Illness/Sickness: Dealing with the shine

Hey, due to the recent newt bans taking place I decided now is the only time where I'll get a chance to breed my newt. I purchased two of the last newts from a pet store around here and was ready to take on any problems they had. I got my first male there who was healthy so I had high hopes. One of the females I got is very healthy and fat. She's shy, but the lack of worms in her quarantine tank tell me that she's eating. The other appears to be very thin and has an unnaturally shiny film on her skin. I'm not sure how skinny she is since the shine apparently exaggerates the spine and hips bones. I've put her in a separate terrestrial enclosure in hopes of drying her skin and eliminating the disease. I'm just concerned that with all the stress of moving and being ill that she won't eat any time soon. I don't want bloat from starvation killing her. What would be the best course of action here? Should I fridge her?

EDIT: Most importantly, should I worry about the disease spreading? I've only heard that this occurs when a newt cannot dry itself, but I'm worried that her original tank mate is at risk. She seems fine at the moment.

Mine got same shinny skin thing then soon bloated, died about a week later with weird bubble in mouth.


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Fortunately my other two are doing good


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Thanks for responding Elijepic, that tells me that it probably should spread. I'll post some pictures of her condition in a minute.

K... Best of luck, I heard it's called mouth rot and is kind of a 50/50 shot for life or death... Not sure if contagious but it died 1 week ago and other two show no symptoms.


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Is it Cynops oriental? That is what my newt that got it was


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For future reference, what is the fridge method? I'm kind of new to hobby.


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Yes she is, and fridging is where you put your newt in the fridge to slow down metabolism and everything else so their body focuses on fighting the disease. That's not the best way to explain it, but that's the jist of it.

Ok, I really love the look of these guys, if this ban ever ends I would be interested in buying any babies


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I really hope it doesn't last. I'm curious, do you know if it's legal to take salamanders out of states without shipping them?

UPDATE: I know this commonly isn't recommended, but I've resorted to force feeding. If this guy has any chance of survival she's not gonna' be able to recover without sustenance. I'm confident that I can continue doing this without injuring her, however, I'm more concerned that she will becomes stressed or regurgitate the food. If she makes any progress I'll report it here.

By the way, would anyone know if she would fair better in a cool place around 68 F? She's currently in the fridge which is around 42 F.

UPDATE: I've moved her to the basement where it's around 65 F degrees. She doesn't seem lethargic so I'm assuming this is a good sign. Her skin is slightly more wrinkled but has otherwise not changed.

The few times I have treated "the shine" in the past I kept the animals on moist paper towels with different hiding options (like a second crumpled damp paper towel as well as an overturned terra cotta pot) and kept them cool but not in the fridge - probably the low sixties Fahrenheit. While I have force fed newts in the past with good success, I did not force feed the 2 that had the shine. I offered very small worms, like white worms and black worms, as well as flightless fruit flies. If you do not already have some on hand I would strongly recommend getting some form of small live food (Dawn has great white worm cultures - see her sticky in the advertisement section). You still may have to resort to force feeding, but at least you can be offering a less stressful alternative.

My 2 that had the shine did recover and if memory serves I saw improvement in appetite and appearance in about 10-14 days.

I wish you the best of luck (because of the ban I, too, went to my local pet stores because I figured I could finally do some "rescuing" without encouraging the stores to purchase more. Luckily, of the 5 stores I called only 1 still had any newts - 2 H. orientalis and I bought them both. So far they are doing well in quarantine with no sign of the dreaded shine. *Fingers crossed and knocking on wood*)

HJ

Edit: Now that I look more closely at your photos it seems as though you already have small live food. With newly acquired poor eaters I have had good success with placing the food under a hide and then placing the newt under the same hide (like under the crumpled paper towel or terra cotta). Seems kind of obvious, but thought I would throw it out there just in case

Thanks so much for the response Heather! I'm imitating that care as best as I can. She's a bit fatter now, but otherwise there hasn't been much change. I wish you luck on your new newts as well! I'm glad they're healthy so far.

Nioa said:

Thanks so much for the response Heather! I'm imitating that care as best as I can. She's a bit fatter now, but otherwise there hasn't been much change. I wish you luck on your new newts as well! I'm glad they're healthy so far.

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More than welcome! Keep us updated on her progress. The more out there on what people have done to successfully treat this (I don't think it is a disease itself, but rather a symptom) the better. However, now that there will be no imports perhaps the shine will mostly be a thing of the past in our neck of the woods.

HJ

UPDATE: She's beginning to regain some texture! She still looks very thin so I fed her a lot tonight (both a piece of earthworm and superworm meat). Force feeding has been working out well though, she usually accepts the food that I give her. I'm hoping I can switch her to an aquatic setup soon, I've been worrying about dehydrating her too much.

She/he's looking much better now! Great work!

UPDATE: I'm not sure how this illness I supposed to progress, but her ribs are now shockingly visible. She has gained weight and the texture on her skin is still visible, but her ribs concern me. However, she's becoming more feisty each time I feed her, so I hope she really is improving. I guess we'll see.

So, I haven't updated in a while mostly because nothing significant has really been happening until recently. My newt has entirely lost any hint of shiny skin and has returned to a normal matte texture. However, it's been very difficult to keep any weight on her. She's still very thin. I'm not sure if the disease is leaving her, or just progressing. I suppose I'll find out in the next week or two.