Urgent Help Required

My axie has had fungus on his tail for the past week and now he's coughing up blood as in he would go to the surface, take a gulp of air and expell a big cloud of blood out of his mouth. A few minutes ago i checked on him (he's been in the fridge for at least 3 weeks now) and he was floating on his back attempting to move upright again. The fungus on his tail looks similar to cotton wool and underneath, the skin is all red and most likely bleeding.

Update: Checked out axolotl.org and attempted a salt bath using sea water in a shallow container. It helped the fungus a bit but now he's alternating between floating on his back or side. No sign of blood as of yet but its still early days.

Please, what can I do to help my boy?

Lower the water in the fridge container until his feet rest on the bottom and just above his fin, hopefully this will keep him from turning over or lying too much on his side and calm him down a bit.

Is there any chance he could have eaten or swallowed something from his tank that may have damaged his throat?

I would keep your axolotl in the fridge still in a lidded container with dechlorinated water just covering the back..keep back up bottles of dechlorinated water also in the water for the daily water changes. Keep the container covered and make sure the fridge temp is over 5 degrees. This is a good link for salt baths http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/salt.shtml. This can be done daily.
I'd be tempted now ,because it seems to have gone on for the last 3 or so weeks , to see if you have a vet that may be able to see your axolotl . Please do keep us posted on how your axolotl is doing.

I'm not sure if he's throat has been damaged because he hasn't been in contact with anything for ages. Nor has he eaten. He's lost a serious amount of blood... the water is stained a reddy brown colour yet again. It's a public holiday tomorrow so I'll see if I can get him into a vet ASAP. Every time I see the poor little guy I keep telling him to STAY AWAY FROM THE LIGHT JUNIOR =(

Junior has been slowly dying since last night =( but though he's survived the night which amazed us all. I was checking up on my other axies that were in the fridge and noticed there were small stones in the bottom (I posted another board about this lol) and my axie that was floating is now fine which is some good news.

*sighs* My two other axies are only just beginning to show the earlier symptoms of whatever was wrong with Junior (who sadly passed away). Since they're both white, it's been easier to notice. Leui has a small trail of blood going from the tip of her tail to about an inch and a half up the tail but she is eating. Sue, on the other hand, is only bleeding on the tip of his tail but is not eating. Should I give them a salt bath for about 15 minutes?

No don't do salt baths for them unlees they actually have fungus. Also if you do have to saltbath rather than seawater it might be advisable to use the 2-3 teaspoons of salt per litre of dechlorinated water method for 10-15minutes twice a day. The saltwater may be too strong for bathing your axolotls in. What is your tank temperature sitting at?

Sorry to hear about your little axolotl, not too sure what is going on. Have you checked the water conditions ( nitrate/nitrite/ammonia/ph readings). Also what else do you have in your tank...hopefully something here will give us a clue as to what is going on.

Hi sherylbobbins. You mentioned that the fungus on the dead axy was around for 1 week but that he'd been in the fridge for 3 weeks. So the fungus appeared whilst in the fridge? You also say that your other axys are currently in the fridge.

Did they go in at the same time or more recently? For what reason did you put any of them there in the first place? [SIZE=+0]I'm just trying to get my head around the sequence of events.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0]bellabelloo has asked about your water parameters and that's got to be a first thing to establish - your tank(s) and also the water that they're in now in the fridge.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0]I'm wondering if, g[/SIZE][SIZE=+0][SIZE=+0]iven that it appears to have affected 3 animals from the same tank (assuming they were originally and recently together in the same tank) there's a chance
[*] there's some form of parasitic or bacterial infection that has taken hold and this has already killed your weaker specimen. If so, unfortunately, fridging and salt water are not a panacea. A trip to a good vet is possibly their only hope whilst we keep our fingers crossed for you/them.[/SIZE][/SIZE]

Do you know of a good (axy-friendly) vet?

[*= This is not a diagnosis... I'm just a random, anonymous person on the internet who cares about looking after animals properly but has no formal training so take it as such.]

Originally I put them all (they were in the same tank) in the fridge because the were suffering pretty badly from heat stress since its been so hot in Australia. Junior went in first because he was losing his gills. A couple of days later I put the other two in because they started losing their gills too, They were all doing well, though not eating, until Junior's tail started to almost rot away at the tip. This progressed and he soon developed fungus. About maybe a week after this started, he was choking up blood. During this, my white ones were fine. Then Junior died.

