Swollen back legs

<font face="arial,helvetica"><font color="0000ff">now. my waltl's back legs are swollen (see 'waltl won't eat). what is 'red leg'?</font></font>

That doesn't sound great. Do you have a photo? If the limbs are swelling too it may be bloat. Have you read: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/bloatEDK.shtml

<font face="arial,helvetica"></font><font color="000000">her condition has worsened: red wound at top of leg with what looks like some white fungus. she looks a bit less swollen around the belly, though. we have given her a salt bath and moved her to a 'hospital' tank with low water level so it will be easier for her to breathe the way she wants to, with her head out of the water while standing on the ground. we are wondering if it's because of overfeeding or her not being able to handle the food volumes after starving in the pet shop (she was pretty thin when we got her). we have been giving her seven to nine large bloodworms twice a week - is that too much? we couldn't find clear feeding quantity instructions anywhere. previously, she would eat as much as she was given. we checked the ammonia levels yesterday and they're zero. the water temp is 20 degrees celsius. here is a photo of her now:</font>}

<font color="000000"><font face="arial,helvetica"></font>she died..... we are very sad. we still do not understand why this happened. we want to get another one but don't know how to avoid repeating whatever mistakes we made. also unsure whether we can put another one in the same tank or whether it needs to be sterilised. but then it would be uncycled. is the tank likely to be infected? how much should newts be fed exactly? can anyone give any advice?</font>}

I don't know how long you had her, but she was probably sick when she came to you. I had an experience recently where a newt I had for 8 weeks got sick, it's tank mate is fine. Luckily I have vets available to me. The first vet told me to take everything out of the tank, substrate, driftwood, plants and chuck them. This didn't make much sense to me since the other one still seems to be fine. The second vet told me no worries because with that particular illness she had to have had it when I got her.

If you have no one else in the tank, I would boil the gravel and decorations just in case. If you have other critters in there that are fine I'd say it probably wasn't something contagious.

Normally, I feed my two t. grans a block of frozen bloodworms every other day. But since the one was sick and almost died, when she started eating again I have been feeding them two blocks a day. I don't have any experience though with the particular species you have.

I'm sorry for your loss.
Take care,
Mary.

(Message edited by mduros on November 27, 2006)

(Message edited by mduros on November 27, 2006)

thanks for the kind words, advice and sympathy. we had her about a month and think we overfed her. we now have a new one and are feeding much less. now the petshop says waltl need 2-3 bloodworms every other day but before they said to feed a lump about an inch wide between two waltl every couple of days.