Hi Folks,

Just wanted to share with you all that my juvenile A.semaani has be diagnosed with dyskinetic syndrome. And confirmed by various of my friends and breeders who have been around the block longer than i have.

I bought him/her from Petstop two weeks ago.
Now im not going to go into a war with this post, and just wanted to let you all know about it, so that you can check before buying anything from anywhere! That's probably the lesson learnt here as she/he displayed the same behavior then.

Atm Dyski (wonder why i named it that) is still eating and doing ok.

DKS is not very nice at all, and must be very uncomfortable for the T to say the very least. I agree with your sentiment here Swipe in making people aware. When buying a T make sure that it is making smooth, decisive movements and does not seem to be at all "flappy" or unsure of it's footing. If it looks jittery or seems to make uncontrolled movements it may be a victim of DKS already.

We don't seem to have it much here yet in SA but it seems to be spreading more and more, could this just be due to the hobby growing more and more so it's a relative thing? Either way, no-one seems dead sure on how it's contracted, but guesses are that it's caused through unhealthy feeder crickets/roaches etc or feeders that are not kept clean and well maintained, certain silicones used for tank enclosures are rumoured to cause it too as well as pesticides used around feeder breeding colonies and they somehow pick it up and get transferred to your T.

One thing is for sure, once your T gets this, it's like a high 90% that it's gonna die. I believe Marula has managed to save a T that suffered DKS, so please let us know what you did if you read this Marula? It would be greatly appreciated. I have read that putting the T straight into an ICU can help, and the ICU should be cleaned every two days or so to ensure it stays clean. This post is just based on my knowledge so far of DKS which is minimal, so if there is a cure or any way of avoiding it hopefully I will learn from it too on threads like this.

My Brothers P.Regalis was bought 100% fine and about 6 months and two moults later, has a serious case of DKS, he has lived for about 2 weeks now, but not sure he's gonna make it through...

Best of luck swipe.

Sad to say it wasn't me. Somebody gave me two mature Grammostola rosea, one male and one female, to try and save them but their illness deteriorated quite quickly. The male I lost after a few weeks as he refused to eat, and the female lasted for about five months, her illnes getting worse after winter cool-down.

I tried ICU on both of them initially but needless to say, both got really stressed by all that humidity, being desert species. I also tried to force-feed the female when after had refused food and lost condition. I did that by putting bits of the mashed insides of a killed roach inside her mouth. As she pooped every time after feeding something of the food must have been absorbed. But I had the impression that she again was very stressed by my ministrations, and stress seems to aggravate the condition even more.

If I remember right, it might have been Frootbat who managed the almost impossible to save a Haplopelma lividum.

This is just crazy. Surely somebody is researching it... possibly one of the universities? Does anyone have pics showing clear symptoms? Very scary stuff, I've heard it's tearing through the US like another hurricane. Keep your eyes open guys, this needs to be nipped in the bud.

Does anyone have pics showing clear symptoms

It's not an externally visible disease...

Video would work bacause of the eratic and distorted movements. I can't film this cause I fortunately do not have a DS patient at the moment. It is horrible to wittness...

Yea it is truly saddening to see this decease plague your loved Tarantula/s.

@Bushpilot - Youtube is riddled with vids on this topic.
@Marula - Thx for the info. My friends over at Spideplanet now has the T in their ISO but if there is no improvements by midweek i'm putting it down.

As far as research goes, its mixed reports all over the show. A few things have been established tho. And this is info i gathered from the web so take it with some salt please:
-It's Feeder related. (I hope Petstop looks into theirs soon).
-It's Genetically transferable.
-Slings and Juveniles are more likely to show and die of symptoms.
-90-95% of Tarantulas suffering from it dies.
-T's in pre-molt will sometimes shed the decease when they molt. (Not cured, but free of symptoms).
-Some sp.'s are effected with more severity while others are more resistant.

Anyways, ima end this post before i get all emo again.