Sick newt please help

Sorry in advance for posting in two sections of this forum but I'm really hoping for some help...

Hi - I'm the long-distance momma to a Japanese Fire Belly Newt. He lives with my parents in MD (I live in NY). Hobbes is, from our estimates, about 25-26 yrs old. He hasn't eaten in weeks (we are talking a month or more here), has been shedding a lot and has gotten extremely skinny. The other day my mom noticed he was expelling/had eaten a small rock from the tank. She said he was bloated until expelling it but now is back to super skinny and is still not eating. Please give any incite or advice to help. I love the little guy and so does she and the last thing in the world I want is for him to be suffering. I've read that shedding is good and I know there's lots of advice for illness in general to fridge them, but I don't know what's ailing him and don't want to do the wrong thing. I'll be very grateful with any help - you can email me at jpmegen@gmail.com or respond here. We lost Hobbes' wife, Calvin (obviously didn't know one was female until they had one single baby in captivity when I was in elementary school) lost her to bloat maybe about 10 yrs ago and I was heartbroken over it and felt like the worst newt momma. Thanks for any help in advance, Megen

It sounds like he is getting impacted from eating the gravel in his tank. Newts should never be kept on gravel that's small enough to swallow because they will often eat it by accident, especially if they are being fed non-living food like pellets that they have to find using their sense of smell.
That's my best guess without seeing him, If you could post some pics of him and his tank I might be able to be more helpful.

Thank you for your response! Very appreciated and nice to hear someone cares. I will try to find some pics to post, it's hard because I live 4 hrs away. A little back story; I got Calvin & Hobbes when I was in 4th grade, after a teacher got me interested in chameleons and amphibians. I believe they were probably at least 2 yrs-old when we got them, so that would make Hobbes about 25-26 yrs-old. When we got them there was no Internet, we did the best and took care of them the best we could according to how my teacher (an amatuer herself) and the pet store and some books said. No one ever said rocks were bad to have in the tank - so Hobbes has had them his whole life - and I never noticed either of them to eat at the rocks. Not being defensive or disagreeing - just saying that this incident was extremely unusual being that we never noticed it to happen in the 23 yrs I've had him. We also have always "hand fed" the newts (newt now, as mentioned, Calvin passed away). When we fed them live food it would be with tweezers and any freeze dried or pellets I'd feed with my fingers. So we never have just left food in the tank for them to find. Again, maybe this was the wrong thing to do, but we never knew to do anything differently, and obviously Hobbes has thrived for years! They also had one baby in captivity (never saw any other eggs or any other babies ever) and again - with no internet - my mom ended up calling the herpetologist at the National Zoo and he was a great resource to help us care for this little tadpole. Klein survived for about a year and then unfortunately got sick and didn't make it. When he was transitioning between gills and lungs, my mom and I stayed up all night turning him back upright everytime he flipped over and couldn't breathe. I say all of this just to say how much we love these babies and again, have taken the best care of them we knew how. I just don't want anyone criticizing how we've cared for them because it would break my heart to know that there's something we did "wrong" that has caused him to be suffering. My heart is already broken just not knowing if he is suffering and/or if he will ever recover. So please keep that in mind with any posts!

My mom has kept diligent notes about his progress - he stopped eating regularly at the end of December - he has since eaten sporadically, 6 times to be exact, the last was in April. But no matter how we try, he just won't eat usually. He also sheds about once every 10 days and from what we can tell, eats some of the skin. He has been going to the bathroom. He was a little bloated right before he expelled the rock - but has now gone back down to EXTREMELY skinny for him. Just don't know what to do.

Like I said, I'll get some pics and post later.

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for any kind words of support or advice.
Megen

If you think its possible he could have eaten another rock the best thing to do would be to let a vet have a look. Its very common for aquatic salamanders to swallow gravel, sometimes at feeding time, but sometimes for no obvious reason. If the rock is very small they often pass through without any issues, but larger ones don't. I've heard of newts as well as axolotls having quite large amounts of gravel in their digestive system without their owners realising there was a problem until they finally stop eating.
As I said before, pics would really help, if only to rule out anything else more obvious.

Welcome, sorry your pet is doing poorly. Although the gravel ingestion is a concern, if he's been declining for several months, I would suspect an underlying cause. Could it just be old-age decline? Maybe fading eyesight had him confusing gravel with food? Most care sheets I see give a lifespan of 10-20 years, with a couple mentions of some living even longer, so it would seem Hobbes is older than they usually get. Unless someone on here has a newer record (quite possible!), this article claims 30 is the oldest they've ever been kept in captivity. Newt healing factors unaffected by age and injury - Not Exactly Rocket Science : Not Exactly Rocket Science

Personally I would keep on with the care you've been taking of him for 23 years, maybe check out the feeding section for ideas of how to temp him to eat (do they like scallops, like axies? Hikari Carnivore pellets?) and brace for the possibility that nature is taking its course. It certainly couldn't hurt to consult a vet, but I would first find out on the phone what their level of expertise is, and make sure they know how old he is. And not to sound harsh, but having encountered several similar situations with ill, elderly pets, I suggest that you think about your budget and practical quality of life concerns BEFORE you go in and might be faced with emotional decisions.

I'm sure we'd all love to see pictures of little Hobbes.

Thank you both so much for your responses. You've made me feel a little better about things. I've been attempting to post pics here and had some difficulty figuring it out. Maybe it's bc I'm trying to use my phone... But I'll post some pics in stages.

These first 4 are from last April when he was still a healthy little dude. You can even see his webbed toes on his right foot - the way people who didn't know them like I did would always tell him and Calvin apart

Here are a couple of pics from January when things were just starting to go downhill...

And here are some from this week. Breaks my heart. I think I may have forgot to mention that his eyes are very hazy and blue...

Thanks again for your comments and support
Megen

I found this related discussion: Dendroboard - Firebelly newt- cloudy eyes
But I couldn't find the caudata thread referenced. According to this care sheet ( Caudata Culture Articles - Illness Part 1 ) cloudy eyes "Can be due to (1) injury (2) infection (3) diet (4) shedding problem (5) exposure to toxin." So perhaps as he ages his immune system has weakened, allowing infection? I found some references to using "ringer's solution" which is a type of salt solution, but apparently bacterial infections in newts are touchy to treat, so some prefer to just provide optimal water conditions and food and hope for the best. Cute little guy, I can see why it's so hard for you to see him so thin. :-(

Thanks Christine for your advice and kind words! So very appreciated. My mom sent me a couple pics today and a video - I THINK his eyes look a little better/less cloudy. But he's still so darn skinny.

I wish all the best with recovery and if it's time for him to go, hope it just happens easily. He's had a long life already, wow! He reminds a lot one of our females - I'm wondering if he is actually she??? But don't mind me, I'm quite new with the hobby so I really can be wrong! And anyway it doesn't make change with the care. Hope all goes as it's best for him!

Hi everyone... I just thought I'd update and let all of you who have been so kind to me, that my sweet baby Hobbes passed away sometime last night. I'm sad but I know he lived a long life and am grateful to know that if he was suffering he isn't anymore.

So sorry to hear that, like you say, at least he's not suffering any more.
I know it doesn't make it any easier, but given the symptoms I would chalk it up to extreme old age. These kinds of Asian newts are imported as mature adults, so its possible he was already quite old when you first got him all those years ago.