First injury/attack? what to do.

Hi guys, well the 1st injury has occured in one of my Axies. I was cleaning up thier tank tonight and after I was done I fed them as usual (they have come to ascociate cleaning time with feeding time!)

I noticed Aristotle was only using one front leg and had the other pulled in towards him. The leg looks pink with red marks on and looks like one finger has gone to the bone.


Is this something I should leave for now and see how it goes? It's just worrying me how he is not using that leg much. I've seen him move it but hes not leaning on it so it must have hurt him. He is eating well and active and hasn't been floating or anything. I haven't seen any aggression between them at all so far so I am upset that this has happened. They seem like they are best buds, one often follows the other and they sit together hapily eating thier food. They do this thing though where they touch noses. Its like they are kissing and it looks really cute and friendly as no biting occurs but I am now wondering if its a teratorial thing? I haven't seen Athena ever try to nibble at Aristotle but Aristotle was poised for hovering up some food once just as Athena swam past and her tail got in the way, but it was acidental and no damage done.

I don't want to have to seperate them because they seem to enjoy each others company.

Do I leave him be unless the leg looks worse or fridge him anyway. Does it look bad enough to need anything like amutation? Its barely noticeable.

They are still only about 3 inches long, only little guy, so only little leggy!

here are some pics of his leg.

You should leave it heal on its own but make sure you keep the water cool and clean. Watch out for any fungus, if you see fungus start salt baths.

I'd leave it and see how it goes, their healing / regeneration abilities are quite amazing. Interesting to watch a tail grow back

Keep the water cool & clean. I'd avoid fridging or salt baths unless you start to signs of infection or fungus. Just having good water quality, good food, cool water will give him a good chance of healing well.

I havent had to fridge or bath my guys, i really dont want to if i can avoid it. Any injuries they've had i've watched carefully and let nature do it's thing.

If they are biting etc a lot , then consider tank dividers or seperation. This will NOT stress them. You are projecting your human emotions and need to be loved onto your axies. They are not human or canine, they are quite happy to be on their own and live just nicely as solitary creatures. they dont need or want to be best buds with anyone

bren

Just a note from my experience - my golden girl had a biting injury to her front leg (right side I think - can't check at the moment, coz she's sitting in 1 of the hides, with just her head poking out) - it was at the "wrist" area + the bone was sticking straight through, with the foot bent back towards her body. I don't think it was a nasty attack, as I had 3 axies together since I got them in February last year + have never seen them nip each other.
I seperated her + put her in the "dog room" as it's the coolest room in my house + I didn't want to fridge her if it wasn't needed. Took a while to heal back over (+ because of her colour, it was really tricky to see if there was any fungus - what I kept thinking was fungus didn't look fluffy / cotton woolly enough + I now think it was the dead skin + new parts forming). It took a long time to grow back, but now apart from a little bump where the bone was showing through, it's whole again. I thought to begin with that she wasn't ever going to use the leg again, then I thought she was going to end up using the stump to walk on as it healed with the foot backwards. Now though, I'm fairly confident that she will be able to use it nearly the same as before, as since she's been back in the axie tank, 50% of the time when she "lands" after having a little swim or float, the foot ends up the right way round (without looking like it's causing any pain). She uses it fully now. It was a long process, but with a happy ending..

2 out of the 3 axies I took from my friend had limbs missing too - both are doing really well with regeneration. The smallest golden had quite severe damage to a remaining back leg, which was REALLY swollen + that has cleared up very nicely (although rather knobbly + still held very close to the body most of the time)

A little toe should be fine As, and everyone else has said, just watch out for fungus - extra vigilence should sort that.

Just a question as my two injured guys are in the fridge until fatty is downgraded to the 2ft tank I read somewhere that the lower temperatures when placed in the fridge help to speed up the regeneration process even though their metabolism is a lot slower. It was somewhere on here just can't remember where is this not correct? I've put my 2 guys in the fridge because of this as I want them to heal as quickly as possible and be stress free obviously. I did wonder how since the metabolism is slowed right down but the comment was from someone with high rep so figured it would be correct and I can't remember seeing anyone disagree

thankyou for all the advice guys. I will just keep an eye on him for now. What a fantastic little creature he is. The leg is already looking much better and hes using it again. He's just gobbled lots of blood worm so hes still got his apetite. I'll look into getting a tank divider even if they aren't fighting. Just so that I have it on hand in an emergency, like if I see them attacking each other, or if I acidentally ever bring home one that I see being mis treated in a pet shop! I really must stick to two though. Going to be investing in a 4ft tank for them when they get bigger.

Star said:

Just a question as my two injured guys are in the fridge until fatty is downgraded to the 2ft tank I read somewhere that the lower temperatures when placed in the fridge help to speed up the regeneration process even though their metabolism is a lot slower. It was somewhere on here just can't remember where is this not correct? I've put my 2 guys in the fridge because of this as I want them to heal as quickly as possible and be stress free obviously. I did wonder how since the metabolism is slowed right down but the comment was from someone with high rep so figured it would be correct and I can't remember seeing anyone disagree

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I've seen that written quite a lot - from what I gather, it is indeed correct - the healing speeds up, but the metabolism is slowed down (which has always made me wonder how healing can be sped up - I guess it's because all the energy can be put into healing, instead of "general living") Appetite will be decreased, because of a slowed metabolism, but if you can get your axies to eat, that's great, as the energy from food can be mostly given to the healing process, instead of mainly "general living". I'll see if I can find a couple of quotes

Thanks mojo I'll keep them in there until they look a bit better then down grade madam who looks far too happy having the 4ft tank to herself again!

I can't find any quotes, but I know I've been reading it weekly since starting to hang around here - weird!