Photo: Big Veiny Bubble Coming Out of Axolotl's Butt

So this morning my mom noticed that Marlon (my axolotl) had this huge bubble coming out of his butt. She showed me after dinner since I'm on a nocturnal sleeping schedule and I looked it up and I'm guessing that this is a prolapsed cloaca?


(sorry for the flash, didn't mean to have that on)


I will admit that I haven't been keeping up with feeding him as I should because of a busy spring semester of uni, but now that I'm on break I can give him more attention. I fed him almost every week until he wouldn't eat anymore, though there were some skipped weeks. I also noticed that he has been eating the plants, anubias nana, which he passed two weeks ago but may have eaten more which could have caused this prolapse.

I tested his water and everything seems alright:

no ammonia or nitrites
PH was at around 7.4-7.5
temps at 20 Celsius but I believe my cheap thermometer is lying because the other smaller tank is at 15 but I set up the fan above the tank
nitrate test was hard to tell if it was at 40 or 80 PPM so I changed the water and have water ready for another change tomorrow.

So now I'm just sitting here, wondering what to do. He didn't want to eat today, I did what I could and just covered his tank up so he could rest in the dark. I read that I should probably take him to a vet right away, but I live in Japan and don't know any vets who specialize in amphibians near me. We would probably have to take a 3 hour drive up to Tokyo.



Another thing: I'm actually unsure about my axolotl's sex. His cloaca is like... in between swollen like a male and not like a female so we just don't know. Though if Marlon is actually female then I do understand that she is very thin.

(Images attached below in case the others don't work)

I'm sorry to say, it does look like a prolapse and will need veterinary attention, the sooner the better.

Update:
It seems like the bubble got sucked back in, it's kinda loosely hanging out now but shrinking more and more. Marlon looked like he was having a coughing fit at one point so I changed the water for the third time since I made this thread. Sadly I can't take him to the vet since the long ride would put so much stress on him that I'm worried about that making it worse.

My question now is: Should I feed him? I tried feeding him when this first started but he wouldn't eat. Maybe he knows what's best for him?

What were you feeding him? I used to get that problem with my alpine newts from feeding bloodworms. I think they were too rough on their little cloacas.

Otterwoman said:

What were you feeding him? I used to get that problem with my alpine newts from feeding bloodworms. I think they were too rough on their little cloacas.

Click to expand...

I feed him pellets specifically for axolotls, the Hikari brand. I’ve never given him bloodworms. But like I said before, I was being a bit neglectful and he started eating the plants. I think he even nipped at one of his marimo balls. I think I’ll try feeding him one or two pellets so he doesnt snack on the plants again.

What was the outcome of this? Mine had the same thing right now