NOT SO GOOD NEWS FOR PEPSI

Who knew tarantulas start out little, never saw one this small.  

John almost ran over this little girl, (she has spinners on her butt, makes her a girl) with the hay cart in the hay barn.  But he saw her before it got messy.  Poor little thing is already missing a front leg and I don't think they regenerate if they are missing.  John's company he does jeep tours for, has a tarantula and a snake they take out for "show and tell" with the clients.  The tarantula has had a broken leg before and they fixed it with super glue.  Since spiders have an external skeleton, the super glue will give the leg structure until she sheds.  But this little one doesn't have a leg to fix.  John put her in the back of the hay barn and when he checked on her she had buried herself in the hay.  

I got a call from the vet clinic Monday and was told Pepsi's tumor is a sarcoma rather than a sarcoid.  So we took him in yesterday and Dr. Nancy shot chemo directly into the incision.  We also were sent home with Neoplasene, which I wasn't familiar with.  Also a wound balm I'm suppose to use, after the injected chemo sloughs off the cancer cells that might be left.  Dr. Nancy said if the tissue doesn't slough off, then she got it all.  But the lab report said the edges weren't clean.  

I will be giving Pepsi the Neoplasene by mouth, twice a day for 3 months.  I have always tasted anything I am going to stick in their mouth.  Let me say one thing, a lot of the oral medicines that need to be given, do not taste good............this one is no exception.  I have tasted Baytril, and Metronidazole and a few others that rated high on the "yuck" scale.  I do think this one has them all beat.  I can't even begin to describe it, I also haven't figured out something to kill the taste........SIGH...it's going to be a long winter, I'm afraid.  Last night I tried Dr. Nancy's suggestion, honey, well actually I used molasses, stronger flavor between 2 small graham crackers.  Pepsi wasn't impressed and it was very messy.  

This morning I tried peanut butter and powdered sugar, which isn't as messy.  He readily took the cookie, but didn't eat it with relish,  I'm hoping it will grow on him.  

I know their taste buds are different than ours, otherwise they couldn't enjoy orange rinds as much as they do.  But this stuff is really going to be a hard sell I'm afraid.  Wish me luck.......!!!

UPDATE:  John went on a tour today and asked his nephew Bob about the spider leg.  Bob does a lot of the tours and is the company's "go to" guy.  Anyway he's quite a spider expert.  He said she will be able to grow back a leg.  The next molt will grow a small leg and the molt after that the leg should be almost the same size as the other ones.