Want to see what an axolotl X-Ray looks like?

Last week, I took my very ill axolotl to the vet.
Long story short, pH was high, which caused her to become septic and begin to morph.
We know she was beginning to morph because we had radiographs done. The long, dark line in the second image under the spine is gas (oxygen) in her abdomen. This being there showed the development of passageways for oxygen to lungs, which were not developed yet.
Figured I'd share, it was a very educational (yet heartbreaking) vet visit for me.

The photos aren't working!

Sorry to hear about your axie, that really sucks

Unfortunately the pictures aren't working for me either, maybe try posting them another way?

sorry about fail photos. Lets try again.

Look like my Leucistics :happy:

Looks really cool! Sorry about the bad news

How high was the pH?

thats cool !!

I can't imagine paying for xrays for an axolotl but I applaud you and those are awesome pics!

pH was 7.6.
I normally wouldn't pay so much for my axolotls, but I was afraid that whatever was ailing her could take out every one of them, so I paid for it in attempt to make sure my others were fine.

I have some doubts about some of the details here. First, a pH of 7.6 isn't high enough to cause (by itself) any problems. Are there any other possible problems with the water? Also, I wouldn't necessarily conclude that the axie was heading into metamorphosis. Normal adult axolotls do have rudimentary lungs. Gill deterioration can be caused by various problems, it doesn't always indicate metamorphosis.

In any case, I'm glad you sought vet help. I hope they were able to set things right. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

I agree with Jennewt, that sounds a little silly. It's very rare for an Axolotl to undergo metamorphosis and they already have lungs. Gill deterioration can be caused by poor water quality - what were your other water parameters? (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)

I can't imagine paying for xrays for an axolotl but I applaud you and those are awesome pics!

Click to expand...

While specialty vets can be expensive, you should also be prepared to take your animal to the vet if anything is wrong with it. So I can definitely image paying for radiographs. :/ just because it's not a dog doesn't mean it doesn't deserve vet care.

Sorry for my hiatus.
Ammonia was 0
Nitrite was 0
Nitrate was between 20-30ppm.

Temp is regularly around 62F.
I feed nightcrawlers every other day.

He said that it was the long-term exposure to the high pH, and he thought that perhaps she was just more sensitive than my others, he assumed it could be a genetic thing caused by specific breeding (she had the gfp mutation).

pH was the only thing (noticeably) out of whack. She also laid some eggs (only about 10 eggs) when this started that ended up not being viable so we think it was stress of poor egg-laying, plus decreased immune system from pH. Then she started to stop eating.

I am curious to hear more about how they have lungs already, however. I wasn't aware of this and I simply listened to the vet when he said there was development of a PATHWAY to the lungs. So there was gas in her abdomen, which caused her spiral-swimming.

I had brought her to another axolotl owner to care for her while I tried to figure out of the issue was in my water quality, which only showed high pH. There she continued to not eat, and was showing signs of being septic (she was a little veiny when she was in the tank at my house). So neither of us were able to get her to eat, though we tried fridging, 100% water changes, indian almond leaves.... Nothing helped. She wouldn't eat. It was about 4 weeks without food before I broke down and took her to the vet where he confirmed she was septic by ruling out yeast when he did a skin scraping. He even tested my water again there. All fine except for pH.
Thanks guys.