Max died today <IMG SRC="http://www.caudata.org/forum/clipart/sad.gif" ALT=":-(" BORDER=0>

My little white axie died today, poor guy. He has been sick for a long time. He had a bad fungus infection (due to hot water) and stopped eating, but I treated him in the fridge and the fungus disappeared. A few days after the fungus was gone he started eating again. But 2 days ago he was starting to act strange. He was just floating around on the top of the tank and did not seem to be able to touch the ground. I lifted him up and put him in a special box with lower water lever. Then he puked up some food I gave him 4 days ago!
After he puked I let him back in the big tank and he did not float anymore, I thought the problem was solved. But this morning I found him floating on his back in the tank, dead... I'm so sad. He's throat is really swollen and his gills have shrunk. Why did he die? I am blaming myself here for not treating him right... I have another axie in the same tank and he is doing really fine, no problems with him. But the white one has always been more sensitive.

R.I.P. Max


(Message edited by hannabanana on April 20, 2005)

I'm sorry to hear about your axie Hanna. It's always hard when a pet dies. It was probably a secondary, internal infection, which are very hard to treat. But I could be wrong. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Sounds right to me. The secondary infection probably set in while his immune system was lowered because of the fungal infection and lack of food. The swollen throat may indicate heart failure.
In these cases there isn't a lot you could have done Hanna. It sounds like you tried everything you could. Sorry about your loss.

Was the mouth open when it died? one of mine died from some sort of heart failure sounds similar, she had a swollen jaw and her mouth was gaping open a bit when she died, she just froze standing on top of her log but she was dead. It is so sad when it happens.

No, his mouth was closed and I found him floating on his back. It was probably some secondary infection since the fungus was gone. But that's the way of life.

Sorry to hear of your axie's death. I lost my 2 year old female last week, which is how I have ended up here. I tried everything I could think of to save her then when that wasn't working I hit the net to look for ideas. I'm still not sure why she died but...hey, it led me to here so some good has come out of it.

The down side is that I am now left with 2 males and a 5 month old. So I'm back to looking for a female again.

(Message edited by fishaholic on April 21, 2005)