My baby's very sick and i am confused after reading too many threads....hELP ~

i just got my axi few weeks ago...and he stopped eating last friday (he used to love meal worms so much). i found his "buttchick" was swelled, there were two green pea sized lump above both back legs. he also seemed to have trouble doing poo...and there was white fluffy stuff hanging outside of his anus. i read the article abt "bloating" and there's 80% my axi got that trouble...but i am not quite sure. anyways....today is his 3rd day in the fridge..he'd had 2 salt bath...he really disliked it..and it was so painful for me to watch him suffering in the salty water.i dont even know if am doing the right thing.....please give me some advise to save my baby~

i am really worried abut him...cuz he hasnt been eating for nearly a week and he's not interested in any food at the moment.how long do i have to keep him in the fridge? how do i feed him from fridge? are there anything else i shoud do? thanks~

Betty

From what I have read they can stay in there for a couple of weeks....I am a newby to this too (i have had mine for 5 months) and it can be very daunting!
Try an earthworm? Dig them from your garden and wash in dechlorinated water. You should be able to plop them in with him.
What temp is it in the fridge? I found my baby would eat at about 8 degrees, and some peoples eat at even lower temps. I found the salt baths too distressing to my baby when he was really sick (and me!), and leaving him in the fridge for a couple of weeks with daily water changes seemed to help quite a bit...most of the white fluffy bits came off in the water.
The fridge is the best thing. Apparently it lowers their metabolic rate and helps them to heal. Therefore I guess they naturally won't eat very much in there....
Mine wouldn't eat at all, so I tried some earthworms and he loved them! Live food might just temp him, and people have advised me to feed him soft food.
Is he skinny? Can you post pics at all?
Good luck and keep us posted! I will pass on any help I have recieved/read, and keep browsing on this site, as every post (almost) has something helpful in it (I know it can be confusing, but just that fact that you are here is the best)! Keep asking questions too because these guys have a wealth of knowledge to share.

Thank you so much ROW wat u said was very helpful. *big hugs*

my fridge temp is around 5-8. i tried to feed him an hour ago before the salt bath but he didint even look at it. he was very anxious when i took him out of the fridge...he nealy bumped his head on wall of the container.

i found his cloaca is still a bit swollen. his back still seems hunchy.... i will try to take a pic of his bottom tomo since he just had a salt bath and is in fridge now and i dont want to distrub him today.... *sign..

Try and avoid feeding him mealworms, as earthworms are a better food for him if you can source them. When he was eating mealworms did you chop of the head?

Leave the saltbaths for now if you think its stressing him. When you do the saltbaths is the water the same temperature as his fridge container, and did you use 2-3 teaspoons of salt per litre of dechlorinated water for 10=15minutes?

If taking a photo involves handling and turning upside down try to avoid stressing him by doing this.

when offering food, either offer just before you do the complete daily waterchange or other alternative, especially if you're giving live food is to leave it in the container for a few hours/overnight. If it isn't eaten within a few hours/next morning then remove it.

Also could the lumpy bits have been the gravel (it's normal if they live on gravel they will swallow and poo it out, at worst become blocked)

How recent is this photo? And not sure what you mean by hunched unless his back is arched?

Sometimes in cases of bloating, a bit of salt is added to the water, but short baths at high concentrations of salt aren't helpful for bloating. See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/salt.shtml

I agree with Kapo, the swelling you saw at his cloaca could have been caused by ingesting the gravel. The gravel I see in the photo is the worst possible size - small enough to be eaten, large enough to clog his intestines. Also, the hard shells on mealworms tend to pass through undigested, and that could further confound the situation.

ouch...if he's swelling cloaca was caused by the gravel...wat can i do? watch him die?

i used to have some goldfish in that tank and i was abut to get some sand for my new axi before he got sick...

he doesnt really have obvious bloating problems but a swelling cloaca... and he had problem doing poo poo. so now....wat can i do ~ help me~ i've been very stupid put him on gravel now do i still have a chance to save him? T.T

