Chinese fire belly with a broken leg....

....as I posted before, I have a chinese fire belly with a little cut on it's back. It has been given terrible treatment from a wholeseller and a supplier. I thought it was just sluggish. I gently handled it for the first time when moving it to a smaller tank to try to get it to eat when I noticed it would not use one of it's legs.

Its leg is either broken, or hurt.

Will it heal, or will it be able to adapt to not using it?

I see it swim around the tank a bit, but mostly it lays down on the edge of the island in my tank, partially submerged.

Basically, I have a fire belly with a very hurt or broken leg-what do I do now?

Another fire belly which came from the same source and presumably had the same crappy treatment ate some frozen bloodworms in the main tank yesterday. I put him in a little bowl with tank water today and put in some live blackworms and he GOBBLED them down quickly. The one with the broken leg showed no interest.

Edit: I tried to edit the original post to add more information, but I clicked the quick reply button instead, doah ><

I bought 2 chinese fire bellys from a wholeseller who I think got them from an importer. They were kept in horrific conditions, most had serious injuries, pieces of flesh missing, broken tails, limbs etc. The supplier had them in a crappy bin with some spongy plant and some water for a day after it got shipped to them, I have no idea where they were shipped from and how long they were in transit. Based on the crappy attitude of the sellers, I doubt they were ever fed.

I saved 2 from the bin. Each has a small cut, one on it's back, the other has a very small one on it's tail. I have a cool tank setup properly for them, land, plants which they like etc. They get a proper 12 hour light cycle, privacy and no noises to bother them.

The one with the tailcut was "frisky", or at least after a few hours it started to explore the tank. The second day I had them, I was able to get it to eat some dethawed bloodwords. The third day I had it it did not want any more. On the fourth, it ate some live blackworms. It seems healthy, despite the small cut on it's tail. I fear they were captured in China a month or more ago and shipped to the supplier, without having eaten, I was VERY relieved to get it to eat. It spends it's time in plants, often on the bottom of the tank, it comes onto land on occasion.

The other.... the other one always lays down in the shallows right next to the land, sometimes it crawls up on it. Sometimes it hangs out in plants, but the overwhelming majority of the time it stays in the shallows half submerged.

I noticed today that it will not use one of it's legs when it swims or walks, it sort of dangles at the side. I think it's leg is broken or sprained, for some reason it will not use it.

Is there anything I can do for it? Can it adapt with a broken leg? Will it heal? Is it in constant pain and I should euthonize it? Basically, what should I do? If it is never going to eat, I don't want it to waste away slowly.......

I'm sorry you are going through this. I have no answers for you myself, still learning too. I'd check out the articles about injuries, until someone with more knowledge can give some advice.

Good luck!

Rachel

I read on some older threads on the forum that the proper treatment for a broken leg is to amputate it because it will regrow..... I am hesitant to do that though.

Just providing some more information.

The toes on the leg(front left) are all in tact. The coloration is fine. There is no bone. There is no swelling. It just lays against the side of his body.

He has a small cut on his back, slightly above where the leg attaches to the torso.

As far as I can tell, the seller, before they got to the wholeseller, kept the newts with something which chewed on them, as SO many of the newts have cuts or similar injuries. I am not worried about an illness. The newts were all kept in such terrible conditions that if either of them is sick, they are both sick and its far too late to fix that problem. However since the more active newt, which has a small cut on it's tail, is happy, eating and swimming, I don't think either has an actual sickness.

I am guessing something took a bite the side of him and either destroyed a nerve so he can't move his leg at all, or destroyed a muscle or ligiment, or, broke a bone or the bones in the leg. I wish I could tell if he was in pain but I have no idea how to tell if a newt is in pain.

The current plan is "let him rest, just keep trying to feed him". He just seems to want to be left alone, if I spend any real time wiggling worms in front of him, he swims to another part of the tank. I am hoping he'll eventually eat before he blows through his fat reserves and starves.

Any advice is of course, still welcome.

Really, if the wholesalers were not feeding them, the more dominant and healthy ones will grab a leg or anything smaller than their mouths from a cage-mate. This is uncommon in the same respect, because often crowded conditions make animals more complacent, non-aggressive, or territorial. I don't know...My newts will "fight" over food if they smell it and are after the same piece. Don't get me wrong, they don't "have it out" and fight savagely, but a nip at an arm,tail or side is not uncommon in my experience. It is simply a case of misidentification, and hunger. I did read your "horrible treatment" thread and I know the story...I can't imagine how more than most specimens had an ailment. Maybe a case of "red-leg" from poor water quality, but that is more a frog thing...Keep us posted please!
-jbherpin-

The wounds could not be from other newts, the ones in the tanks had wounds far, far too large to be caused by other fire bellies.

Sorry if you already stated that. It just crossed my mind...What do you think happened?

I think he was kept with another species which chewed on them, or as they were shipped they were shacken so much that many of them broke limbs, or both. The sorts of wounds some of them have are too deep to be from bites from other newts, like half their face removed, tails cracked in half, or large wounds on their back where no newt could possibly fit it's mouth.

He passed on to a better world sometimes in the late evening. A place where the water is always 65 degrees, where the water changes itself once a week, where the live food never has parasites and where bowel obstructions never happen .

I did everything I could for him but he was simply a very sick animal. At least he got a calm and comftorable place to rest for a week after the hellish ordeal he must have gone through. His tankmate remains healthy, he eats whatever food I put in the tank and looks like a happy little newt.

I'm so sorry to hear it passed on. This is the one with the broken leg? I've been let down by pet shops a few times, and it is never fun to find an injury after the specimen is home. I always feel obligated to try to "nurse" them back to health...It rarely is a success though. In my opinion, cynops are always in poor health. I mean from my local shops. Half are bone thin, some have fuzzy patches, some missing feet or limbs entirely. It is a source of much frustration for me!
In short, I am very sorry you lost this one.
-jbherpin-