Illness/Sickness: HELP- Fire salamander with bad facial wound

My fire salamander was bitten by one of his tank mates. He has a cut next to his eye that is infected. He is currently in his own tank and not accepting food. Is there anything I can put on his infection? Would triple antibiotic ointment or bacitracin be safe? I have used them with good results on my reptiles but I am really hesitant about putting anything else on an amphibian.

When I first looked on this forum for help I found these articles:

Standard Operating Procedures for Research on Amphibians - USGS National Wildlife Health Center

Salamanders and Newts

They say to use Bactine so I dabbed some on the infection. Today the skin has disappeared in a patch around his mouth. I can tell he is in pain. He isn't thrashing around but he does keep rubbing is face against things. Does anyone know of a way I can help ease his pain? I was about to put bacitracin on it to see if it would ease up but I thought better of it after what the Bactine seems to have done.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

It's probably best if you have a vet evaluate the wound. If it's necrotizing at such a fast rate, you'll need something stronger than neosporin. Silvadine is often used for flesh wounds, but it's available only by prescription.

Thanks for the response. He has an appointment for tomorrow. Are you familiar with antibiotic baths? From what I can gather they are very effective but can be overdosed. I was thinking about accepting whatever is given but asking that I take care of the bath or dose when I get home so I can do some research into whatever they give me.

Baytril is the common antibiotic used for baths. I've found it effective in the past. Hopefully your vet is well-versed in herps, and if not, at least in small animals. It's just a matter of diluting the dose down to the weight of your animal.

The vet gave me Baytril and also Silvadine when i mentioned it. They had come across various reptiles in their office but not many amphibians and never a salamander, although the vet seemed pretty familiar with them. Thanks again for the advice.

Could you keep us updated on how the treatment goes please ? Maybe a few photo's of the progress too.

Hello Julia, I set up for a bath and a photo this morning and found my poor guy had passed away. He had 3 days of treatment and his face looked a little better but he apparently had a large infection on the inside of his mouth that I was not aware of when I wrote the original post.


This is Ed the day I got him:
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I'm very sorry for your loss

It's never easy to lose a pet, all you can do is try & you certainly did that.
You did all you could. Sorry again



<3 >o_o< <3

Yeah this has been pretty awful Thank you for your support.