Illness/Sickness: Salamandra respiratory problem?

tdimler

tdimler

Member
Joined
May 7, 2007
Messages
172
Reaction score
9
Points
18
Location
West Texas
Country
United States
Display Name
Travis Dimler
I've got a group of adult S. s. gallaica exhibiting the following symptoms:

Clear discharge from the nose
Semi-labored breathing/gasping

These are animals that have been with me for a couple years and perfectly healthy. They go off feed for a couple weeks and then start showing these signs. Their throat starts to look swollen and if you press on it mucous/bubbles come out their nostrils. Towards the later stages their head starts to get swollen in addition to their throat. I am thinking it is some sort of respiratory problem or bacterial infection. I have separated them out and am keeping them as dry as I can and some show slight improvement. Any ideas or suggestions? Is there any antibiotic that I could use?

Travis
 
tdimler said:
I've got a group of adult S. s. gallaica exhibiting the following symptoms:

Clear discharge from the nose
Semi-labored breathing/gasping

These are animals that have been with me for a couple years and perfectly healthy. They go off feed for a couple weeks and then start showing these signs. Their throat starts to look swollen and if you press on it mucous/bubbles come out their nostrils. Towards the later stages their head starts to get swollen in addition to their throat. I am thinking it is some sort of respiratory problem or bacterial infection. I have separated them out and am keeping them as dry as I can and some show slight improvement. Any ideas or suggestions? Is there any antibiotic that I could use?

Travis
Click to expand...

Hello Travis,

I would suggest that you need to get these animals to a vet if possible. It does sound like an infection is developing, and tests would be necessary to try to determine likely involved pathogens (bacterial/fungal/viral) so that appropriate treatment can be used. Simply starting antibiotics may or may not work, but testing gives the best chance of choosing an appropriate treatment, as well as possibly giving an indication of likely source.

Having said that, it is always worth thinking very carefully about any change in your set-up (including in the room they are in) that could possibly be either directly irritating their respiratory system, or simply stressing them enough to drop their immunity, allowing an opportunistic pathogen to take hold.

The vet will probably want a lot more information about your set-up, history of animal additions, source and pretreatment of any enclosure substrate and furnishings which might help in determining a cause/source of the problem. It may be worth posting more details here for suggestions also on that.

Hope this helps,

Bruce
 
herpvet said:
Hello Travis,

I would suggest that you need to get these animals to a vet if possible. It does sound like an infection is developing, and tests would be necessary to try to determine likely involved pathogens (bacterial/fungal/viral) so that appropriate treatment can be used. Simply starting antibiotics may or may not work, but testing gives the best chance of choosing an appropriate treatment, as well as possibly giving an indication of likely source.

Having said that, it is always worth thinking very carefully about any change in your set-up (including in the room they are in) that could possibly be either directly irritating their respiratory system, or simply stressing them enough to drop their immunity, allowing an opportunistic pathogen to take hold.

The vet will probably want a lot more information about your set-up, history of animal additions, source and pretreatment of any enclosure substrate and furnishings which might help in determining a cause/source of the problem. It may be worth posting more details here for suggestions also on that.

Hope this helps,

Bruce
Click to expand...

Bruce,

Thanks for the thoughts. I think a veterinarian is out of the question. There isn't a vet in my area that even knows what a salamander is much less how to treat it. I know a shotgun approach to treatment isn't the best way but is sometimes the only way. I feel confident in my husbandry, but may have been keeping these particular animals a bit too moist and/or crowded. Do you have any suggestions as to a treatment to try?

Travis
 
tdimler said:
Bruce,

Thanks for the thoughts. I think a veterinarian is out of the question. There isn't a vet in my area that even knows what a salamander is much less how to treat it. I know a shotgun approach to treatment isn't the best way but is sometimes the only way. I feel confident in my husbandry, but may have been keeping these particular animals a bit too moist and/or crowded. Do you have any suggestions as to a treatment to try?

Travis
Click to expand...

Hello Travis,

For shotgun treatment I would tend to go for a combination of a fluoroquinolone (enrofloxacin or marbofloxacin) and ceftazidime, although that' s based partly on sensitivity results I tend to get over here, where resistance to these two is generally quite low - it may different in the US. The spectrum from this combination is pretty good, toxicity generally low and tissue distribution good.

However, obviously that depends on what you have available. Although less ideal than a vet experienced with amphibians, a local vet should be able to liaise with a more experienced vet elsewhere in the country though?

Best wishes,

Bruce.
 
tdimler said:
I've got a group of adult S. s. gallaica exhibiting the following symptoms:

Clear discharge from the nose
Semi-labored breathing/gasping

These are animals that have been with me for a couple years and perfectly healthy. They go off feed for a couple weeks and then start showing these signs. Their throat starts to look swollen and if you press on it mucous/bubbles come out their nostrils. Towards the later stages their head starts to get swollen in addition to their throat. I am thinking it is some sort of respiratory problem or bacterial infection. I have separated them out and am keeping them as dry as I can and some show slight improvement. Any ideas or suggestions? Is there any antibiotic that I could use?

Travis
Click to expand...

Did I misunderstand your post? Is this the first time it has happened, or does it happen every so often?
 
SludgeMunkey said:
Did I misunderstand your post? Is this the first time it has happened, or does it happen every so often?
Click to expand...

This is the first time I have ever had this happen.

Travis
 
AW: Salamandra respiratory problem?

Hello Travis,

you don`t have any herpetological Institution around??
Or maybe a Zoo??
The vets there are mostly experienced with other animals then dog, cat and mouse.

greetings and good luck
Ingo V.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • Shane douglas:
    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
     +1
    Unlike
  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
     +1
    Unlike
  • stanleyc:
    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
     +1
    Unlike
  • Clareclare:
    Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus Japanese . I'm raising them and have abandoned the terrarium at about 5 months old and switched to the aquatic setups you describe. I'm wondering if I could do this as soon as they morph?
     +1
    Unlike
    Clareclare: Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus... +1
    Back
    Top