HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My littlest Straw, Nixon, a medium has survived her previous ordeal: From Molting Forum

Unfortunately, I'm now at kind of a loss as to what to do with her. I'm lousy at digital photography, so I'll try to describe what she's looking like today:

1. The "thumb" of her BP has been torn off, rest of the claw is intact.
2. Her shield appears to be pinched, it has a claw mark in it running from the right edge to just past the centerline.
3. She's missing a few toes, last segments of at least two walking legs are gone.
4. All of the preceding wounds are filled with either very dark EE, (it's very humid in my ISO tank, so black EE is the bedding), or she has an infection I need to start treating.
5. Her far walking leg on the BP side is totally gone. Scab here appears tannish, which is what Bulldozer's scab on his snipped off toe eventually looked like. Not so worried about this injury.

Her behavior is relatively normal for Nixon right now, she's just come up from a week or two underground in ISO. This is the first time I've been able to check her out any. It looks like she ate a little bit of her old exo I left in the food dish, but most of it remains unfinished from last molt. She is hardened, but I can't tell if the black wounds are ground in EE in her scabs or an infection. She parked in the salt water dish for a bit, hit freshwater, and is now sitting in the food dish inhaling the Colorado Crab Company kibble I feed the others and a little bit of dried krill.

She seems healthy, active, and understandably more shy than before. I'm not sure what to do about those black wounds though, should I treat them like infections and keep her in ISO? Or would it be better to dip her in the main tank's saltwater dish and let her visit the rest of the colony? Should I leave her in ISO until her next molt anyway, so she can heal, or will she be alright once I figure out if she's infected or not?

I'm a bit confused... it's a happy confusion, but confusion nonetheless. Lrr is still hiding under the saltwater dish in ISO, I think molting, so she's been pretty unmolested for the last little while.

I would try the better safe then sorry approach and treat her, at least for a while, as an infection. You're doing everything right as far as I can tell. She's going to eat a lot and drink a lot. She'll be a little more lethargic then usual, and then I would expect her to attempt a molt again sometime in the near future. She expended a lot of fuel and energy with this recent molt and she's going to want to do it again as soon as possible to repair the damage done to her body. When? I can't really say. It's just going to be a waiting game until she can recuperate and then restore her internal energy stores and molt sacs to make that next molt possible. Take really good care of her in the meantime. I know she'll be fine, she'll just need a little extra care and attention for a while. Good luck with your straw, I know she'll be just fine. Also, if you ever need any strawberry help, send me a PM and I'll do whatever I can to help. I too went through a little straw drama when I bought a very sick small strawberry that I only purchased because he was so far gone and I knew he wouldnt want to die at some horrible pet store, so i brought him home to pass on somewhere he could die in comfort. Needless to say, and to my extreme surprise, he pulled through and is now a very energetic member of my 4 straw gang.

Again though, good luck with your straw. I can't express any more how much I mean that. I have a soft spot for straws and I really care about them as a species. And I can tell you are a very good owner and I have every bit of faith that she will recover nicely in your care.

Thanks for the quick response!

Yeah, eating like a horse: check. She polished off most of the food dish and the corner of a peanut butter and honey sandwich I gave her from my lunch. I think I'll give her another day or so to acclimate and then start dipping her in the anti-bacterial wash.

She is back to her energetic, (if now wobbly), self. Going to be interesting trying to ambush her for her wash when she comes back up from her sleeping cave.

I would keep her ISO'd and would go a step further and remove the substrate from the iso if it's getting into her wounds. Try using damp paper towel on the floor of the sand instead and just provide a lot of dark hidies for her. I'd worry that if she isn't infected she will become so if the EE is getting packed in her wounds. It'd good that she's eating well for you. Hopefully she'll eat like a pig, hit the pools a lot and molt in not too long a time. Small crabs molt often anyways, Petunia was my smallest when I got her last year and she molted about every 6 to 8 weeks for quite a while until she's now caught up in size almost to the other E's I have lol. They've only molted 3 or 4 times for me unlike Petunia's 6 - 10 times lol

Hmm, is there a Plan B? She seems to have outsmarted the damp paper towel by pulling up one corner and digging in there. Hopefully this can be solved with more paper towels.

[Edit] and that would be a negative on the more paper towels solution. I'm not sure whether to be proud of her or annoyed with her at this point. If I remember that canine intelligence study they did a few years back, I think she just proved herself smarter than an afghan hound.

To follow the train (I think) that Thalia started, I think she is meaning to remove the substrate in ISO, and replace with paper towel (instead of the sand).
They will tear up the paper towel, but in doing so will create a "safe spot" where they feel they can hide.
Maybe someone can give you more detailed info on how best to treat the possible infection. I have yet to have that happen in my crabitat, so all I can go by is hearsay......
http://www.hermitcrabaddictionstore.com ... 2/pd439926
The Crab Addiction has a medicinal bath for infections, but I think usually double strength salt bath, and honey are the first course, or so I've read from folks on this forum.
Coenobita Research Site may have more info, but it seems you have to have user name and password, of which I have neither.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

For an open wound like this, in the tarantula hobby, we use nail polish to close abdomen wounds and to stop the bleeding from torn off legs. Does anyone know if this would be a safe practice with crabs too? It doesn't harm the tarantulas or interfere with their molts.... does anyone have an input?

Hmmm, nail polish... you know, that might just work if we could figure out a way to keep them from picking it off and eating it. The pinchers and scavenger lifestyle kind of complicate the approach, but I'm sure there's got to be something out there they won't consider sampling. Probably need a color that didn't give off anything in the ultraviolet spectrum so they'd ignore it, coupled with being relatively odorless so they wouldn't detect it as strange and tasteworthy...

Say, something from the red spectrum and non-toxic... probably looking for like a kiddie nail polish brand, only permanent.

Regardless, my problem seems to be solving itself now, as she's buried herself pretty deeply in the substrate and is enlarging a nice pocket to molt in.

Update: Nixon has just finished molting for her 2nd time this year. She has a slightly misshapen BP, and the walking leg is a bit short, but she's regrown both. No signs of infection anywhere on her, either. Only concern I have is she's that bright orange "tomato-berry" color, which I guess is normal considering she had to do back to back molts.

Thank you for everyone who wrote me support on this. I appreciated all the advice and comfort. Looks like the tough little girl is going to pull through.

thats great to hear - Next molt around her claw and leg should be a little more normal, and the molt after that, it could be completely good - or it may take several, it varies.