# Urticating hair in my eye



## fresher (Jan 13, 2010)

Thought id show and tell you guys what happened when I got some urticating hair in my eye.

I am an experienced tarantula keeper, ive had about 5-6 years experience and kept many different species and I'm very cautious and aware when cleaning or handling my tarantulas.

So this happened about 4 months ago when i was cleaning my g.pulchra's tank. She is normally very calm and docile but this time she decided to run across her tank and flick hair towards my face before i could even react. First thing i did was wash my face and eye out straight away.

First day i felt nothing but abit of itchiness around my eyelids and face, but after a nights sleep my eye turned very red, veiny and swollen. the whole of the left side of my face also was very swollen. 

I went to morfields eye hospital.
Many numbing eyedrops, eye dye and microscopes later the doctor told me he could not see any barbs in my eye and sent me home with a patch on my face and a bag of eye drops which i was to take for the next week.

I could hardly keep my eye open for the next 2 weeks and my eye remained very red and swollen and watery, the eye drops were easing the pain but not healing the problem. the redness and not being able to keep my eye open for more then 2 minutes persisted for about 6 weeks.

By this time my eye was still very red and swollen, people kept asking me if i had a black eye. but i could keep my eye open in dimly lit rooms. from about week 6 to about week 10 my eye was VERY sensitive to light and even more sensitive to sunlight. i literally could not open my left eye when i was outside which resulted in me staying inside my house for almost 2 months due to the pain and annoyance it gave me.

By about week 9 i decided that i was going to thoroughly wash my eye out with water 3 times and day, something i did for the first couple of weeks but wanst seeming to work. By week 11 I noticed a huge difference and by about week 13 my eye was almost back to normal. Im not sure if the washing my eyes out worked if 3 months is just the amount of time that the hairs take to completely go. (i looked at other peoples cases online and around 3 months seems to be a pattern of peoples eyes getting better)

My eye feels 98% back to normal now 4 months after the incident and I just want to reiterate the need to take extreme caution when u are exposed to a tarantula or even wear goggles

The photo is my eye after about 5 weeks 
View image: IMG 20120312 00002


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## brittone05 (Sep 29, 2006)

Blimey that looks sore!

I am not a spider person ( would be me running, not the T lol ) but do all tarantula's chuck their hairs at you? xx


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## corny girl (Aug 30, 2009)

brittone05 said:


> Blimey that looks sore!
> 
> I am not a spider person ( would be me running, not the T lol ) but do all tarantula's chuck their hairs at you? xx



No, some will bite you (it's the New World ones that flick urticating hairs, Old Worlds bite & can have strong venom which will result in hospitalisation).


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## 8and6 (Jan 19, 2010)

they all bite :2thumb: the only word that can be guaranteed to describe theraphosid behaviour, be that old or new world, is 'unpredictable'

most new worlders have urticating hairs...but not all


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## burmese97 (Nov 13, 2011)

woooooo that looks bad.


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## ashbosh (Jun 23, 2007)

Mate that's horrific. Was gonna get a couple of slings of those. I'll just refrain for a while longer


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## gambitgareth (Sep 18, 2011)

bad times mate - at least it healed  - thanks for the report - i'll be taking my new worlds seriously from now on


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## Poxicator (Nov 14, 2007)

The same happened to my wife
She hates anything that flicks now
The consolation is I get to keep lots of non-flickers, like POKIES!!!!


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## AilsaM (May 18, 2011)

Bloody hell that looks so painful :gasp:


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## ojo (Jun 8, 2011)

The title alone had me wincing like a little girl!


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## Stelios (Aug 28, 2009)

I always get hairs in my eyes, as I never learn my lesson.
I don't notice them on my skin especially hands and then I rub my eyes and bingo.
They only irritate me for a day though.


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## Bab1084 (Dec 9, 2011)

Ouch! Just goes to show how unpredictable T's can be.


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## Dr3d (Jul 31, 2010)

fresher said:


> Thought id show and tell you guys what happened when I got some urticating hair in my eye.
> 
> I am an experienced tarantula keeper, ive had about 5-6 years experience and kept many different species and I'm very cautious and aware when cleaning or handling my tarantulas.
> 
> ...


Great thread glad you shared this  



Poxicator said:


> The same happened to my wife
> She hates anything that flicks now
> The consolation is I get to keep lots of non-flickers, like POKIES!!!!


 
It was the first thing I thought of when I read this Pete, did it take your wife 3 months to recover also...


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