Please help, scorpion stuck in molt

Hi everyone,

I recently got my first scorpion, a Pandinus cavimanus, and yesterday at around 1pm she started shedding everything seemed to be going ok she got her legs and chela out but her tail is stuck in the molt, I left her to see if she could come out herself because I didn't want to stress her out or injure her but shes been stuck all night and has walked through her cork hide with it still attached, I tried increasing the humidity but she is still stuck, should I try pulling the old skin off with tweezers or try and find a vets that can remove it?

Thank you so much for reading

Hello there.

I would advise against manually trying to separate the exuviae from the scorpion.
Just keep it humid and hope for the best.
How much RH is in the tank? Any pictures would help.

lazydonut wrote:

Hello there.

I would advise against manually trying to separate the exuviae from the scorpion.
Just keep it humid and hope for the best.
How much RH is in the tank? Any pictures would help.

Ok thank you for the advice, i was trying to avoid it if possible but its been over a day and I'm a bit worried, I raised RH to about 80% while she's molting, is that an ok level?





Here are some pictures you can see how the whole exuvia is stuck on her tail

That doesnt look good, the whole metasoma is stuck.
80% isnt bad for emps actually it's in the good range. You mentioned you raised it to 80% during ecdysis. So it was lower than 80 prior to that? Try keeping it well above 80%.

Just hang tight.

lazydonut wrote:

That doesnt look good, the whole metasoma is stuck.
80% isnt bad for emps actually it's in the good range. You mentioned you raised it to 80% during ecdysis. So it was lower than 80 prior to that? Try keeping it well above 80%.

Just hang tight.

Yeah :S, Ok i'll bring it up a notch, normally i try to keep it about 70-75% humidity is that too dry for a red claw?

It's not exactly too dry. above 75 is more comfortable I believe. But to be sure go above and around 80

lazydonut wrote:

It's not exactly too dry. above 75 is more comfortable I believe. But to be sure go above and around 80

Thank you , I am at the moment shes still alive which is good but still stuck and i've still got my fingers crossed for her

I helped my emperor with her molt before. She was stuck just like yours. All I did was gently pulled the tail and it slid off. It all depends if you want to risk it or not.

Patcho wrote:

I helped my emperor with her molt before. She was stuck just like yours. All I did was gently pulled the tail and it slid off. It all depends if you want to risk it or not.

Ok , i'll keep the humidity high tonight and if she's still not out by tomorrow i'll give her a hand, because she's been stuck for days but i really don't want to injure her

Upon closer inspection it seems like one of her shed chelicerae has become hooked on one of her segments so i'm hoping careful maneuvering may help to unhook it

I'm afraid to tell you this, but I believe that molting should only take less than 12 hours. I've read successful molts go as long as 10 hours since the molt proper.

Worst case scenario is that your scorp might need to lose his tail...
But of course we're hoping for the best

Patcho wrote:

I helped my emperor with her molt before. She was stuck just like yours. All I did was gently pulled the tail and it slid off. It all depends if you want to risk it or not.

+1

lazydonut wrote:

I'm afraid to tell you this, but I believe that molting should only take less than 12 hours. I've read successful molts go as long as 10 hours since the molt proper.

Worst case scenario is that your scorp might need to lose his tail...
But of course we're hoping for the best

Patcho wrote:

I helped my emperor with her molt before. She was stuck just like yours. All I did was gently pulled the tail and it slid off. It all depends if you want to risk it or not.

+1

Yeah I know, I managed to remove some of the exuvia so I'm hoping that helped, I'm going to go get some baby oil to help with removing the rest of it (i tried gently pulling it but it didn't come loose) so fingers crossed i won't have to remove the tail, I mean I had a look and saw a little bit of room so maybe some baby oil/water mixture and a cotton bud could lubricate it

Be very careful there. You should be able to just pull the tail of the exuvia if all her legs are out. And if you're using oil, be sure not to get any of it in the cuticles. Also, since emperors are really large, she could take forever to harden all the way, maybe even a couple months before she turns black. Keep in mind, a week or two won't mean she's hardened all the way.

Just raise your humidity level, pray and believe in your scorp since they've been doing it for millions of years. I've had a T that got stuck on her exuv and it took 4 days for her to get out. If a risked manually helping her she might have gone the other way and die. Good luck!

Patcho wrote:

Be very careful there. You should be able to just pull the tail of the exuvia if all her legs are out. And if you're using oil, be sure not to get any of it in the cuticles. Also, since emperors are really large, she could take forever to harden all the way, maybe even a couple months before she turns black. Keep in mind, a week or two won't mean she's hardened all the way.

