Illness/Sickness: Fire belly newt

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My 23 years old fire belly newt have something growing on his toe iv tried google it and i dont know if its some kind of fungus or limb rot. This is what it looks like: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet He is avoiding to use the right foot so i guess he is in pain. I kinda want to try and remove it but maybe that would just hurt him even more? iv read something about salt baths but it feels like that will just stress him out even more. I have asked in some local pet stores but they did not have much experience with newts. Anyone seen this before and know what to do?
 
I have no experience in these kinds of things but still ask a few more questions and hope someone here help you...how long has it been on the toe? It isn't skin that just hasn't come off with shedding? How long has it been avoiding to use the foot? Are there any exotic/newt specialised vets on your area (I quess most pet stores know almost nothing about newts :( ) you could ask help?
I hope you get help with the situation soon!
PS. Keep the tank in extra good condition now to avoid stress from bad quality water...
 
First of all welcome to the site and congrats on caring for your newt all these years. :)
It looks like a fungal infection to me. I would try a salt bath before anything else. I know this thread relates to Axolotls, but you can follow it for newts as well.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...axolotl/72698-salt-bath-picture-tutorial.html

I would also check his water conditions haven't deteriorated in any way and rule it out as a possible cause of the fungus. If you have any questions at all don't be afraid to ask.
 
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Hey Auli, it has been like this for two days and he has avoided to use the right foot since he got it. Im pretty sure its not skin from shedding. I havent looked around for any vets yet. trying my luck here first :) The tank is not in a great condition right now, i read somewhere that it could be stress related so i dont know if i should clean it right now, maybe i should i dont know.
 
You'll want the best water parameters, so it would be a good idea to test your levels and do a water change (at least) if needed.
 
I will clean the tank and try a salt bath but it feels really weird to put him in the fridge like the tutorial u sent showed. Could I go to the food store and buy some salt without iodine and mix that with water (2 tea spoons of salt to 1 liter of water) and place the newt in the bath for 10-15min and then put him back to the tank. could this work or do i have to do the whole fridge thing?
 
Sorry, no, I meant to say you don't have to bother with the fridge for newts, I'm sure you can, but I never did when I used salt baths to treat a skin complaints.
The table salt you mention sounds fine, I use sea salt that I get from the supermarket. It normally kills the fungus quite quickly, although she might lose the infected toe. It will probably regrow but I'm not 100% certain with such an old newt.
 
Hey, I just did the first salt bath. I used 0.5liter of water and 1 tea spoon of salt, i think it worked good the newt didnt get to stressed about it. How often and for how long should i do this? What if it dont get any better, will the toe just fall off or can it spread to the other toes?
Thanks for the help.
 
From the Caudata Culture page on treatments using salt baths:

Skin Mycosis
Skin fungal infections can occur in contaminated wounds, but are usually occur as a result of very poor husbandry conditions and in very stressed, immune suppressed animals. The skin has tufts of grey or white filaments. Recommended salt concentrations vary widely. I have only had one animal with skin fungus, a mutant axolotl that also had other problems. In addition to treatment, the habitat should be disinfected and remade. A quarantine habitat should be used until treatment is complete. This type of treatment is easiest to use for aquatic animals. Concentrations of salt up to 25 grams/liter have been used for brief treatments. Use the lowest effective salt concentration. Getting a terrestrial salamander to submerge in a salt solution voluntarily can be a big problem.

In a clean bowl mix a hypertonic saline solution. The key feature is a final amount of 6 gm/Liter NaCl (sodium chloride)
Place animal in the hypertonic saline for not more than 30 minutes.
Wearing examination gloves, gently remove fungus
Place in clean normal artifical pond water.
This can be repeated on several successive days, or every other day, for tenacious infections.
 
hey again, the salt baths didnt help against the fungus so his toe just fell off. should i keep doing salt baths so it dont get infected again or just let him be and heal up ?
 
It wont hurt to keep it up until the toe is starting to heal and the wound is closed. The toe falling off is probably the best outcome of the treatment, it means there is only a small area to heal rather than a damaged toe that could be prone to infections or reinfection with fungus.
 
23! Wow that's great you have had your newt so long ?
 
hey, i forgot to follow up on my old post but the salt bath treatment did work on the fungual infection if someone is having the same problem with their newt. he lost his toe but it started to grow out again. thanks for the help
 
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