Axie tilting to one side, white stuff floating in tank, not eating

So my 3 year old axie,"Big Ben" has not been eating for the last week...i give him a piece of food and he spits it out and then runs/hides to get away from me. Also i noticed his whole body seems to be leaning to the left... kinda tilting to one side.. just all the time when he is still, though he seems to be walking around fine so i don't think it is any injury.

Last but more importantly, is that there is this white cottony stuff floating around the tank (some of it looks almost mucus-y). Now this to me seems like it is the "fungus" everyone is talking about... but I cannot tell where it is coming from. My axi is white so i dont notice anything coming off his skin/gills. I thought it was coming out of his cloaca but just don't know.

Im scared of these salt baths everyone talks about, because lately hes really been scared and swimming around like crazy when i even go near him. I also have been putting ice packs in the water to keep it cold,but hes still not eating and i saw an even bigger (marble-sized) random clump of mucusy-cotton today in the tank.

If a salt bath is what i need to do, can someone give me just basic instructions on how to do it? i llive in the city and dont have a car and can't get really anything from a pet store anytime soon.

also, the fridge idea really scares me (i just dont see how he could survive after being in the fridge and it seems like thered be a lot of stress when he 'thaws" back out)

thanks for your help.. i'm a long time watcher of these forums but this is my first post
Jenny

What is your substrate? What are your water parameters? How long have you had the tank? What are you feeding? What are the temperatures?

you might think im the worst axie-owner ever.. but i dont know those water parameter numbers....
i just clean it, filter it, do water changes with the chemical you put in it to take out the bad stuff, etc... There is nothing in the tank but him, a tube, and some slabs of rock... no gravel or anything
(makes for a kinda boring tank but it's easy to clean and he doesnt choke on anything)

he has been perfectly healthy for 3 years like this so i just never started checkin that stuff cuz i thought id just get obsessive over the numbers... it did get warmer recently but i have been floating ice box thingies in it like i do every summer.

i mentioned he's leaning to the left.. it looks like he has some swelling on his right side in the abdominal region... and since he's not eating could he have some kind of blockage? still wondering what the white mucusy/globby things and like lil white particles are floating in the tank.

gills look normal and everything else looks normal. I also am putting in a new (better) filter in tonight so i will see if this helps anything... but i doubt it

thanks for your help....
jenny

The blobs are probably bolus. Was there any change in food? With floating ice boxes, could one have leaked? Are you sure to change them often enough to avoid roller-coaster temperature spikes? How often do you do water changes?

I think the water is pretty consistent with what i have been doin. Whenever i try to feed him (i bought these pellets from the indiana axolotl colony), i always remove what he doesn't eat so nothing remains in the tank. (i.e. after he spits them out)

He did have quite a huge pooping fest this evening (even though it has been almost a week since he last ate), so i was hoping maybe he was just constipated or something... but hes still leaning to the left (right legs off the ground, left ones on the ground) whenever hes just sitting still and has kinda the abdominal swelling on his right side. i can try to get pics up tomorrow if i can capture it well.

im gonna try to feed him tomorrow again and let him poop more tonight to see if that's what it was

well still no eating...
but also he is acting very scared and doing a lot of like screwdriver moves with his body (as though his head is the tip of a screwdriver and his body is spinning)....and acting kinda crazy (more than normal)

he still relaxes quite a bit, (usually still leaning on his left side)
today i saw him in the tank almost completely on his left side with his belly flat up against the front of the tank

and again.. no interest at all in food

here is a pic of him to the left...
though sometimes it is much more obvious...


http://image64.webshots.com/464/4/2...sfun&track_action=/Owner/ViewActions/FullSize

This sounds like what one of my axies had. Leaning to left side when walking/lying on left side/doing corkscrew,spinning around herself movements/not eating etc. I took her to a specialist vet, who suspected she had a bacterial infection in her nervous system. I had to inject her with antibiotics the vet gave me. However, her infection had gone really far when I took her to the vet, and she very nearly died, so I would suggest you take your axie to a vet as soon as possible. Good luck

do you remember what the antibiotics were?? and how long did you wait before you took yours in?

The antibiotic was called Amikacin. My axie got her symptoms quite slowly, and some days I thought she is getting better. But she was actually getting slightly worse all the time, and in the end mostly just lying on her left side. It took about 4 weeks for her to get to this stage. I so wish I had taken her to vet earlier. But yes, she survived, and is now a happy girl, apart from she still can't swim, but happily walks around. Please try to find a vet in your area who knows about axies, and is able to help your axie to get better soon. Good luck

i took my axie to a specialty vet this weekend.. she never really saw an axolotl before but gave me two types of antibiotics (one that i syringe orally for 2 weeks) and another that i put in a bath with him for 24 hours.... i hold up my axies head and my roommate dispenses the antibiotic.. its been only 2 days... still no eating... but ill let everyone know how it progresses..

i noticed also the floating on the left side seems to be accompanied by like an internal air bubble on the right side (it swells and gets smaller when hes not floating) so maybe hes got some kinda GI bug that will get cured from the antibiotics.

still just scares me that he hasnt eaten for 2 weeks

Two weeks is not long without food. A well-fed axolotl can go months without food on occasion. I had one occasion where one didn't eat for 2 months, and went back to eating just as though he never stopped.

How's Big Ben now? Has he recovered? Please let us know