I tried just pulling the tail and she's stuck pretty good, i have removed all of the exuvia now except for the part covering her tail I tried softening it with water and oil and it didn't really help, ok I'll leave her to harden up

Tongue Flicker wrote:

Just raise your humidity level, pray and believe in your scorp since they've been doing it for millions of years. I've had a T that got stuck on her exuv and it took 4 days for her to get out. If a risked manually helping her she might have gone the other way and die. Good luck!

Good point , I bet that was stressful :S, thank you

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped me on this thread , you've all helped me out loads , i've done everything I can without an insanely high risk of hurting her so I'll just keep the humidity up and hope for the best, thanks again

I really need to make a guide for these scenarios at some point… If all goes well I might have some time in September to write one up.

First off, post another picture of your scorpion. I'd like to see how bad it's stuck.

I'm going to recommend removing the stuck exuvia from the metasoma. Old exuvia stuck on the metasoma is one of the more life threatening scenarios of a bad molt, as it often doesn't allow the scorpion to defecate. I never suggest partial amputation of the metasoma except in the most dire situations where removing the old exuvia has failed, as the metasoma contains some of the scorpion's intestine.

Here's a list of materials. Necessary materials are italicized and in bold. Note that nearly all of them are necessary.

1. An ICU.
2. Glycerin. (Alternatively mild liquid dish soap.)
3. Approximately one cup (235 mL) of room temperature water.
4. A pipette or glass eyedropper
5. A magnifying lens. (A magnifying lamp or dissecting microscope, while expensive, is a godsend)
6. A couple pairs of tweezers or forceps with very fine tips.
7. Cotton-tipped swabs.
8. Scalpels or X-acto knives.
OR
9. Extremely small scissors, such as nail scissors.
10. A good light source.
11. A blacklight. (UV light.)
12. Cornstarch.
13. Petroleum Jelly.
14. Scissors.
15. Secondary ICU ready and waiting.

First, make a glycerin water solution such that it is about 15% glycerin and 85% water. Alternatively dissolve 2-3 drops of a mild dish soap into the water. Place the scorpion in one of the ICUs. Using a pipette or glass eyedropper, drip the solution onto the portion of the scorpion that appears stuck until it is thoroughly wet. You may also pat it on with the cotton swabs. The solution should start to soften the exoskeleton within about 30 minutes. Wait between an hour and an hour and a half to see if the scorpion can extract itself. If it hasn’t made any noticeable progress you can proceed.

Using the pipette or eyedropper, apply more of the solution as needed. Using the cotton swabs, gently try to push the exoskeleton off to start. If this does not work move on to using tweezers and/or forceps to attempt to remove the exuvia. This may take a while but it usually results in success. Using nail scissors or a scalpel to VERY CAREFULLY cut the stuck exuvia is sometimes necessary. If the scorpion is not yet fully hardened a blacklight is extremely useful for determining if there is still any of the old exuvia attached to the scorpion.



The very last option would be partial amputation of the metasoma. I do NOT recommend this unless it is absolutely necessary. I will tell you right now, that this is very dangerous to your scorp, and should only be done if the metasoma is severely deformed or if the old exuvia is completely stuck. The metasoma isn’t simply a tail, you see. It’s more of a continuation of the abdomen. It contains part of the intestine, the hindgut, arteries, veins, nerves, and muscles. It also obviously supports the telson. The anal opening is located in the soft tissue of the fifth segment.

That being said, scorpions are very tough creatures. For example, in one of Manny Rubio’s books he has a picture of a wild caught Opistophthalmus sp. that not only lost its telson, but also its 5th metasomal segment. At the time of the writing, the scorpion had been kept for two years and even molted once.







So, based on that, it may be possible to amputate the telson and 5th segment and have the scorp survive. Do NOT attempt to amputate more than this. To do this take a pair of scissors and cut AT THE JOINT. Immediately after this apply some cornstarch and/or petroleum jelly to stop the bleeding. Either of these should stop the flow of hemolymph. Hopefully the scorp will have enough of its intestine intact to be able to defecate. Unfortunately, unlike in spiders scorpions rarely regenerate more than part of a lost appendage.

Thank you everyone so much for your help, but sadly and unfortunately she passed away this morning , but thank you so much to everyone who tried to help

Sorry to hear that.   

Scorpion19981000 wrote:

Sorry to hear that.   

Thanks man, it really sucks but I did everything I could sometimes these things happen :/

sorry for your loss

lazydonut wrote:

sorry for your loss

Thank you for your condolences

Gutted. My Emp is in mid molt now, hence why I searched and found this thread. So far she's up to the same point as yours so now i'm worried.

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate loss.