Illness/Sickness: No appetite and paralyzed legs?

We are new to the forum and have been reading and learning from everyone here since we got our little guy in late June. Now we have a very sick axolotl and could use some advice.

I will try to make a long story short:

Our guy (gal?) is about 4 inches long (3 inches not including the tail). He is in a 20 gallon tank that we thought was completely cycled. There is fine aquarium sand on the bottom. We have hard water and the ph is typically tests 7.6 or 7.8. Ammonia has been 0-0.25 ppm, nitrites 0 and nitrates 0. Temperature has been between 68-70 F.

We were on vacation for a week and had a neighbor feeding, monitoring temperature and cleaning the tank. When we returned, my son mentioned that our axolotl seemed more inactive than usual. I took a look, but didn't see anything too alarming. I was busy unpacking and I didn't take the time. I am regretting this now. The next morning, my son did a water change. I neglected to have him check the ammonia level (again, fail on my part). The next day, the axie was very listless and his back legs and one front leg appeared to be paralyzed. We checked the ammonia and it was at 2.0. We got him out of the tank immediately and put him in a small critter keeper tank.

He is still alive, but moving very little. He has not wanted to eat. His tail is now bent at the tip, which I have seen mentioned as a sign of stress. We have gotten the ammonia under control. Any ideas about what else we can do for him? I have read about fridging axolotls, but I had only seen that mentioned in reference to impacting or infection. Is this something we should try? Is there any hope for this little guy? I am feeling very guilty for not listening to my son and getting this under control more quickly. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Axies will recover from ammonia poisoning, but it takes a few days. Cool clean water with daily changes, and keep offering food. No need to fridge him. He should perk up in a day or 2.

Thank you for the input. Sounds like we are doing the right things for him. He was a little more active yesterday than the day before so hopefully he is on the mend. Just out of curiosity: are the limp limbs a common symptom of ammonia poisoning? I haven't seen much mention of this in any forums. Also, do you think he will regain use of the limbs or have we done permanent damage?

Thank you!

if the nitrates were 0 then the tank definitely wasn't cycled...what were the nitrites and nitrates when the ammonia was 2.0?

And you should be doing at least a 20-30% water change weekly to keep the nitrates down when the tank does actually cycle, and much more often (every 2-3 days) until it does cycle or else the ammonia will get very high very quickly because the bacteria aren't colonized yet or aren't breaking down enough of the ammonia yet. I'm sorry if this came off as rude or didn't make sense, perhaps you should read up on cycling a little more?

Not rude at all! I will take all the help I can get.

I had been reading about cycling and thought I understood things. Some of the information I found was not very clear. I have done some further reading on this site and now understand the cycle much better. We have two tanks and will be cycling one without the axolotl in it. We'll keep the axolotl in the other tank, doing water testing and changes to keep the ammonia down while the main tank cycles. I don't want to risk him being exposed to high ammonia again, especially as he is still recovering.

Thank you for your input.

In order to have a successful cycled tank you want the
ammonia=0
nitrites=0
and some nitrates but not too high

if I am correct about the whole cycling thing(I'm currently doing it now so still new to it)
but you want ammonia to be at 0 and then add enough ammonia to make it 4ppm. The next day if the ammonia is down to 0 you should have a colony of bacteria that is built up enough to put your axie back in.


hopefully he(she) will feel better. You might also want to try lowering the temperature of the water in the tank. I think 70 is a bit high. But i do not know for sure I have read a lot of different temperature but most people say around 60-66 degrees is optimal. So that might be a factor as well.

Nachtmare said:

In order to have a successful cycled tank you want the
ammonia=0
nitrites=0
and some nitrates but not too high

if I am correct about the whole cycling thing(I'm currently doing it now so still new to it)
but you want ammonia to be at 0 and then add enough ammonia to make it 4ppm. The next day if the ammonia is down to 0 you should have a colony of bacteria that is built up enough to put your axie back in.


hopefully he(she) will feel better. You might also want to try lowering the temperature of the water in the tank. I think 70 is a bit high. But i do not know for sure I have read a lot of different temperature but most people say around 60-66 degrees is optimal. So that might be a factor as well.

Click to expand...

This is correct, but only half the picture. Cycling is a two step process. Step 1 is ammonia spike, and when the ammonia is reduced overnight, you are halfway there, but not finished. The ammonia is converted to nitrite, which is still toxic. Step 2 is a nitrite spike, and you need to keep adding ammonia til your nitrite reading also drops to 0. These bacteria take longer to colonize, but the nitrite readings tend to just drop to 0 overnight one day, so patience is key.
Nitrate is the end product of your cycle, is relatively nontoxic in low concentrations, and is removed mostly by water changes. So a reading of nitrate indicates your cycle is building a colony of your second nitrifying bacteria, but you aren't done til your nitrite and ammonia both read 0.

