty of food to eat after she hardens up for 7 days or so, will keep her going and she should get better.

she looks fantastic though!