Illness/Sickness: URGENT: Lock-Jaw axolotl?

[Razzledazzle]

My axolotls Cthulu is not eating. She acts like she is very hungry, and even tries to snap at her food. She just won't open her mouth! Its like she has lockjaw. She also has been having this problem for about a half a week. About a week ago, i noticed that she was not as energetic grabbing and whipping her worms about. I was wondering if anyone has ever encountered a problem like this and maybe someone can tell me if i should force feed her or not. She has a tank mate and he has no problems currently. And water perameters are fine as well.

[Julia]

Apart from not seeming to be able to open her mouth, does any thing else seem different with her jaw? Is it possible she has anything stuck in her mouth?

[Razzledazzle]

It does not seem like it. Her mouth seems to be completely closed. Do u think it would be safe to try to pry open her mouth? I only put urgent in the message because overnight, shr took a turn for the worse and she seems very week and her colors look all pale

[Razzledazzle]

So I tried to force feed her yesterday night. This IS my first time force feeding an axolotl, so I don't know if I'm doing it quite right. But it is impossible to get a rubber spatula in her mouth! Is it usually so difficult to pry an axolotls mouth open? She is a GFP leucistic, so she has a real light color to her, but after (what at least seemed like) a few seconds of trying to pry it into her mouth, she would start to get all red and vainy that I freaked out and set her back in the water.

By the way, I had a friend try to help me too so I wasn't doing this two person proceedure alone. And I was just using the instructions from the "How to Force Feed an Adult Axolotl" thread.

[Razzledazzle]

Just an update, she died on Friday :'(

[maree8ree]

Sorry for your lose

[Sianita]

Aw that's such a shame. I'm so sorry for you xx

[Razzledazzle]

Thanks. I tried my best to try to make her better.