My M. A. Apuanus curls up like a pretzel and just... floats. Help?

I got 3 MAA a few weeks back and 2 were great where as one seemed to just float in the tank. So fearing injury from the journey I quarantined him in shallow water just over his back with land a folded napkin. He was there for about 2 weeks and seemed fine; ate, got on land, and underwater. So I decided to see how he acts in the tank. After bieng near land but underwater he NEVER submerges and looks like he cant swim! He twists himself up and acts like he cant function, almost like he had a stroke. He walks on land (my hand) just fine but doesnt swim or anything, when he tries, his body stays in a U shape. I took a few pics before taking him back out to further help him but I dont know what kind of injury or problem he has or if he will ever be cured from it. Here are some pics to paint the story.

That looks a lot like calcium deficiency. What have you been feeding the newt? If it is hypocalcemia, the problem wouldn't have developed overnight, but a balanced diet might have corrected or helped the problem.

Does the animal go into seizures when disturbed or startled, and then recover partially/fully later? This is a really common problem in a few species of dart frogs, and it crops up in others when old calcium supplements for fruit flies are used.

I've actually been having similar problems with a small group of my animals that had been mostly eating blackworms. I'm treating it with calcium gluconate, and the results have been promising so far. Calcium gluconate can be obtained from many large animal vets; it's used in treating milk fever in calfs and is very cheap. Soak the animal for 15 minutes in a low concentration once a day until the problem is resolved. Switch to a higher Ca diet as well; earthworms/nightcrawlers are very good in this area.

Of course, might be good to wait for those with more experience treating salamander diseases to chime in as well.

Well I just got these newts from a breeder and he told me he fed them exclusively on live blackworms. Since Ive gotten them, Ive given them bloodworms.

Oddly enough, I have seen him freak out and act like he was having a seizure! The other 2 I got seem to do this as well, but rarely. Theyll just be sitting there, than bam, swim and wreck through everything like crazy, just going ape ****. Than after awhile calm down. Its pretty weird.

i have a newt like that too......a dobrogicus and he has a permenant arch in his back....he;s the only one out of all my newts that is like that.....the cause for me was that my newt got injured.....after that i guess his body didnt have enough reserves to heal and regenerate......thats when he became weak and jumpy.....since my newts are kept aquaticly its hard for me to give the crickets that are powdered with calcium....so now i provide a variety of foods.......bloodworms-earthworms-daphnia-ghost shrimp and brineshrimp.....now my newts should be alrite

So do you reccomend feeding earthworms incase it is some kind of deficiency? That would help more than bloodoworms, or is that okay as well?

Feed foods high in calcium to phosphorus ration (Ca). Annelid worms (nightcrawlers, earthworms) have a good ratio in this respect, but your symptoms look pretty severe if they're Calcium deficiency.

Calcium gluconate soaks are probably your best bet at saving the animal. Try a local veterinary clinic, or online. www.qcsupply.com carries it, though you'll pay a fortune in shipping (something like $5 for the product, 15 for the shipping). Be sure to dilute it during the soak, maybe to 5-10% (for a more specific number, you'll have to search online) and soak him at least once a day for 10-15 minutes.

He's probably too far gone to correct the problem through a proper diet if the problem is hypocalcemia, though you can try it. I don't believe that a diluted concentration of Calcium gluconate would harm the animal if it turns out to not be calcium deficiency, though I'm pretty sure that's what you've got.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods2.shtml

Im on my way out, but wanted to post this real quick. Took this pic last night before I went to sleep at 5:30 am.

Faker?

All day hes been moving around like nothing.

With calcium disorders, the animal may exhibit normal symptoms until disturbed or stressed. When this happens, more Calcium ions are used to fire the nerves, resulting in a shortage which is why the seizures take place; there aren't enough calcium ions to coordinate proper movement and the nerves misfire, sending the muscles everywhere at once. Once the ions are used up, the limbs just kind of lock up and quiver a bit until it's able to reset and pull enough calcium ions out to function normally.

At least if it is acting normally at least part of the time, you may be able to feed it; earthworms dusted in a proper calcium powder (positve Ca ratio) might be a good idea, but I'd still recommend calcium gluconate. Even one drop on the animal's back daily could be a big help.

Alternately, it may be possible to put some calcium into the animal by soaking calcium powder in distilled water and soaking the animal briefly in this, though it's less reliable and I've never had luck with this in frogs.

It´s just a theory but it kind of looks like when a newt doesn´t want to be in the water. My cynops juvie sometimes didn´t feel like being in the water and it used to curl up like that, or grab its own tail with the hind legs. If something solid was at hand it would curl around it...but then on land it was perfectly normal acting.I don´t know the pics just reminded me of that....

Well he does seem to curl on objects alot but likes to float. I still catch him doing it, but a dead mans float now, not twisted. Hes still walking underwater okay and eating fine. Ive noticed that at first I mention it looked like he couldnt swom, all twisted and forced. Now hes swimming straighter and properly. Like he truly is learning for the first time. Weird

Peter, the seizures have stopped. They werent heavy or noticable to begin with, just a light shake and a twist. But now I havent seen a thing. Thanks for the help though as I will keep observing to see if I should go the calcium powder route.

All help is appreciated

Crypto has Died....

He seemed to swim okay and had stopped curlying but still floated alot. He ate okay, just fed him 3 days ago. I dont know what happened.