All of my newts are sick

I need any help you can give.

We bought 3 chinese firebelly newts last week. We were given loads of bad information about their care from the pet store. As each newt has sickened the petstore has not been helpful when I went back for advice or help.

I have tried to read all I can on the internet and undo as much damage as I can as quickly as possible, but I don't know if it's too late.

One newt seemed afraid of water from the start. He didn't eat or explore. He seems very stressed, and is painfully thin. After several days like that, I isolated him in a small amount of water in a critter carrier, hoping he might calm down.

A second newt also would not eat all week. We had been trying frozen brine shrimp (pet store insisted they ate it, but they would not touch it). Desperate, we read they would eat earthworms, caught them and the second and third newt ate voraciously. But the next day, this second newt was bloated in the abdomen and seemed paralyzed. I have isolated him in a container with a bit of water, but he has hardly moved in 2 days.

The third newt is losing the tip of his tail, and a spot on his face to a white fuzz! He is the only newt remaining in the original tank. A ten gallon with 6 inches of water, plants, and rocks and "lily pads". I have read that a bit of hydrogen peroxide on a q tip can help this, and have given him one treatment like this tonight.

I have removed all other fish from the tank too. We were given bad advice from the store in that area too. They were picking on the newts.

I have been trying to cool the tank as well. The store insisted they liked a heated aquarium--even after I went back for help and mentioned that everything I was finding on the internet said this was not true, they insisted it was.

I have frozen bloodworms right now as food. Newt #1 still won't eat that. Newt #2 is too sick to move, and newt #3 is the one with the white fuzz and I don't know if he will eat or not (he did eat an earthworm, but didn't get sick).

Is there any hope for these poor newts? I can't describe how badly I feel. It is just going from bad to worse and I don't know how to help them, and apparently no one at the store does either.

I really sympathize with your plight JJ but there are others here who can dispense much better advice than I can. In the meantime, have you already read these treatment articles?:

http://www.caudata.org/caudatecentral/articles/articles.html
http://www.livingunderworld.org/amphibianArticles/article0001.htm

Be very careful with the hydrogen peroxide though as it's really caustic stuff when used on an amphibian. I'd say wet the Q-tip first or further dilute the peroxide slightly, use it only a very small area and wash it off after a few seconds. Sometimes the remaining fungus can then be peeled away with tweezers. Then again, I'm no expert. A salt dip or dirt quarantine might be the best course of action to pursue. Let's see what others have to say.

Also, why not print out the following Cynops orientalis caresheets and send them to that's pet store top manager or to its parent company? What idiots...

http://www.caudata.org/caudatecentral/caresheets/C_orientalis.html
http://www.livingunderworld.org/caudata/database/salamandridae/cynops/

Thank you Tim. I have read your links, as well as other articles on this site.

We lost the newt that had a bloated abdomen. I made him as comfortable as I could in his own container, so he wouldn't be picked on. It was very sad.

The newt that would not eat still hasn't eaten. However I read about a bacterial infection at caudata that describes him perfectly. It says the newt will be over active, even frantic, refuse to eat, and climb. That is him. It says this behaviour precedes the appearance of lesions from the infection. He has started to shed skin.

The third newt did not like the hydrogen peroxide treatment. He has been subdued since.

I set up a dirt quarratine since both appear to have topical infections. I followed the directions at caudata or doing this. I did put them in together since they are both sick, maybe with the same bacteria manifested in different ways?

Before putting them in the dirt quarantine I did a single brief soak in water with a drop of a fin rot medication we had for our fish. I read about this at caudata. I rinsed them with fresh water afterwards, and put them in the dirt quarantine.

How long should I leave them in there? I am spraying the dirt several times a day with a mister to keep it damp. Is it okay to spray the newts?

I may have to force feed the one newt who has not eaten since we got him. I will try to follow the directions in the other thread about morphs starving to death.

The pet store where we got them has been unhelpful. I think a lot of these infections may have been avoided if we had not been told to keep their tank heated. Even after I learned not to do this, and told the store, they said I should!

