Time to Mortality from Black Liquid?

[Adrenna]

My wild-caught Carolina Mantis started producing black liquid overnight. She's laid 3 ooth and her abdomen was swollen so I thought she might have laid another. However, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. She's sluggish but moving around. No degradation since this morning. How much longer does she have?

I moved her 3 ooth outside to a safe corner of the yard yesterday. I'm looking forward to her future legacy in the spring.

I took a nice picture of her 3 ooth but this site crashes every time I go to upload it.

 

[sally]

I am not sure how long.... But offer water often. Good luck with her.

 

[Adrenna]

I put some honey on a toothpick and offered it. She gave the equivalent of "######" and pulled back.

How would I offer her water?

This is new to me.

 

[Adrenna]

So I put some drops on her legs and that seemed to greatly annoy her and she wiped it off. She ate 3 days ago so still monitoring. If I need to go ahead and put her down, I will. I might have teared up a little this morning. Maybe. Not admitting anything.

 

[sally]

I put water on the end of my tweezers. Some people use small spoons, or bottlecaps. I just hold it right up to the mouth and they drink the drops .

 

[Adrenna]

She's still the same - not producing any more black liquid but still sluggish. She showed interest in attacking the crickets in the neighboring container so I scrubbed her housing out (I do it every week) and added a few. I'll see how she does overnight. Gave her more water as well.

Thanks for walking me through this.

 

[sally]

Keep an eye on those crickets. If she gets worse all of a sudden, the crickets might hurt her. I hope she gets better for you.

 

[Adrenna]

She had happily removed the head of a cricket and was snacking on it while holding the body for a later snack. She had finished it all in a few minutes so she's still feeling good enough to hunt and eat. No black liquid this morning either. Hopeful.

 

[sally]

That is fantastic!! I am so glad.

 

[Adrenna]

Betty is still going. She had 3 streaks of black liquid on her walls as well as a few signs on the cage but she's laid another egg and is doing well. I really thought that she was done for but I've fed her honey, let her ride around on my head and bought some BB pupae for her as well. I'm trying to move away from Petsmart crickets.

I even made her my Christmas card for this year since my friends and family have enjoyed the journey.

 

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My Mandy was excreting a black liquid for about a week. I think it was from PetSmart crickets too. I put aloe on her leg where it was oozing from, and she got better and lasted another 3 months.