Injured firebelly?

Not really sure what happened to him, but we've had this Chinese fire belly for about four to five years now. As of the last year or so, he's been far more partial to his dry land than the water and often spends days up there, only going into the water to moisten himself up before returning to land.

So, yesterday I happened to glance over to him and he was lying up on land, belly-up. I thought he was dead, but when I went over there and looked closer, his throat was still going, so I gently turned him over and he eventually walked away.

The problem is that, when he walked and when he walks now, he seems to have some sort of injury in his hind legs and tail category. He'll either walk with his back foot touching his side or he'll curl his tail up completely into a circle and drag himself around. He tried turning around in the water today and he could only jerk his front half uselessly. He couldn't turn around. He had to walk forward more.

What's the problem with this guy? And how do I fix it?

Could it that an injury caused by a fall? What do you have in your tank?

Nothing really elevated. It's a purely gravel floor with a few artificial plants and stuff hanging around. He has a small rock on his dry land, which is what he was lying partially against when I found him belly-up, but it really isn't big enough to fall from.

maybe it attemped to climb the wall to escape and dropped? will that be possible?

Or will that be a disease? Maybe someone will have more experience to tell you about any possible disease that cause this.

The good thing is that he's still eating normally and everything. So, he probably isn't ill.

I never thought of the wall-climbing thing, but he never has been much of a climber. He can't seem to climb very well at all and never has.

If you could, please post pictures. Amphibians are very fragile and can be afflicted by many ailments, that are just to hard to diagnose without seeing. I strongly doubt its an injury from falling, to be injured they would probably fall from several feet high. Ian's right, its probably a disease. Alex.

Unfortunately, I can't post any pictures. But... well, I'm just extremely confused now.

Sometimes, he'll curl his tail up completely in a circle behind him and drag himself along. Other times, he'll completely uncurl his tail like normal and just walk with one hind foot stepping on his lower body. Other times even, he'll walk completely normally, like nothing's wrong at all.

My paddletail newt used to only use his front paws to walk along, dragging his back two. I asked a friend of mine experienced with newts what it was and she said he's probably just being lazy and would stop soon. Sure enough, he did stop a few days later and is still doing extremely well today. Maybe that's the problem with my firebelly? Or.. hopefully.

I had a problem with an Oregon newt a while back similar to this (although I never found him upside down). With the leg lifting and tail curling business: I finally noticed he had a pin-head sized dot of rot where his leg meets his body. I quickly treated with Melafix and it healed.

My point is, take a really good look and be sure there aren't any small wounds that could be causing this behavior.

I gave him a really close inspection in my hand and he didn't seem to have anything out of the ordinary on his body, though it may be because I have no idea what I was looking for.

What does rot look like? Even if I don't find any rot, would it hurt to try treating the leg area in question with Melafix anyway, just in case? And if so, how exactly do you use Melafix properly, and where can you get it?

If it helps any, his balance also seems to be very off. When I held him in my hand, he wanted to walk around, so I offered my other hand on equal level, adjacent to the hand he was already in. When he went into it, he flopped over on his back again, but was able to get himself back right this time. When I put him back in the tank, he also flopped over, but eventually righted himself.

Melafix is actually an herbal fish medication that claims to be suitable for "scale-less fish" as well. Although this doesn't really include amphibians, several people on this site also use it and some of us have had some luck with it. It's helpful if you catch rot in a VERY early stage. What I'm getting at is that Melafix is not applied to the wound, but instead to the water itsself.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know if I would use it when you aren't sure if you need it. It's made from Tea Tree Oil. Maybe someone else has some advice on this?

The rot would just look like any kind of break in the skin, and would probably be discolored (most likely a pinkish color). Mine was a circular hole, it looked like someone had stuck a large needle in him (they had not, I'm just saying that for size reference.)

Anyway, that's about the extent of my knowledge on your situation. If someone else recommends that you try the Melafix just for luck, I can recommend that you only use 1/2 to 3/4 of the recommended dose since it's really for fish and amphibians absorb things through their skin. That's what I did, and I used it for about a week, then did a 1/3 water change. I then left it alone for a week, and then treated again for one week (followed by another water change) and things worked out well. Like I mentioned before, I'm really not sure if you should do it without noticing rot or not. Good luck.