DYSKINETIC SYNDROME IN TARANTULAS AFFECTING THE NERVOUS SYSTEM :spider:

Not much is known about the disorder called Dyskinetic syndrome. It remains a mystery disease. Affected tarantulas usually exhibit uncontrolled twitching and jerking motion of the legs. Scientists are trying to pin point the cause, but right now there are no definitive answers validating an exact cause only some ideas that are suspected by experienced tarantula breeders and keepers. Pesticides and poisons that accidentally get on the tarantula's food source e.g.: feeders or aerosol spray being sprayed in the household are suspect. Other chemicals, such as air fresheners and cleaning products may also be involved. Mould in the cage is another possibility. Stressed animals are most likely to be affected, so stress may be an important factor to also consider and then there is an altitude fluctuation when tarantulas are moved for “breeding loans”. My ex-boss has a doctoral in parasitology and he feels it’s all to do with environmental conditions such as metals and certain minerals ingested by its food items namely arthropods etc. rats and mice not really considered here as they have a high calcium level which is not conducive to the tarantula especially during a molt which hinders the process.

I found in my experience and getting advice from Hendrik is by placing the tarantula effected as soon as possible placed in an ICU- unit ( INTENSIVE CARE UNIT) with temp @ 28 degrees Celsius and humidity @ 90 % and have had success but that is not always the case unless you can intercept it at an early stage before it spreads throughout the tarantulas anatomy. Make sure the food you give is pesticide free, and remove any suspicious chemicals from the Tarantula’s room and here I refer to any form of poison used to eradicate unwanted local roaches..lol.
Please everyone lets discuss this issue as everyone’s opinion has validation irrespective how long you have kept tarantulas

Luckily I have not experienced DKS with any of my Ts (hope I never do )

But would like to find out what exactly causes it , so we could prevent it from happening .
As Ray has suggested it could be because of some household chemicals , I use none of these in my T room accept sunlight liquid and water to wipe the shelves ,
Could also be feeder items as we don't know what the cricket suppliers feed or some dust their crickets with ..

I'm not sure how you can say it's not a recognised condition, in 8 years I've had a handfull of them and they all very clearly had the same condition! Basically if you rest an affected T on it's 'sternum' it's legs do an uncontrolled tap dance. Clearly not in control of their kinetics so to speak...and seemingly a damaged nervous system (poison related IMO).
My personal opinion drawing from my handful of experiences is that it definitely comes from their food intake and my opinion is that it is caused by a slow steady build up of pesticides that they ingest from their prey items who have consumed pesticides from the vegetables etc that they have been fed over their time.

I understand perfectly what you meant, all I'm saying is that the ones I had definitely had the SAME condition. Sure, people probably do attribute other conditions to DKS incorrectly but that's not what I'm talking about.

when I got my first t the previouse owner told me it is caused by dog hairs by not washing your hand after touching a dog and before handling is it true
?

Ethan that sounds pretty far fetched... unless possibly the dog's wearing a tick & flea collar or something?