Injured crab?

[Pinkpopcorn]

I inspected my largest crab today for signs of molting but I instead I found a small punctured hole on her exoskeleton located on her back. There seems to be a little bit of brown liquid on her abdomen and some on her abdomen legs but I can't tell where it's coming from. I haven't observed or heard of any fights. As far as I know my three crabs are getting a long fine. Temp and humidity are between 75 and 80. I have plenty of shells for them all. Should I be worried? Should I isolate her? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Rawrgeous]

I inspected my largest crab today for signs of molting but I instead I found a small punctured hole on her exoskeleton located on her back. There seems to be a little bit of brown liquid on her abdomen and some on her abdomen legs but I can't tell where it's coming from. I haven't observed or heard of any fights. As far as I know my three crabs are getting a long fine. Temp and humidity are between 75 and 80. I have plenty of shells for them all. Should I be worried? Should I isolate her? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi! I'm super sorry to hear your little one is hurt! Not fun. The best way for us to get an idea of your tank since we can't actually be there obviously (lol) is to fill out the emergency template here http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... hp?t=46102 by colying the questions in a reply and answering them as detailed as possible. If you feel the crab is in a vulnerable condition, Isoing might be a good idea, maybe with some unfiltered honey and crushed eggshell, for more info on Isoing and crab attacks read here to help in the mean time. http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... hp?t=92528

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[soilentgringa]

I have a pic of something that sounds like this on another thread. Let me see if I can dig it up and you can tell us if that is what your crab looks like.

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[soilentgringa]

Does it look like this?



This was from a shell jacking attempt...even though I'd dropped plenty of money on shells from Naples, lol.

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[erin.leaman]

I would recommend isolating the hermit crab and giving it a bath in saltwater to clean wounds. Reducing stress is vital for the little one! After you have done so, leave it alone, do not handle it and contact you veterinarian immediately, I think it's safe to say you cannot always trust random people on the internet to know what to do since we can't really know who has a degree in veterinary medicines. I hope this helped and I hope your little buddy gets better!

[soilentgringa]

I would recommend isolating the hermit crab and giving it a bath in saltwater to clean wounds. Reducing stress is vital for the little one! After you have done so, leave it alone, do not handle it and contact you veterinarian immediately, I think it's safe to say you cannot always trust random people on the internet to know what to do since we can't really know who has a degree in veterinary medicines. I hope this helped and I hope your little buddy gets better!

It's not recommended to bathe crabs, and as long as it can get around and eat, it doesn't need to be isolated.

99% of veterinarians know absolutely nothing about land hermit crabs.

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[erin.leaman]

I would recommend isolating the hermit crab and giving it a bath in saltwater to clean wounds. Reducing stress is vital for the little one! After you have done so, leave it alone, do not handle it and contact you veterinarian immediately, I think it's safe to say you cannot always trust random people on the internet to know what to do since we can't really know who has a degree in veterinary medicines. I hope this helped and I hope your little buddy gets better!

It's not recommended to bathe crabs, and as long as it can get around and eat, it doesn't need to be isolated.

99% of veterinarians know absolutely nothing about land hermit crabs.

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I was just offering my opinion, since I am not entirely familiar with the veterinary sciences behind hermit crabs. My best advise was to contact someone with a degree in that knowledge. I would appreciate it if you didn't try consistently prove me wrong as if I don't know what I'm talking about. As I have stated to you in my post about wanting to adopt more hermit crabs, I have done my homework. From my research on land hermit crabs, they require a weekly bath (although there is some questioning about this subject as to whether or not it is ,in fact, a requirement) and crab owners often do bathe their hermit crabs. I was suggesting replacing their bath water (which is usually purified water) with saltwater, since trying to clean the wound with anything else (particularly chemicals such as alcohol or hydrogen peroxide) would only hurt the crab even more.
My suggestion of isolating the hermit crab was to prevent another "shell-jacking" as what happened to the hermit crab in the picture you presented above and suggested what might have been the cause of the injuries sustained to the original author's hermit crab.
I'm not trying to start a fight or make any enemies on this site, (or worse, a termination of my account on HCA) I simply don't care for people to have the mind-set "Oh, she has only owned hermies for a few months, what does she know?" I don't know everything but I can assure you I do my homework and would not have made a suggestion concerning the well-being of another's pet if I knew nothing about the subject.
Thank you!

[soilentgringa]

I would recommend isolating the hermit crab and giving it a bath in saltwater to clean wounds. Reducing stress is vital for the little one! After you have done so, leave it alone, do not handle it and contact you veterinarian immediately, I think it's safe to say you cannot always trust random people on the internet to know what to do since we can't really know who has a degree in veterinary medicines. I hope this helped and I hope your little buddy gets better!

It's not recommended to bathe crabs, and as long as it can get around and eat, it doesn't need to be isolated.

99% of veterinarians know absolutely nothing about land hermit crabs.

