Scorpion Medicine

This might be a bit out in left field but I thought I would start a thread regarding scorpion medicine.

What got me thinking about this was the possibility of somehow using an antifungal agent for desert scorps that are prone to mycosis. The agent could be a drug and/or some natural mineral or herb added to water bowls and misting water and used as a preventative measure, or maybe it could be fed to prey animals and used for scorps suffering with mycosis.

Maybe we could get a thread going for anything medical related. Other topics could be "how to set up a scorp ICU," "helping with a problem molt," "how to tell if a scorp is healthy," etc.

I would love to hear about any random things you may have learned in this area or may have wanted to know.

This could develop into an interesting thread.

In regards to mycosis though, prevention is the only remedy as far as I know. Keep humidity low for scorpions that are prone to this fungal infection. For scorpions that are already suffering from mycosis, its spread can be halted or slowed down greatly if humidity is reduced. Juveniles/sub-adults that are suffering from mycosis seem to get rid of it when they moult. So, if you can keep them going and get them to the next instar you should be able to get rid of the fungus. Luckily, young scorpions tend to be less susceptible to getting mycosis anyway.

There was a very interesting article in Reptilia magazine not to long ago on the importance of vitamins and minerals and a varied diet in invertebrates. It touched briefly on DKS type symptoms in tarantulas being potentially caused by a lack of vitamin B or other vit/mineral deficiencies. I know similar symptoms to DKS in tarantulas have been observed by scorpion keepers. The article is well worth a read anyway, and will probably make you rethink the way you feed your inverts. The paragraph comparing growth rates and infant mortality of 2 groups of Loxoscele laeta, one fed standard 'farmed' inverts and the other a very varied diet of wild inverts, is very interesting. The article is in issue 79 of Reptilia magazine. I also have it on my pc if anyone would like me to send it to them.

I have used anti fungal cream on a scorpion which had mycosis on her back left and right tarsus. I used it for 2 months. I applied the cream in small amounts every 3 days and it seemed to halt the spread of the mycosis coupled with less frequent watering.
Then I stopped using it because I thought that it didn't do much at the time and that the halt in the spreading was because of me offering less water. Then a few weeks later I saw it spread to the pectins and to the other legs and she started to get very lethargic and eventually she stopped eating all together and died a few weeks after becoming lethargic. So even with the decrease in watering the mycosis still seemed to spread. She was kept in a kind of ICU with temps that didn't fluctuate too much. So in my case there seemed to be some positives of using the anti fungal cream.

I've never heard of anyone actually using anything to treat mycosis. Was this a bit of an experiment, or have you heard of others having success with this??

Indeed, some Liberians told me before that scorpions can cure malaria by drinking the.. yellowish thing at the center of it(?) but that's what they explained to me. They also told me that the chinese eat them, they've seen them eating it before ? Anyway, they said that you can drink the scorpions' juice or something like that.. you just put the scorpion in a bottle of water/liquid drinking material or something.

Also, I found this from the internet a long time ago.. umm, scorpion venom could possibly cure brain cancer ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjOonP5CO_E
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/scorpion-venom-could-help-treat-brain-cancer.html

Shadowfoot, what type of antifungal cream did you use? Very interesting!

@CallumB, I don't know of anyone who has tried this method before but some people have suggested it. It was a bit of an experiment but I thought that it wouldn't cause any negative effects for the scorpion, it could have been a factor in the death of the scorp but who knows. It could have turned out better and we would be rejoicing right now but sadly not.
@robert44, I can't find the box at the moment but it had "spore" in its's name