They've all been in quarantine plastic tubs since about Christmas. Junior was by himself and the white ones were placed in together. I've been changing their water at a minimum of once every 2 days. I can't take them to a vet because its just too expensive. Plus, I live in a small country town so it's unlikely that any vet around here would know about axolotls

Sorry to hear about your loss but to me this does not sound like normal heat stress and fungus signs (bleeding, red skin, rotting skin,...).
As I was reading your posts there came the idea of bacterial infection to my mind and the fungus would only be a secondary, visible sign.
Since all of them shared the same tank they might have come in contact with the same pathogens; they might even have come in contact in the fridge if you used any tools (tweezers, pipe) in all of their boxes.
I definitely recommend you to visit a Vet as soon as possible - if this really should be a bacterial infection you will have to use antibiotics that you will only get there.

Good luck!

I checked pH and ammonia and am in the process of testing nitrites. PH was normal but ammonia was sitting at around 1ppm which bothered me since I changed the water last night. Leui I've had them out of the fridge in order to get them eating again. Leui is continuing to eat like a pig but Sue still hasnt been tempted by her favourite frozen brine shrimp. I'll post some pics in my next post

Yesterday:



Today:

A pic of Junior before things started heading straight downhill. In this picture Junior was losing quite a bit of what looked like skin

Hi Sheryl - just trying to get my head round your last few posts! So are Sue and Leui in the fridge or now out in the quarantine tub?

If in the quarantine tub, how high is the water level, what is the temperature of the water (if not kept in the fridge) and how much of the water are you changing? Rather than every two day waterchanges, change it every day (frequent partial waterchanges daily).

Ammonia will build up faster in warm water. What are your actual pH levels, if in the higher range (8.0+) ammonia is even more toxic for an axolotl.

Our temperatures for our town have been soaring recently - not as much as Australia obviously but enough for our leucistics (white/dark eyes) to show red tipped tails, reddening veins along the clear part of the tail or just the pink tail. We have had one or two of our axies over the past two years show the blood type spots like your one that appeared but put that down to heat (which we may have been wrong at the time), but a few weeks period in the fridge seemed to help and cool/calm them down and they disappeared.

Sorry, my brain's not functioning at the moment - a few recent sleepless nights so hopefully won't confuse your two axies! Anyway, the skinny one (easier to remember) looks very thin - is this the one that isn't eating or the other! Have you tried other foods to tempt your axolotl to eat rather than just frozen brineshrimp? It might pay to try a variety. And what is your normal fridge temperature, when you were keeping them in the fridge?

Ahoy! Sue and Leui (guess which one Leui is =P) are out of the fridge but still in the tub while i dry out their tank... it decided to leak. They've been in about 6-7 litres of water which is now kept at a nice 13 degress celcius. I will definately change their water more often. My pH is somewhere between 6.8 and 7.2 because my tester isnt very specific.

I'm glad to hear that the reddening veins and spots are probably due to heat instead of infection. I only bought Leui a few months ago and it took her a VERY long time to eat and then soon after we had to put her in the fridge. Sue usually eats a lot but now he's being difficult. I've now tried blood worms and pellets along with his brine shimp but nothing seems to work. Maybe its because of the heat. My friend's normally obese axolotl has gone off food too. Good thing, she needs to lose some weight Christina =P

In the fridge, the temp sits at 4 degrees according to mother.

if you have a turkey baster drop a pellet in and wait for it to hit the ground suck it up itll get stuck on the end wiggle it above there nose and they may eat the smell and wriggleing motion may stimulate them to eat just my 2 cents hope it helps

6-7 litres of water is not a great deal for the two axies to reside in which is probably why the ammonia is high. If you can increase the water level some more then do so and stick to the daily waterchanges. If your pH levels are between 6.8-7.2 that's fine; temperature seems ok! And assume that you're cleaning out uneaten food!

If you can get some live earthworms (if none available round your home - understandable with the heatwaves) but may be purchased through a Bunnings or similar type store; garden snails, slugs and slaters (some people also use crickets). These can be fed as staple/primary food, and hopefully will tempt your axie to eat before the following alternative foods can be tried.

The following foods can be tried to tempt the one who isn't eating (still half awake and dozing ) but shouldn't be used as primary/staple foods (usually they should be fed occasionally or as a treat). They may encourage your axolotl to eat:
1) Mealworms - crush the head or decapitate it ; or
2) Slivers of raw fish or prawn; or
3) Thin wormlike slivers of lean red meat (either liver, heart or other red meat - not mince/ground beef) - just make sure to cut away all tendons and fat.

Just persevere and try all food suggestions and I hope things improve. Keep us posted.

My bubs are doing well! Thanks everybody!

good

Good your axies are doing better. Don't be mean to George.... She is eating live fish and blackworms now so thats good. George lost all her gills because of the heat and Kai lost part of his skin... I do wonder why......???
If you want some earthworms for Leui or Sue to try then I'm happy to help..... Try catching some grasshoppers too.... My axies like them

P.S George is not obese, she is just full bodied and egg filled