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Illness/Sickness: Help! Internal bleeding? Parasite?

WooperZet

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Around a week ago, my axie stopped eating. All he would do was stare at the food for a moment, then swim to the top and take a gulp of air no matter what I fed him - his treat, bloodworms, a weekly piece of shrimp, or his typical nightcrawlers.

Then, I had a family emergency and had to leave for three days. On my return, I found that an area above his cloaca had become very strange. I'll post an image, but it's sort of bad, so I'll just describe it. Above his cloaca is what appears to be a coil of brown, then a few various spots of brown around it.

After trying to feed him and noticing that he had a very creepy twitch (his right hind leg snapped back and his tail wrapped into a spiral all of a sudden), along with the fact that whenever he flicks his gills, his mouth sort of bulges outward (hard to describe), and finally that he's still not eating after 11 days of starvation, I've assumed that he's very sick.

Two things have come to mind: internal bleeding, or a parasite, which is what I think he has.

The new nightcrawlers have been bought from Kijiji, and there's always a chance that they carry parasites, right? I did always soak them for a bit, but I never know.

Also, I recently added new almond leaves, also bought from Kijiji. As I didn't soak these, and just from the fact that I'm pretty sure a lot of stuff lives on leaves, that's where I believe the hypothetical parasite (or not hypothetical) came from.

At the moment, I have him fridged, and after frantically searching for vets in my area (Alberta, Canada), I've found none that treat exotic animals, and some didn't even know what an axolotl was when I called.

Any ideas of what's going on and possibly anything I can do?
 

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SimoneB

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The only thing i can say you is keep searching a vet... i have never seen anything like that before but it seems really bad to me and after 11 days of no-eating timing is not at your side.
By the way i think that fridging him (and maybe doing some salt bath) is the best you can do at the moment. Let me know how is he doing :D

PS: remember to cover the container of your axolotl if transparent while in the fridge since axies are very sensitive to light
 

WooperZet

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I feel horrible for what I had to do - I euthanized him after the brown / red blotch spread. I put him back into his tank for a day, and tried to get him to eat, but he didn't, and just kept swimming up to the surface and refusing all food. I have no idea what it was, but I knew it was going to kill him, so I did what I thought was best. I used clove oil and dropped a few into his container, and after waiting half an hour, he was still flicking his gills. I left for half an hour to go online and do what I do everyday, just waste some time and wait for him to go to sleep so I could pour some ethyl alchohol in ... and I came back down and he was dead. It makes me feel so, so bad. I wanted to be with him when he died, that's one of the main reasons for euthanizing a pet, and I wasn't. I was on the computer...

Oh well. I guess this is unrelated to the thread. I'm going to regret this for a long time.
 

auntiejude

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Don't feel bad, you did the right thing. I've had to do it too, and while it's not easy or pleasant, it is necessary.
I think he was too sick to save, it looks like it might have been septicemia.
But if you learn from this, find a vet who can treat axies, get some Furan-2 on stand-by, then at least you will be prepared if another axie gets sick.
 

WooperZet

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Don't feel bad, you did the right thing. I've had to do it too, and while it's not easy or pleasant, it is necessary.
I think he was too sick to save, it looks like it might have been septicemia.
But if you learn from this, find a vet who can treat axies, get some Furan-2 on stand-by, then at least you will be prepared if another axie gets sick.

Thanks. I should definitely have had some ways to treat stuff like this, but I didn't. I'll look into it. I'm still having a problem with vets, but I'll keep calling.
 

holdonbaby

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I've euthanized my fish before. It is normal to feel sad but I wouldn't feel guilty. I think you did the right thing. I am sorry for your loss :(
 

Biev

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@WooperZet, where in Canada are you? I'm also trying to find a vet, so if we're in the same region, we might be able to help each other.
 
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