Hi JJ, sounds like you're doing your level best. I've never heard of force-feeding newts though. Might want to ask around about the feasibility of this before attempting it. I lost a couple of newts myself in the last week and have one newt still "in hospital" so I know how you feel. Hopefully somebody here can answer your questions. And perhaps you can find a vet who knows a thing or two about amphibians. I use a medicinal preparation sold here in Japan, a yellow powder used for topical infections in tropical fish. It works pretty well with newts but I don't know what the active ingredients are at the moment. I apply it with a wet Q-tip. Good luck!

Be VERY careful not to brake the jaw. I f the newt has not eaten for a long time it may be suffering from metabolic bone disease aswell (when there is lack of calcium and thebones soften). This happened to a paramesotriton chinensis I had once. Even though I used a card like the one described on the otherpost, the jaw broke which didn't exactly help matters. The newt died after about a week after jaw break. Also, if you go to a vet, make sure he is skilled with AMPHIBIANS, and NOT REPTILES. Although they may tink they are the same, there are a lot of differences between thier care (for one thing, chemicals are more potent as they can be absorbed through the skin) and the advice could end up harming the newt.
Just keep trying and don't gfive up because one died. I wish you the very best of luck.
Chris

I lost another newt, the one with the white patch on this chin and tail.

The remaining newt is the one that refuses to eat. He is very active. Still in the dirt quarrantine. He is getting SO thin. I have tried holding him and putting food on his mouth, dangling it in front of him and he seems to stop and look. Then he turns away. I am using frozen bloodworms.

I don't know what else to do. It's very sad, they keep dying and nothing seems to help

Hi JJ. The lack of responses to your plight seems partly indicative of the fact that many others here are also at a loss what to do in such cases. Aside from what you're trying already, hmmm...cooling the newt in the fridge is purported to help in some cases. Euthanasia is an option you might wanna look at if the newt starts to waste away. Hopefully, there'll be more knowledge available in the years to come on treating amphibian illnesses! Maybe the one that's still active would eat LIVE food. Anyway, good luck with it and don't be too discouraged.

I've just had some success with an ill firebelly with a damaged leg. I managed to prevent the area of infection from spreading beyond the elbow to where the leg meets the body, and the "dead" portion naturally fell off at the elbow yesterday without my having to resort to amputation. Now I'm treating the stub. Judging from past experience, survival prospects are good in this case!

Thank you Tim, I appreciate all the info I have been given here in helping these newts.

Unfortunately the third newt died a bizarre and quick death. I was hoping he may he may eat in water, and set up a small quarrantine tank next to his dirt quarrantine bowl. An inch of water and rock and some bloodworms, hoping this might tempt him after a few days out of water in the dirt.

Anyway, he jerked violently when he touched the water, seemed to lack any control, and was rolling around on his back. His back legs drew up against him, and he stopped moving them. I put him out on the rock, and he died a few minutes later. Being in the water made it easy to see the progress of the infection, which has claimed a foot, nearly severed his tail, and his lower jaw looked misshapen.

After being dead only a few hours he looks like a skeleton of a newt...that is how thin he had become.

I am very upset with the petstore. Clearly, this newt was ill before I purchased him. I can't imagine such a rapid decline in a healthy newt. I assume the other newt who had the white skin patches was also suffering from some sort of infection.

I do feel responsible for the first newt that died, from the earthworm. It did seem the worm was what made him sick.

I'm not sure this store will care, but I plan to call and let them know the newts died and that I feel two of them were already sick upon purchase.

Very sad. We have taken the tank apart and put all objects out in the sun to dry for a few days, and kill any bacteria.

JJ

It makes me sick that petshops and importers can act like this. I think that conditions would improve if the prices increased...
At least you now know how wrong petshop information is.
It's so sad that the animals themselves end up like this, and the shop then tells you it was your fault!
I'll bet you that if you take them back, the shop will try and sell you mor 'replacements'.
Chris