Question: Axolotl leg injury

Hello, I previously posted a thread about my axolotl ripping a chunk out of her tail fin and scraping her leg.

The next day her leg was swollen and looked a lot worse than just a scrape. I separated her from her tank mate and put her in a tub. Since I didn't know if she had a fungus, I did one salt bath each day for over a week and she kept improving. Her swollen leg went almost back to normal to where it looked like a scrape again. Her appetite improved, so I stopped her salt baths and moved her to her old tank. (Also Onyx, her tank mate, didn't want to eat a few days after I separated them so I put her back with him once she looked well)

Two days later, here we are and her leg looks terrible! Its way worse than it was the day after she scraped it. ): she also is not wanting to eat. Shell act like she's going to and then just spit it out. She did that when she first got injured but once she was healing up, she began to eat well again. I got a new phone recently so I managed to get a couple of detailed pictures. I went ahead and did a salt bath since it helped last time. I was going to start tea baths yesterday but never got to buy any tea. Now this is happening so I'm not sure whether I should do salt baths first for a few days or tea baths until its better?

Any help is greatly appreciated!! Here are two pictures.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Had to attach the pictures separately

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

ouch! not really sure but i think salt baths kill bacteria, like if she had a fungus, it looks like to me, that its just flaking skin from her injury. I think tea baths help repair the skin.
What did she cut that on? or was her tank mate getting hungry? maybe keeping her in a divider in the tank or taking out whatever cut her will help prevent it from getting worse.

You shouldn't use a salt bath unless you're sure there is fungus, especially with an open wound. Have you ever got salt in a cut? It hurts.

I would separate her again, and fridge her at 10C if you can, to aid healing.

It looks more like flaking skin than fungus to me. Although it is hard to tell by a photo. I would recommend floating Indian almond leaves in the water to protect against fungus. Keep offering food, hopefully once she starts healing she will be more interested in eating.

Before it did look like a fungus but I wasn't completely sure which is why I did the salt baths in the first place. Now yes that is definitely her skin, so I was thinking tea baths? She cut it on an ornament in the tank which I took out the day she was injured. Im wondering if the water is what made it worse after I put her back? When she was in the tub it got better each day but it only took one day in the tank to get bad again /: Onyx isn't having any problems.
I separated her last night in the tub that she was previously in. Right now I don't have any tea but I can go to walmart after work today and get some.

I will start fridging her today. In the last post someone told me not to do that unless she was constipated or something like that. In my opinion i feel it would help.

Where can I get those leaves?

Thank you all for your responses

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

That's what I've been using to dechlorinate her water Thank you though for the informatiom about the leaves. I was just thinking it could help prevent fungus until her wound is closed up? But I've been keeping her in the fridge with an extra tub of clean dechorinated water so I can change it at the same temperature.

I'm confused about the tea baths though. Theres no picture tutorial or anything but it says to go by the regular instructions first which I have. I just am confused on if I put her in all of it or just take some of it and out it in her tub? I assume I could do both but I'm not sure. I'm good with salt baths, but I've never done a tea bath before.

*I did make sure I have the right tea though c:

I'm hoping to only keep her in the fridge for a few days considering she didn't eat a whole lot before.

Also I must mention she's acting great, aside from the spitting her worms out and not using the injured leg. Last time it took about two days before she was using it so I'm hoping the same goes for this time.

Again thank you for your replies!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Thank you!! Sounds easier than I thought if I make a larger amount of tea, can I store it in the fridge for a few days or does it need to be freshly made each time?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Yes, you can prepare the tea in advance. I find it easiest to make a mug of tea and leave the bag in until it goes cold - you get all the tannins that way.

If she's off her food you could try blanching a worm for her - just a dash of boiling water over the worm then plenty of cold - it kills the worm and stops it wriggling, makes it less of a challenge to eat. It also stop the worm excreting the bitter slime, so it tastes better.

Thank you I've ended up doing it your way but she doesn't seem to be getting any better yet. Her leg is curled a lot and the skin is still coming off though that's not a bad thing. She didn't want to eat live or dead worms so tomorrow I'm going to take her out of the fridge and put her back in the tub.

It seems that the salt baths worked much better than the tea unless it just takes longer for improvement when doing tea baths? It hasn't gotten any better but when I was doing salt baths it was showing better signs by the third day.

I know you're only supposed to do salt baths if there's fungus, but is it possible it can help heal in general? I feel like I should be doing salt baths since it shows good results, but I've been told by several people that tea baths are the way to go :x I feel like my axolotl is the opposite of everyone else's! Haha

Also I thought I'd mention that I never could figure out what the slime was! I thought it was either from the worm or the axolotls released a "poison" type thing to kill it like a frog would do


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Alright thank you I'm just a creature of habit and sometimes trying new things in this situation scares me! I moved her back to the tub today and she hasn't eaten yet so hopefully she will start up tomorrow or so. /: Her leg looks somewhat better, so I'm hapoy about that I know she's stressed but being in the tub instead of a small container should help with that. I just want her better!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Hi. I'm quite new to Axolotl's but after my son acquired 1 for his birthday I have learnt a lot! We bought another to go with it and after a few days the wild type axy had a few bites at the white one. One of her front legs was bitten clean off, a back leg was shredded very much like your Axy's in the photo and he'd also had a chunk of her tail too! :-( . After reading a lot of info on this forum I separated the white one into a large lunch box filled with cold tea and fridged her for 3 days. I then took her out of the fridge but kept her in the large lunchbox for about 10 days. After about 5 days the foot on the shredded back leg actually disintegrated and dropped off and healed up really well. The tea baths were continued and changed for fresh tea every day for about a week until the wounds looked healed. Then I changed to clean dechlorinated water. After the 10 days she was put into a large bucket with water which is still being 50/50 changed every couple of days. Her front leg has now grown new toes and looks great, the tail has completely re-grown and the back leg has also now got new toes! All within 2 months.
I suspect your other axy may have had a cheeky nibble at the leg.

Not the best of photos but here's our recovering Axy Yoda.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awh I'm glad yoda has recovered so well! Keep up the great work, I wish you both luck Yoda looks quite like mine who I decided to name Seadra today!

I've been doing 100% water changes daily as well as tea baths. It seems to be clearing up some. I kept her in the fridge for about three days as well but she has been losing weight so I opted to putting her back in the tub and in the bedroom. Now my main goal is to get her to gain some weight. She ate a worm overnight! Today she hasn't eaten but I know we're making progress

I must say that I don't believe onyx had anything to do with it, he has never shown any agression whatsoever. He's rather fond of her actually and he really has enjoyed her company. He doesn't even want to eat with her being gone for long periods of time! Ill put him in the tub with her for a night or so occasionally just to keep him eating and give them each some company.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Thank you. It's nice to hear your two have such a nice bond I had hoped Venom and Yoda would bond like that but I think it's separate tanks from now on. :-( unfortunately Venom came to us with only 1 eye and I wonder if that's part of the reason her had a few nibbles on Yoda because he couldn't see it was her and not food!
Keep up the good work and it's good to hear your Axy is healing well. ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was afraid of that as well, but I tried it out anyway and I'm happy I did. I hate for onyx to be lonely now. But im sorry it didn't work out! Maybe you could get a new tank mate for Yoda and just keep Venom separated? I believe that may be the cause. Either that or the traumatic experience of losing the eye caused him to become somewhat aggressive or territorial maybe. Possibly even just scared! Poor thing ):

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk