Mystery illness - not eating?

Hi all, I would really appreciate some advice as I'm very worried about one of my girls.
I have a 3 year old female, housed with another female of similar age, who has just stopped eating for no apparent reason. She has always been a bit fussy but she has started to noticeably lose weight!

Water parameters are normal, temperature is about 18 degrees. We do regular (weekly) water changes. They are in a large tank (I think 100l) and have lived together happily for the last 2.5 years. There are no external signs of disease and oxygen levels appear to be good. The girls are not showing any signs of aggression to each other, they just tend to ignore each other and have separate hides placed far away from each other.

I have checked everything I can possibly think of and there are no obvious reasons for her to have just stopped eating like this. Any suggestions? Is there any food out there so irresistible that she might take it? Thank you so much in advance.

What are you currently feeding her?

A mixture of blood worm, occasional sea food mix (prawn, calamari, mussel). That's what we were told to feed when we got her but I'm open to suggestion/ correction!

I would switch the prawn and such for something else. I read in another thread that as these are salt water species, they aren't adequate for axolotls which are a fresh water species. I'm not sure if they're called the same thing in the UK but earthworms are the most nutritional food for them and the fact that they wriggle and squirm just makes axolotl's that little bit more interested!! I feed mine a mixture of bloodworm, earthworm and axolotl pellets so there isn't anything too interesting. Perhaps someone else could suggest something appropriate that you could use as a 'treat' just to change the food up a bit every once in a while as well

If she won't take to any food then the only thing I can think of is that she has an internal infection, perhaps in the mouth/throat but I'm not sure how you would go about diagnosing that, let alone treating it. Lets hope she's just being a fussy eater and wants something different

Thank you so much for your comments Earth worms are a problem here as I live inner city however on your advice I've just found an online retailer that sells 'clean' pet food grade ones in the UK. Fingers crossed the wriggling gets her attention!

Yay! Keep us posted on how she goes with the worms :happy:

P.s. My newer axolotl couldn't eat live worms because they moved so much and she'd always give up on them. If yours does this then just burn it to death in hot water - I know it defeats the purpose of having the wriggly attraction but it'll be easier for her to eat at first. If she eats them dead then after a while you can try live ones!

Our three axies eat predominantly earthworms and love them! But yes, there seems to be a big difference in how they eat them, ie. how well they cope with very wriggly ones, or the size they accept. Lottie can only hadle smaller worms, and if they wriggle alot, it takes her a long time to deal with one. If the worm is too big, she tries a few times, but easily gives up on them, whereas Blackie is s ferocious monster who is always on the prowl and attacks anything and everything that moves. I haven't found a worm yet that she cannot handle! Some big and wriggly ones take longer, but she simply doesn't give up! Pear was a great worm feeder as well and could deal with big worms with ease. I hope he'll be back to that when he gets out of the fridge and back into the tank as he has not eaten for about 2 weeks now

If the worm is too big or wriggly, you can cut it and offer it in smaller pieces. That way you still get the live food effect but in smaller, easier to swallow portions. Just remember to feed all cut up bits on that one sitting or discard the unused bits as they will die very quickly, so you cannot store them. Same like damaged worms that you sometimes get if collecting them outside yourself.

Only one of our axies, Lottie, eats pellets as well. Blackie ignores them totally, and Pear accepted them only once, after long coaxing. A couple of times we have given them raw frozen prawn pieces that we always have in the freezer, both for cooking and for fishing bait, They are a good back-up food and ok to give occasinally, I've understood. Blackie loves them, Pear ate them as well, Lottie wasn;t too excited.

So they are all different! But really, earthworms are a good staple food, it has everything they need, and as far as I've heard , they seem to be a great favourite as well.

I hope your little girl starts eating again and gets better! It is quite stressful when they stop eating and there seems to be nothing wrong. Trying to figure it all out is quite a quest! That's where I am with Pear at the moment, that's why he went into the fridge. I still don't know what was wrong, but he looks much better after his fridge rest, and I'm hoping to get him back into the tank in the next couple of days. Fingers crossed he'll stay good and starts eating again, otherwise I don't know what to do! Of to the vet, I guess...

All the best to you and your girls!

Hi all,

Thanks again for the previous comments. I'm afraid things are not improving! We got the earthworms which the other girl is going crazy over but Maslow still isn't interested It's as if she can't see the food. Over the last couple of days we have noticed that one eye has gone cloudy. It looks as though it is within the eye itself rather than a fluffy fungus type thing? May cataracts? We have tried cutting the end of the worm (ew ew ew ew ew but we will try anything) so she can smell it but she still isn't interested. she gets stressed if we try for too long.

Any suggestions are very gratefully received!!!!

Yeah that does sound like cataracts. It's no good that she isn't eating and I can assume the last thing you want to do is take her to the vet but perhaps it's your only option I don't know why she's not eating and I'm not able to suggest any other foods so I hope you get some more answers soon! (Whether it be from someone who has had a similar experience or a vet)

So we found a vet in the area that treats amphibians/ exotic pets (yes I know that's not axolotls but it's the closest we have in the area) and planned to take her on Saturday but things have rapidly deteriorated. All of a sudden we notice white spots elsewhere on her body so now I'm guessing fungal infection. We started prepping for fridging (based on the guides on here as we have never done it before) then came in to find her motionless wedged by the filter. It looked like she had drifted there by the current. We honestly thought she was dead!!

When we freed her we noticed some slight movement but her buoyancy is off and she clearly has gone down hill very rapidly within the last 24 hours. We are now fridging her and frankly cr*****g ourselves If she does make it through the night which is looking unlikely at this stage when should we start salt bathing her? Thank you so much for you help!!

Just a wee update in case anyone is interested. Maslow is still with us! Still in the fridge and appears (touch wood) to be a little less lifeless than she was.

The fungus looks very bad though. Her back foot is kind of rotted away and she has a couple of patches on her body too. I will update this post with pictures when we do her next salt bath/ water change this evening.

I just have 2 questions. Firstly roughly how long does it normally take for the salt baths to start killing off the fungus? Just a ball park figure here (she has only had 2 so far mind). Days? Weeks?

Secondly should we be trying to feed her in the fridge? I have read conflicting opinions on this. Thanks!

Nova said:

Just a wee update in case anyone is interested. Maslow is still with us! Still in the fridge and appears (touch wood) to be a little less lifeless than she was.

Secondly should we be trying to feed her in the fridge? I have read conflicting opinions on this. Thanks!

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Improvement is always a good thing so I hope she pulls through soon!

In regards to feeding in the fridge; you wont have much luck at all because the cold temperature causes their metabolism to slow down and therefore they don't digest the food. How long has she gone without food?

It's been a couple of weeks now since she started refusing food. Hence why I'm anxious to get her eating again.

Well it would probably be pointless feeding her while she's out of the fridge and then putting her back in because it would basically be the same as if you were to try feeding her in the fridge. You could feed her and then leave her out of the fridge for a few days until she poops, unless you will have a problem keeping the water in the tub below 18 degrees or so.. That's my suggestion anyway

Just our luck we finally have a bit of summer weather here in Scotland just when I need it to be cold and miserable! Don't think removing her from the fridge would be a good idea yet. Argh! Thanks JessicaAnne!

Just some pictures from her salt bath this evening just in case I have misdiagnosed. If nothing else they might be useful for someone else to keep an eye out for the same thing! This evening when we were changing her water we noticed white wispy fluffs floating in he tub. I'm hoping this is bits of fungus that have dropped off...

You can see her left eye and right rear leg are the worst hit areas.

Poor thing, fingers crossed the salt baths will work. The fact that it is dropping off sounds good. Can you get a pair of tweezers or a cotton bud and gently pull away at the loose bits? The bit on her back leg looks like it might come away if you gently tease it.

Great to see the photos. She doesn't look half as bad as some cases I have seen! That should be very encouraging for you I hope. I am concerned about the eye though as they can take longer to heal but you'll just have to keep us posted.

I've been keeping track of your progress in the chat but I'd just like to let you know that a lifeless body from an axie in a fridge is pretty normal, they hardly move at all. If you're ever worried about whether or not your axie is dead leave them out of the fridge to warm up to room temperature and check then .

Hopefully that sort of smaller infection of fungus I believe should clear up in about a week to two weeks of twice-a-day salt baths.

I wouldn't bother feeding her at all in the fridge as you risk leaving rotting food in the gut. She looks to have enough meat on her bones to sustain her another two weeks in the fridge. If you are concerned you could bring her up to room temperature as suggested in a small hospital tank (once the heatwave is over) and continue to treat her from there, where she can (and hopefully will) eat normally.

Thanks Sam, will try and get it off this evening ..

Cheers Jane! It is good to know it's not the worst you have seen! The advice is very much appreciated!

Well though I should update people. Within the last 24 hours things went down hill. She developed oedema and her toes went red, I suspected kidney failure and septicaemia. I took her to the vets this morning and he agreed with me. He said that whilst we could treat the illness was systemic and we weren't really going to do her any favours as she would probably never fully recover. We decided it was kindest to let her go.

Thank you all for your comments and advice. I will stress the point to anyone else with an ill axolotl do make sure you find a vet with experience of dealing with them. I've heard a couple of vets say they've never treated one but thought they could euthanise one. When this vet explained the process I realised the other vets had no clue what they were talking about.