How to treat Columnaris, and other infections

Hi all,

I have a sick axolotl, he seemed to get a wound on his leg then had all this white fungus stuff growing on him, he became lethargic on stopped eating. He ended up loosing the leg, and sometimes he'd even roll onto his back, I was seriously worried he wouldn't make it.

I read up on the condition here Axolotls - Health & Diseases and using a combination between what I read there, what I've used successfully for my frogs before, and what I learnt in microbiology (I have a BSc with honours) I came up with a bit of a treat regime. It's been going for 5 days now and he's much more energetic, seems to be in less pain, looks much better (all the white fungus stuff gone) and he's just started eating again.

First line of treatment was fridging, and making up a mild antiseptic solution for him. I transferred him into a small-medium bucket, filled it with about 3L of tank water (which already has 2g/L rock salt in it), and added another approx 5g of salt (about 2 small teaspoons or one and half large teaspoons) and 1mL betadine, and kept the bucket either outside when the weather was cold enough (it's winter here in Adelaide) or in the fridge which I set to about 10 degrees. The water needed to be changed daily as he seemed to poop a fair bit - or maybe it was the dead bacteria falling of his skin, probably both. To avoid a temperature shock, I would cool the replacement water with icepacks to the same temperature before putting the axolotl back in there - I changed and chilled the water while he was in his medicated bath (described below).

I made up a treatment solution for once or twice daily baths. All the water I used came from the axolotl's tank, which already has 2g/L rock salt in it. I made up the treatment solution in a 2L bottle and added 30g of rock salt and 7mL of Betadine. First couple of treatments were 10 mins once a day, and after I found he was tolerating them well I bumped the baths up to 15 mins twice a day. I bathed him in a lunch box with about 1.5L of the solution, and after the bath I slowly poured the solution back into the 2L bottle, being careful to leave behind any sediment and just threw away the remaining approx 50mL of liquid (the sediment was mucky, dead bacteria and skin cells). The treatment solution has to be kept at the same temperature as the water the axolotl is in to avoid a temperature shock, so keep the bottle in the same place as the axolotl's bucket/container (in the fridge)... It can also be good to gently rub any of the white fungus stuff off the axolotl's skin if it's really caked on there, it comes off quite easily after only a day of treatment.

So, in summary, keep the axolotl around 6-12 degrees in a solution thats about 0.3 mL/L betadine and about 5g/L salt.
Give him baths once or twice a day, for 10 to 15 minutes, in a solution that's about 3.5mL/L betadine and about 18g/L salt.
Replace his water daily, and when you pour the medicated bathing solution back into the bottle do so slowly so you don't pour any sediment (dead bacteria) back into the bottle and throw away the last little bit which will be full of sediment.

My axolotl was really sick when I started the treatment, so if he survived it I think it's a strong indicator that the treatment isn't too toxic.

I hope this helps someone - it's no fun having a sick pet!