bloat or eggs?

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tara

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I took my female axie to the vet yesterday, as she has become fat (round in the middle area) i was thinking bloat or gravel impaction. (can't upload a pic) She has been this way for about 10days, the vet said she has no gravel in her and i don't think she is bloated, i think she has eggs. She is in a tank with 2 juvies, sand, live plants, cannister filter, I had feed them all , the water is great everything is 0. She was on gravel months ago. She is eating well, swims, is responsive when i am near the tank.Could some one PLEASE!! show me a pic of an axie that has bloat and an axie that has eggs,so i can see the difference. I don't understand the whole egg thing at all ?? Sorry for all the questions. but if i don't ask i won't learn!. she is the tankmate of Charlie who has a bacterial infection and is being treated by the vet. He has not been in the tank for a long time. She has black nails and we have had her for about 5 months. Thankyou! sorry this is so long, wanted to give as much information as i could.
 
Thank you

Thankyou so much Ed, our axie looks like the first set of pics!. I do appreciate the quick reply. Do i need to do anything for her? what does she need to do??? Thankyou again.
 
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pics.....bloat or eggs ?

Can someone please let me know if our axie has bloat or eggs, if you look at her reflection on some pics you can see the swelling better. Thankyou.
 

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She looks very much like my juvenile, which I suspect is female, though I don't think she is mature yet .. probably 8-10 months. I think the pads of her fingers may be just starting to darken, I suspect its just a nicely rounded axolotl !
 
getting bigger ?

Snowhite is now twice the size she was a few weeks ago, i don't think it's eggs. She has now started to float a little, back legs on the sand, front legs in the air. Do you think it might be a bacterial infection ? or gravel ? Her back end is swollen also. I have lowered the water. She hasn't eaten for 1 week now, All help is appreciated, Thankyou
 
vet trip

Snowhite has gone to the vet, unfortunately he doesn't know what is wrong with her, so he has started her on baytril antibiotics, we will see how she goes, i don't know what else to do for her she looks so uncomfortable.
 
if i were you i would remove her from the tank and place her in the fridge in a container with just enough water to cover her back to stop her floating
this will help destress her and aid her passing anything that might be obstructing her
they recommend placing bottle of dechlorinated water in the fridge with her so as to do water changes.leaving her in a tank with sick tank mates is not going to help her or any other axies you have i would isolate the sick axie if there are more sharing the tank as they could also become ill.
dont worry about the fridging lots of people have put theirs in the fridge for weeks.
providing it is above 5 degs in there she will be fine.the worst thing for axies is stress and if you can reduce this she will stand a better chance.
good luck and hope she improves soon.
oh dont forget to cover the container preferably with something dark this will prevent her trying to getout and stop the light from startling her
 
thankyou for the advice

I got some terrible news from the vet today, he drained a lot of fluid from Snowhite's belly today, she is now half her size, but if she is bloated again in the morning he said there is no hope and he will put her to sleep. Well you can imagine, i cried all day. I read these symptoms in a post but can't remember where ? . Can someone please shed some light on this! is it bloat ??? Is there any hope for Snowhite ? as anyone's axie survived this ? Thankyou.
 
Yes, it was bloat. But bloat is just a symptom (=fluid build-up in the body), it can have many causes. I'm very sorry about your axie. I commend you for getting treatment for her. There have been a few survival stories involving bloat, but it's uncommon.
 
Hi Tara,

While I have used amphibian ringers as a support treatment for non-gilled amphibians I personally have not used it for gilled amphibians so I can't speak from first hand knowledge on the subject however it is a recommended treatment in Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry (2001, Krieger Press) on page 318-319 (particuarly page 318 second column (towards the end of the page)where it recommends maintaining ill aquatic amphibians that are showing signs of aquatic overload in 10-100% amphibian ringers.

The recipe can be found in the bloat article on the caudata.culture page (see http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/bloatEDK.shtml )

Good luck
 
vet's again

Thankyou Jennewt and Ed . Snowhite did not bloat up over night, so it is back to the vets for some more antibiotics, i can only try and help her and take one day at a time. Thankyou .
 
almost the same size

Snowhite has gotten a tiny bit bigger since the vet drained the fluid two days ago , she had her third injection wed night, she walks around, but isn't eating (9 days now). Friday morning the vet will give her another injection and drain the tiny bit of fluid that has built up. Do any of the Moderators have any ideas as to what it may be ? given she is bloating again extremely slowly? All advice is greatly appreciated. Thankyou.
 
Fluid retention is a symptom that can be due to multiple causes such as infection, kidney or liver disease, poor water quality, starvation to name a few of the potential causes. Basically anything that disrupts the amphibian's ability to osmoregulate.

I would suggest talking to the vet about keeping the axolotl in amphibian ringer's solution to help her osmoregulate. Regular water is hypotonic with respect to the axolotl so the axolotl has to work to pump the excess fluid out of its body. If you keep it in a solution that is more isotonic the axolotl is less likely to accumulate fluids and more of the energy isn't spent on moving excess fluid around.


Ed
 
thankyou for the advice

Thankyou Ed.
 
how long

[

Ed, how long do i keep Snowhite in the amphibian ringers solution? (the vet does not know) but he is doing his best, his knowledge on amphibians only goes so far. Many Thanks.
 
If the amphibian ringer's solution is isotonic or hypotonic to the axolotl as long as it is changed daily, I have kept amphibians in it literally for months.
An alternative to consider is Holtfreter's solution as this is also used with axolotls. see http://www.msu.edu/user/eisthen/lab/methods/animalcare/holtfr.html for recipe. In Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry there are some citations that show that keeping amphibians under treatment with antibiotics in a less hypotonic solution increases the rate of survivial.

Ed
 
Thankyou

Thankyou Ed, greatly appreciated, will inform the vet.
 
Snowhite ate today

Snowhite ate today, first time in 2 weeks. She is going to the vets tonight for a checkup. She seems happy, walking around, she has not bloated since friday when the vet drained 1.5 cm of fluid from her belly . Fingers crossed she is on the road to recovery!
 
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