Injured fire belly?

I made a thread about this little guy about two months or so ago, but had no quality photos on hand to provide in help with diagnosis.

The symptoms are as follows. For about five months now, this Chinese firebelly has had his tail curled in and his back legs seem nearly useless to him when he walks around. About his lower back is a strange curve, as if his bone structure is out of whack. He's often off-balance, sometimes so badly that, when climbing small rocks or turning around, he falls onto his back and can't right himself again. I've had to turn him back over a lot.

He isn't incredibly active, but he never really has been, so that's probably not an issue. And neither is the fact that he's on land about 70% of the time, because he has almost always been that way as well. He hasn't been flipping over nearly as much as of the last month or so, but it did happen about two or three days ago.

He still eats very well and seems to enjoy trying to bite my finger when I'm playing with things in his tank sometimes. He moves slowly, but enough to get where he needs to go.

Below is the highest quality picture of him I have. It still sucks, but yeah.

Is his back really curved like that all the time, or is he just sitting in a curved position in this photo? How long did you have him before he developed this whole problem?

His back is always curved that way. We've had him for about five or six years now and he's only had this for the past four or five months.

If it makes a difference, he's been fed frozen bloodworms for almost the entirety of his life and has become spoiled to the point where he won't eat any of the shrimp or vitaworms I sometimes offer him.

(Message edited by q_d on December 15, 2006)

I have the exact same problem with my paddle tail

Perhaps it's a calcium deficiency issue?

Well, how do/can I fix that? It doesn't seem to be painful for him. He just has a great difficulty walking and tends to look like he's dragging his back half most of the time. The tail is curled about 90% of the time into a circle and this condition really offsets his balance, causing him to fall over like I mentioned a good deal.

It might not be a major thing, as he's been living for quite some time with it already and his eating habits have never been hindered. I just don't like to see my little buddy in any sort of discomfort.

you can try to add calcium and vitamins to the worms

Where can you get anything like that? Just at a normal pet store? And what would you ask for, if so?

Does it hurt to try those sorts of things when you're not sure if what they help is what's wrong? I don't want to end up trying to help him with these vitamins, only to end up hurting him like some medications have done to other newts of mine.

He's still eating just as well as he always has. What I'm wondering now though is if keeping him on a constant diet of frozen bloodworms might've contributed to whatever is wrong with his back half now. We've tried giving him pet store-bought mini-shrimps or Vitaworms, but he won't eat them. If he does, he eats one, then doesn't eat anymore. I've been thinking about introducing him and my paddletail to beef heart, but I have no idea how to prepare it safely for their consumption, feed it properly, how small it should be, and so forth.

He has only been fed frozen bloodworms?

i don't know vitaworms or minishrimps but are these alive? Try to give him a variety of life foods as tubifex/blackworms, daphnia, artemia etc.

If you buy Hikari brand frozen bloodworms, they are pre-fortified with vitamins. They sell this brand at Petsmart, Petco, and other places. You can also buy calcium powder that is made for reptiles. You could apply it to bloodworms if you are feeding the newt by hand - only a tiny bit is needed.

The other food I would recommend is chopped worms/nightcrawlers. They are naturally high in calcium, and newts love them.

I really don't think there is anything you can do for this newt, other than good basic diet and care. If the spinal kink is caused by calcium deficiency, it cannot really be reversed.

One other concern that occurs to me is that this newt might drown if it falls into the water. Is it able to swim?

Hikari frozen bloodworms have been all we've been feeding him and my paddletail for quite some time now. I might look into the calcium powder if it'll help him, though.

The availability of worms and nightcrawlers in my area is sub-par, though. We don't have any bait shops and the pet stores won't sell them. I've been thinking of buying a few more feeder guppies for my paddletail though, as he seemed to love hunting them down in the past, but I'm concerned about illness with the guppies that he might pick up.

And, our water for the firebelly in question is rather shallow. If he wants to, he can go deep enough to cover his back, but he never seems to be interested in going in unless there's food there. He seems to like his land territory a lot more.

An update. My newt is still primarily terrestrial, although he seems to foray into the water more often now, even when there's no food there, and still eats like a pig. His movements are laboured at best, but he gets around.

I'm still wondering if feeding him nothing but frozen Hikari bloodworms for years has been a detriment to his diet and caused this spinal kink in the picture. I'd really like to be able to get rid of it, but I'm afraid of trying medication for luck, as I've had bad experiences from it with previous newts. The same goes for the aforementioned calcium powder.

It also seems as if he's spoiled, because I have shrimp and Vitaworms that I've tried to feed him and, if at all, he only takes one, sometimes spitting it out. Otherwise, he'll look at it and then completely ignore it. Bloodworms, he just can't get enough of, though.

Any ideas at all, again? Sorry to keep bumping the topic, but it'd be nice if he could be 'normal' again around the Christmas season.

Bumping again with a few better quality pics.

Could you find an exotics vet? At least that way you'd know exactly what you're dealing with. I am still struggling with the food issue and my t. grans. I feed hikari frozen bloodworms, frozen mosquito larvae, and live blackworms. I have tried some dried newt food just to get a little more vitamins and nutrients in there, but they won't touch them. But from what I've read, the diet should be fine for them.
Take care,
Mary.

We once tried a vet who said she was also vaguely learned in amphibians and reptiles for another newt we had that later died. She gave us some medication to use for the newt and it didn't work and ended up costing hundreds, although I don't regret the effort because of its cost. There simply aren't any suitable exotics vets in the area.