Treatment for ??bites

[neil]

I have two male fire salamanders, who to the best of my knowledge, have always got on OK. However I found one today with a clean 5mm lesion just behind one of the rear legs. My first fear was a mite infestation, but a check on both animals did not reveal any. I'm now presuming the sals have had a bit of a fall out and the result is as I've described.
Previous posting on similar lines suggest fire sals don't have the dental armoury to inflict such wounds on each other, but unless it's a cricket attack it's the only possibility I can think of.
As for treatment, any suggestions as to the way forward would be appreciated. As stated initially the wound is clean showing no signs of infection.

[nate]

Hi Neil, I think they have the teeth for a shallow lesion like you describe, just not taking a chunk out of a torso, crunching clean through the pelvic girdle, etc.

[sarah]

I had several orientalis from a pet store whom were fed solely crickets before their purchase and I found I had to house them with tank separators because they would unintentionally bite the limbs of each other in efforts to get a cricket that was rested on a leg or tail. The fortunate thing is that in a month or two after healing a new hand/leg will appear. Even though the wound looks clean, make a special effort to keep the water cool during this time of year as warmer water (as I unfortunately found out w/my HKW), even when clean, makes newts and sallies susceptible to infection. Also, try to use spring water as it offers fewer minerals and nutrients for such infections to feed on. Good luck! Check out some stuff on www.caudatecentral.com as they have some good tips on how to keep wounds clean.

[Jennewt]

Unfortunately, www.caudatecentral.com does not exist. With an operating budget of approximately zero, Caudate Central does not own a domain name. It's www.caudata.org/caudatecentral. Yes, there are some suggestions there in the Articles section for treating wounds.

[sarah]

Jenn, sorry...didn't have the exact link but glad you knew what I meant...http://www.caudata.org/forum/clipart/happy.gif