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I was just offering my opinion, since I am not entirely familiar with the veterinary sciences behind hermit crabs. My best advise was to contact someone with a degree in that knowledge. I would appreciate it if you didn't try consistently prove me wrong as if I don't know what I'm talking about. As I have stated to you in my post about wanting to adopt more hermit crabs, I have done my homework. From my research on land hermit crabs, they require a weekly bath (although there is some questioning about this subject as to whether or not it is ,in fact, a requirement) and crab owners often do bathe their hermit crabs. I was suggesting replacing their bath water (which is usually purified water) with saltwater, since trying to clean the wound with anything else (particularly chemicals such as alcohol or hydrogen peroxide) would only hurt the crab even more.
My suggestion of isolating the hermit crab was to prevent another "shell-jacking" as what happened to the hermit crab in the picture you presented above and suggested what might have been the cause of the injuries sustained to the original author's hermit crab.
I'm not trying to start a fight or make any enemies on this site, (or worse, a termination of my account on HCA) I simply don't care for people to have the mind-set "Oh, she has only owned hermies for a few months, what does she know?" I don't know everything but I can assure you I do my homework and would not have made a suggestion concerning the well-being of another's pet if I knew nothing about the subject.
Thank you!

Maybe if you actually read our care guides and stopped offering outdated and inaccurate information on this forum, I would not have to respond to every one of your posts. As a moderator for this forum, it is my job to make sure that others do not follow incorrect advice.

What other crab groups or pages suggest is not my concern. Bathing crabs is stressful and can harm them if done too often.

You cannot come into a group that has been around since the late 90's, where many of the members have several years to decades of experience with these crabs, and start telling people how to care for them based on your few months of research. Almost none of the sources that you listed are legitimate.

I would advise you to take a step back, and learn from people who actually own land hermit crabs and have hands on experience with them.

Veterinarians have absolutely no training in handling coenobita species, along with many others.

Having a degree in one field does not make one an expert in another.



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[erin.leaman]

Just in case you thought Veterinarians don't know anything about hermit crabs

http://www.veterinarians.com/profile/vi ... ahoma.html

http://urbanavc.com/team/dr-mickey-morgan/hermit-crab/

www.vetexotic.theclinics.com/article/S1 ... 2/abstract

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 9416000062

http://www.herpvetconnection.com/missouri.shtml

see Robyn Elich- ACA:
http://bahvets.weebly.com/our-staff.html

see Dr. Mike Armer Campbell
http://www.reedanimalhospital.com/about-us.aspx

[soilentgringa]

Robyn Elich knows about hermit crabs because she operates a store and has owned them for several years. She is a member of several crab groups and has been in the community for some time.

Just because someone uses info from online care guides (including ours) on their business page, does not mean that they can treat hermit crabs.

There isn't anything that a vet can do for a dying crab, unless they euthanize it for the owner.
This thread needs to get back on topic and be kept civil or it will be locked.




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[Rawrgeous]

As a total non mod, and somebody who knew who nothing about crabs when I started, I would trust every single mod here with my crabs lives, and they all are extremely knowledgeable. She wants to make sure these creatures are cared for properly, so it is her job to correct wrong/ outdated info. Most vets don't know anything about land crabs, and its not their fault- there is very little actual scientific data about crabs,and so it's nearly impossible for vets to be educated on them unless they frequent this site, or have cared by trial and error. That isn't knocking their credentials, I'm sure they truly know their stuff with more common pets. I recognize a lot of your info from sites that have not been updated in a long time, like hermit-crabs.com, while it still has some good info, it is sadly outdated at care practices have changed. I have followed hca guidelines, and I have had no deaths, molting accudents, limb drops or any other symptom many new crabs show. Part of that was luck, but I truly believe my crabs are healthy and strong, and I owe it to this forum. Every vet I have ever met is fascinated to hear about my crabs, and their care. I suppose what I'm saying, is she isn't being rude, she's doing her job. Its not to prove you wrong, it's to make sure the crabs have the best chance, as I'm sure you have read that most arrive to their new homes in pretty bad shape. All 4 of my originals were literally tan with a tiny purple in their claw, and that was almost a year ago, now, well I just posted a picture of one of them, and she's anything but tan. Read our careguides, I promise they don't disappoint.

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[hermitcrab101]

From my research on land hermit crabs, they require a weekly bath (although there is some questioning about this subject as to whether or not it is ,in fact, a requirement) and crab owners often do bathe their hermit crabs

Regularly Bathing crabs is an outdated care method. Theres no need to bathe a crab unless the crab is new, in which the bath would get rid of any smells that could trigger aggression between that crab and any crab that's introduced. Bathing could also be used to clean wounds, or kill mites. Besides this there really isn't a reason to bathe a hermit crab. The crabs naturally clean themselfs throughout the day, in addition to this crabs do ocassionaly bathe themselfs when they find its necessary, not when we do. No ones out there on the coasts picking up every crab and making sure he's taken his weekly bath. These are wild animals and Benifit the most from care that mimics their natural habitat. For me this means, not handling my crabs and providing clean moving fresh and salt water (others of course have differnt things they do to help mimic the crabs natural state). Baths are an unnecessary and outdated method of crab care, and as already stated causes stress to the crab.