Hi there. I want to thank you for the input on our little guy. However, we have a new issue. He has been in a small tank with daily water changes maintained at 64-66 degrees since last weekend. He is still not moving three of his extremities and as of today, he keeps flipping onto his back. He is still alive, and is still eating a little. When we try to turn him over, he flips back again. Any ideas about why he is doing this and what we can do about it? I am thinking that this may be due to his inability to use three of his legs and therefore keep his balance. Should we maybe make the water a bit more shallow so he might be able to stay upright? Has anyone had any experiences like this? I just don't know what else we should be doing for him.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

O, poor baby! Yes, it *may* be a balance issue. Lower the water level so that the water just covers his body. Still offer food. Lets hope for the best!

This seemed to help a bit for now. We'll see how things progress. Thank you for your input!

Updated, Help Requested Re: No appetite and paralyzed legs?

I thought I'd post a couple of pictures as I ask my next questions. He is eating a bit; we offer him blood worms daily, but he is only eating 1-2 at a time, and not every day. He is pooping a bit. He will move around by wiggling his body. His front legs move a little. He has remained right side up all day.

1. Any ideas why he is not using his legs?
2. The rear of his body is floating. Any idea why? Could this be related to the "paralyzed" back legs?
3. Does he look too fat? Could he be compacted/constipated?
4. What is this little dent on his back near his tail? Could this be an injury from when he was on his back?

He has been looking like this for over a week now. I know it's not ammonia. We have been doing daily water changes. We have been keeping his water temperature between 64-66 degrees. He is in a dim room and we are trying not to stress him out. I don't know what else to do for him. Maybe it's a case of keep doing what we're doing and wait to see what happens.

Any input would be most welcome! Thank you.

Hopefully others can weigh in on this, who may have dealt with this before. Right now, I'm stumped. I hate to say that he certainly does look very ill.
I see what you mean about his legs... and he does seem swollen in some areas(like the throat and head perhaps), but it doesn't appear to be constipated. The "dent" in the tail looks like it may be bacterial. However, a vet I am not.
You may want to try taking him to a vet familiar with amphibians.

And please let us know what transpires. I know we are all hoping the little one makes a complete recovery! The keeping of him in cool, clean water, and offering food he likes, and keeping him quiet and low stress... these are all good things.

I feel so bad for the poor little thing. This happened so fast. One day he was swimming around and the next day he was lethargic. He is hanging in there, which gives me hope. I want to do everything I can to help him. I will make some calls to vets within driving distance tomorrow and see if I can get him seen. I checked the list of herp vets on this site and there are a few that are relatively close to me. Now, I just have to hope one of them knows something about axolotls!

Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it.

Well, we went to the vet today. He was not overly optimistic about the prognosis. He agreed that our guy, Aethrios, looks a little "bloated". His opinion was something neurological, given the limited use of limbs, lethargy, and difficulty maintaining balance. Other than the notch on his tail, there is no real sign of external infection. So, he prescribed an anti-inflammatory medication on the off chance that he has an internal infection. I have to try to get one drop per day into his mouth. The first dose seemed to go pretty well, given the fact Aethrios is not moving much. I carefully took him out of the water, positioned him so I could drop the medication right into his mouth, then got him right back in the water.

Still no clear answers as to what is causing this. His water quality and temperature have been great for the past two weeks. The vet said it could a genetic issue.

We'll see what happens.

Any update on your little lotl? We're all worried about the progress.

Hi there. Well, here's the latest on our guy. He is still hanging in there, but not much change in his status. He had been refusing food, (first ignoring it completely, then finally snapping a worm up, then immediately spitting it back out). Today, he actually got a couple of blood worms into his stomach. I can see them there (the benefit of a young, albino axie!)

He seems a tiny bit more active, but still can't right himself if he gets on his back. He does seem to be trying harder, though. Before, he would just wiggle for a second or two then give up.

He still has no movement in the back legs and very little movement in the front. I'm not sure whether he is going to improve or if we are just prolonging the inevitable. I was thinking he would just end up starving himself to death. Today has given me a little encouragement. I don't think he is suffering but of course I can't tell for sure. I guess we'll just keep on working on getting food into him and see if he improves.

I am open to any other suggestions folks might have. Thanks for checking in and thanks to everyone for the suggestions and concern.

Quick update: He is still hanging in there. He is a little more active, but has refused food for the last two days. He actually swims away from the food, heading to another corner of the tank. Not sure what this is about. I am wondering if he has severe neurological damage and doesn't know this is food.

His rear legs are still not moving at all. He seems to have a little more movement in the front legs, but not much. He moves around by wiggling rather than moving his legs. He seems to be having an easier time righting himself when he gets on his back or side.

So, not much change and I'm not sure what is going to happen. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to chime in. We're just trying to keep him comfortable and get some food into him, hoping that he will recover. However, it has been over 3 weeks without much change, so I am not feeling too optimistic.

Poor little guy! I have a sick one right now too. My fingers are crossed for you!

Thanks! I hope your axie is feeling better soon, too.