*edit, he died :( Scorpion stuck in moult?.

Hi all im really worried about one of our scorps its our unknown fella he has been moulting but this time its taking forever he has been stuck like this for 3 or 4 days and i dont know what to do everything has moulted apart from the pedipalps and its making the top of his head part look all bent from the side, is there anything i can do to help he seems to be really struggling with it

Bad molt, it happens, if its not dead take a bowl and put about half inch of water in it then put it in. Take tweezers and a razor blade and carefully cut away the shell if possible, usually this means it's fused with the old shell but sometimes its possible to seperate them enough so the next molt will fix the crap that happened this time.

But in my opinion from the looks of it its too late

ps. if youre wondering what the water in a bowl is for it's to lube and soften the shell and the scorp.

Hey I did what u said and snipped of bits of the old shell and managed to separate the padipalps he has lost the end of his left front leg and his head is def deformed he is not able to use the pedipalps either this guy was one of our favourites and has gone through 3 moults with us I can't understand why this happened the humidity is fine, what makes thi happen?? Really don't want to loose this lil guy but I'm sure we will

Good luck bex, hope your scorpion gets better.

Thanx fingers are crossed but i dint think he can survive like thus

It just happens unfortunately. Sometimes they just can't get through it even with perfect conditions. Look at locusts, sometimes they get through a molt fine, sometimes they don't. It sucks beyond belief but that's just how it is.

I was going to compare it to a miscarriage but that's kinda grim.

Sorry Bex.

Billy No Mates wrote:

I was going to compare it to a miscarriage but that's kinda grim.

Sorry Bex.

How can you compare it to a miscarriage! Nothing alike at all lol

I think he will die he has just sat out all night and he normally only comes out occasionally he moves when i gave him a lik tap but it looks like he has lost the use of his pedipalps for sure poor fella I feel really sorry for him,

Damn, sorry to see that Bex, like the other's have said these things just happen even with correct conditions. He doesn't look in a good way, I don't think your going to be able to do anything for him. So close aswell, to get 90% of himself out. Show's it can happen to humid types too.

Poor lil guy.

Sorry to hear that bex

I'm sure your enclosures and setups for the lil guy is in optimal condition.

Guess it's Murphy's law.. at no fault of yours..

Yeah, I had the exact same thing happen to one of my newer pair of emps sadly enough, not cool when it happens.

There is a faint hint of hope though, if you actually can get it to eat regularly to the next molt there is a very good chance that the next few molts will fix the damage.

Hello, this is him today after my minor surgery last night, his face is all messed up its bent so not sure if things will work properly, he seems to be moving pedipalps better than yesterday though now they are seperated instead of one big mess, but he has just sat in same spot all day by the looks of it

heres some pics

ick, that might be a lil too much for molts to fix, the problem i'm seeing is that the pedipalps might not be able to form right.
My advice is to stick it in a 50 cricket container (it's decently small) and keep the humidity at 90%+ so that it's easier for the pedipalps to form right inside the messed up shell, so when it molts again it'll be like popping out of a wet paper bag. If it's too dry i'm afraid it might do the worst case scenario and completely erradicate the pedipalps altogether because it wont be able to pull them out of the old shell while molting.

The more humid the better at this point, keep it dam near in a pool.

*prekill all its food at this point too, but im sure you were already doing that *

it is in a container that is about twice the size of a cricket tub will that be ok?, and yeah pre killing as he wont be able to, and am gonna put aa larger water bowl in its pretty humid atm well always has been really think theres nothing i can do feel really hopless, made me want to cry earlier lol poor fella he is having a walk about atm so thats a good sign, can you see where his head is all bent?

Yea, the bent head is alright, my surviving juvi emp had the same problem but it out grew it. I was talking about a cricket tub mostly because of the humidity it can keep, with the solid plastic lids with holes drilled in keeps the humidity really well.

The point is to keep the shell as soft and elastic as possible until it's next molt so the screwed up shell from this bad molt wont play as much of a factor when it molts again.

ok will move him to a tub then thanx

good luck!

Couldn't find a suitable cricket tub so instead have wrapped the lid of his tank in clingfilm and pierced a few holes in it, humidity is right up now can't even see through, hope he survives, he was the second scorp we got and lost the first one ages ago he was old though, it not fair we done everything correctly life sucks sometimes!! It's p****d me off!! what a crappy day

hey, just found the little fella dead didnt think there was much hope, will never get to find out exactly what he was now either

poor little guy