Tiny Eft With A Sore

I was feeding my children tonight and I noticed a small sore/wound (It is hard to tell at this size) above one of the efts back legs. This is one of the advantages to feeding them by hand and looking in on them multiple times a day. I am able to see and identify any problems with them.

I am not sure if a sibling bit him, if he scraped himself, or if it is a bacterial infection at this point so I am going to play it on the safe side. I thought that it might be useful to share the story of my treatment, the logic behind it, and the success or failure with anyone that might have the same troubles. This is my first time treating an anphibian this small.

My past experience with fish has taught me that usually the larger animals respond to treatment better, but I will still give this guy a fighting chance.


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The Patient
Approx 1.5 inches in length
Up until this point he has been eating a diet of bloodworms and brineshrimp (frozen and then thawed and enriched with Herptivite vitamines)
The "habitat" I had him in was just a clean tupperware container with a brown papertowel substrate. Dechlorinated water was used to keep the substrate damp and they were sprintzed twice a day to ensure that they didn't become too damp.
Each enclosure has a smooth rock so that the newts can climb on it if they wish to have a drier place to sit


Quarantine
Once I noticed the injury/sore I removed him from his sibblings in order to prevent the spread of the bacteria (if it is bacteria related). The original holding container will be cleaned twice daily for the next couple of days to hopefully prevent the other efts from catching the same bacteria (if it is bacteria related. I always err on the side of caution).

I did not have a quarantine container since my usual quarantine containers are being used to house the growing efts. So I quickly put something together. I always seem to have random supplied on hand for such things. A clean tupperware container, and exacto-knife, a glue gun, and some spare screen are all it took.




It is quick and dirty, but it works and provides a secure environment and good ventilation. The substrate for now is just damp papertowel. Wetted with dechlorinated water.

Treatment
At this point where he is just a small fellow I am opting to try just a topical treatment. The wound/sore is new and I am worried that a harsher treatment could stress him and make the problem worse. It is always a risk during treatment, but I like to minimize it if possible. So I had three choices:

Iodine: I opted not to use iodine since he is small and I was worried about toxicity.

peroxide: Again he is so small and the wound/sore is small enough that I was uncertain I could apply it to the area without damaging more healthy tissue than needed

Topical antibiotic: I decided that this was the best route since I could apply the antibiotic ointment with the tip of a toothpick carefully to the area (times like this make me happy I have steady hands)



I went with polysporin since I have had good success using this on injured fish and it will not only help with preventing any further infections but it will also be absorbed into the newts system and help fight off any current infections. This particular brand does not have any pain numbing medication so I felt it was a good choice.

The newt is now resting in the fridge. I will check on him tomorrow to see how he is doing.

Any other thoughts on the treatment route I choose would be appreciated and I am open to discussing my methods and hopefully hearing from anyone else that has treated small amphibians before.

He's an adorable little guy! I hope it all turns out well.

I read on another Newt Sore thread to give him salt-baths or dab him with a little peroxide to kill bacteria. However, I have never experienced this or done this, so you should probably look into it a little more (I know what happens when you dip leeches in salt so I wouldn't suggest doing this without SERIOUSLY looking into it)

Sorry I couldn't be of more help

FORGET what I said. I got Peroxide mixed up with another word. Do NOT use peroxide.

Sorry :/

I'm gonna go find out what the real word was.

Iodine and Neosporin. That was it.

Sorry for the mix-up.

Aaron Chris said:

He's an adorable little guy! I hope it all turns out well.

I read on another Newt Sore thread to give him salt-baths or dab him with a little peroxide to kill bacteria. However, I have never experienced this or done this, so you should probably look into it a little more (I know what happens when you dip leeches in salt so I wouldn't suggest doing this without SERIOUSLY looking into it)

Sorry I couldn't be of more help

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Hi Chris,

Thank you for your comment and I also hope he pulls through. He is such a cote little guy.

I have concidered peroxide, but I will admit I haven't looked into a salt bath just yet.
Where the sore is so tiny I'm not quite ready to do a bath treatment on him just yet. Thank you for reminding me about that other thread though.

*edit*
Ah yes, neosporin would be similar to polysporin. I do believe anyways. I will have to check the active ingredients on both of them.

Neosporin only contains one antibiotic, while polysporin contains multiple types.

Don't quote me on this, but for some reason I seem to recall it not being recommended to use polysporin on amphibians, only neosporin. Definitely do NOT use anything that says "with painkiller" or anything like that. That is usually benzocaine, and is used to euthanize amphibians.

Kaysie said:

Neosporin only contains one antibiotic, while polysporin contains multiple types.

Don't quote me on this, but for some reason I seem to recall it not being recommended to use polysporin on amphibians, only neosporin. Definitely do NOT use anything that says "with painkiller" or anything like that. That is usually benzocaine, and is used to euthanize amphibians.

Click to expand...

You might have a point. The polysporin ointment I am using might be too strong for the little guy. I have heard that the drops are a weaker concentration so I might switch to that or neosporin. I will see what is what when I get home tonight.

I was very careful though to not use anything with a painkiller in it though. I remembered that from my earlier research on the forum.

Well I am tickled pink today!

I swabbed the affected area with a damp Q-tip today to remove the polysporin and reapply if necessary and I can visibly see how much it has healed over the course of 36 hours. The little sore is now a very tiny sore and looks to be healing nicely. Trooper (as I have decided to call him) is in good spirits today and begging for food. I reapplied a miniscule amount of polysporin to the wound (since it seems to be working so well with no observable side effects) and since Trooper was still begging for food I gave him a bloodworm.

He promptly sucked it back and went on to ignore me as if to say, "see I am fine now."

Glad to hear Trooper is recovering. I have to ask, is it his fortitude, or did you name him after the band? I saw Trooper in concert in Manitoba. It was great! Of course, by that time I was pretty deep into my beer, but I had a good time.

I remembered where I heard not to use polysporin: on people! Some people are allergic to one of the antibiotics in it, so it shouldn't be carried in your emergency kit.

People, salamanders, what's the difference?

lol, I imagine that salamanders can have alergic reactions to different antibiotics as well as people. Luckily this little guy seems to have done ok with it.

I decided to name him Trooper because of his fortitude and his attitude. Not even swabbing him seemed to phase him. Some of my little efts get huffy when I clean the containers and won't eat for a day afterwards, but he demanded a bloodwrom right after treatment. I am really impressed with him.