Illness/Sickness: Bleeding axolotl

[Ross TxT-TPO]

On Tuesday night we noticed our axolotl scratching at his gill or just behind his gill with his rear leg (like a dog would). Moments later, he was sitting in a pool of blood. We quickly got him out of his tank into a (treated) bucket of water. We left him in there while we cleaned out his tank then put him into another (treated) bucket of water to clean him off as the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

He has been in his tank since and there has been no further bleeding. He does seem to have lost his appetite though and he is a wee fatty - would eat all day if you fed him.

I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced this? What did he pick which caused the bleeding? Is loss of appetite normal following this sort of ordeal?

[Staci]

I believe in other animals, appetite may decrease when there's a loss of blood, but that's from working with cattle and I don't know for sure if it would be that or some other underlying problem.

Glad he stopped bleeding though! That would be a scary thing to witness. Hope he's healing well!