Remove the gravel. Just empty some of the tankwater into buckets so you can scoop the gravel out. Put the water back in - you don't want too big a waterchange in case your tank cycles. Also, if you can't get sand, and I don't mean beach sand, there is no need to have it. You can have bare substrate which is just as good and extremely easy when feeding worms as they have nowhere to burrow, or frozen bloodworm cube.

thanks Kapo...i checked him last nit again...still a swollen cloaca. i touched the area above his back leg and it felt like something very hard inside...i dont know if that's his bone or gravels... but anyways...he didint eat anything i gave him ....didnt look happy...show i put him back to the tank or keep in the fridge?

I would keep him in the fridge Betty, as it seems to help them poo. Mine always go in the fridge....more than in the tank!
If you are going to change the substrate leave him in until it has settled down as removing the gravel (or adding sand) can really dirty up the water. Apart from that I don't know what else to suggest. At least he looks nice and fat, so maybe a little stay in the fridge, even if he is not eating, won't hurt him too much....
Keep us posted, good luck, our thoughts are with you!

thanks ROW my axie's back into tank since my fridge was playing up and it was under 5oC...

i didint see any improvement afterall..he didint poo in the fridge but once he's in the tank he started doing fluffy white poo...i will post more pics here so u c wat am talking abut..his swollen cloaca is still a big big problem...

is this too late for my baby to survive...if that's the case, how can i provide palliative care...

he's off food for over a week now...and the problem didnt go away after a week in the fridge included salt bath...

i think he's dieing withouout a doubt...his neck is swollen and front limbs too....sign..am not a very good owner, am i

Betty don't beat yourself up, am really sorry to hear he hasn't improved. He may very well have had problems prior to you getting him. If your fridge hadn't been playing up it may have been better for him to remain in there.

Betty have you done a search for swollen butt on the site here? Sometimes you can glean useful bits of information from the many pages that come up.
Sorry he is no better, we are thinking of you guys.....I agree with Kapo, don't beat yourself up, all we can do is read as much as we can, and do the best that you can, and it sounds like you are doing that and more!
Good luck and keep us posted!

put in water Magnezium sulfuricum MgSO4 x 7xH20
0,1g/litr/and
antybiotic -bath- Gentamycin-10 mg/litr water-10 min. /24 h---5x

sorry to hear things arent going well, i would suggest not putting earth worms in the tank if they were wild because they can bring infections and dieseases to the tank, best thing is yes get the gravel out and do a complete water change and go see what your nearest aquarium center can suggest, there are lots of good fungus treatments that are for fish that might help kill off the diesease, most stuf suitable for fish is good for axies! have you gotten the water levels checked? how is the amonia and nitrites and ph? might be worth a check?

Do you think maybe a vet might be in order? I have heard of a few people taking theirs to vets, and surely in Sydney there should be someone who can help? it might be worth a few calls....

this is one occasoion that i dont know whether i should cry or smile....thanks guys for comforting me, that made me feel much better...but at da same time it's very sad to see him geting worse everyday and i cant afford to take him to the vet...

he's back into the fridge, and i keep regular water change everyday.he's throat got really swollen...i wonder how long he will have to suffer...i'd rather wake up and find him dead peacefully (just a evil thought...since i am quite sure that he's not gonna survive this)

yes ROW, i read more threads and information from the forums..one guy's axie got the same problem as mine,swollen cloaca, some ppl suggested that's some sort of cloaca inflammation, pretty nasty disease, takes a long time to kill the animal.sadly, that guy's axie eventually died of it.

i've reestablished my tank, no substrate, few plastic plants.the water has been cycling for 3 days now... i will get the water tested in the next few days,hope it turns out to be okay.

thanks guys~ will keep us posted...

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting Betty Wales on Sunday 18 March 2007 - 23:48 (#POST125050):</font>

i wonder how long he will have to suffer...i'd rather wake up and find him dead peacefully (just a evil thought...since i am quite sure that he's not gonna survive this) <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
have you considered euthanasia?