Illness/Sickness: Awful leg injury with fungus! Help

iplaythebassoon · May 28, 2012

On friday morning I noticed that my axolotls must have gotten in to a fight, as one was holding his leg back. I assumed it was broken and that it would heal on its own. I looked around and did not notice any cuts or tears in his skin. I had to leave to go out of town for the weekend... Fast forward to today: I return home and his leg looks awful. white fungus and its just plain nasty. I immediately put him in for a salt bath and will fridge him tonight, but am worried. When should I consider amputation? how would I go about doing that?

pictures:

http://i.imgur.com/PxXAn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8MhOD.jpg

lea · May 28, 2012

If the wound is open the salt bath will hurt your axie. I would consider taking the limb when the vet says too.............Please dont perform surgery yourself unless you are a qualified vet.

iplaythebassoon · May 28, 2012

A little too late on the reply. Thank you though. The wound was open, but as far as I could tell much of his lower leg was already dead tissue. I read up on amputation and decided it would be the way option. I am in rural south Texas without any kind of vet for amphibians for hundreds of miles. I did the amputation myself and all is well right now. He ate a bloodworm cube about two hours after the surgery and is currently hanging out in the fridge.

lea · May 28, 2012

ok you do what you gotta do. I couldnt do that myself but im a bit of a sook

. I hope your axie gets better now. Please keep an eye for infection. Keep the water clean and cool and all should be fine. Please keep us updated on how he/she goes.

Chirple · May 29, 2012

Hi ! I'm glad the leg issue worked out.

I don't want to sound alarmist or anything, but I am worried that your axolotl is so skinny.

You want to shoot for head and body the same width, and this guy looks too thin.

If you can, feeding them earthworms (nightcrawlers) is great and should help them to bulk up.

Hikari sinking carnivore and Massivore pellets are also great - you can order them on-line. The Massivore ones are very large and if the axolotl is under ~8" or so, you maybe have to cut them into pieces.

Be careful when trying to bring them up to a healthy weight - feeding too much too fast on an underweight animal can be deadly.

Here is a picture that shows a bunch of health-size axolotls from above : http://www.axolotl.org/images/animals/assortment_27_may_2000.jpg

iplaythebassoon · May 29, 2012

Thanks for the response. Yes he is a little skinny, I usually feed my two guys on Friday but he didn't eat; I assumed because of his injury. I have some of the sinking pellets, however I haven't been able to get my guys to eat them! They just turn their noses up at the sinkers. I'm going to try half of a night crawler with him in a day or so. I used bloodworms because I figured they would be the cleanest and the easiest to digest for him. One very important question though. How long should I keep him in the fridge? A few days?

He appears to be doing well this morning

Bellabelloo · May 29, 2012

If you can keep him cool and clean, you could take him out of the fridge now. With regards to food, I would offer food daily to get the weight up. Keep a close eye on any sign of fungus or any other changes.

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Illness/Sickness: Awful leg injury with fungus! Help

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