A. mavortium shedding problem

Hello,
I keep this salamander for almost a year now, and never had aproblem with him, but i've been a little concerned lately. He used to have the eyes wide open and clean, but some time ago i've noticed him having a eye a bit more closed than the other, and today as i saw him coming out of the substrate i noticed that one eye was all brown, i cleaned him and quickly it got back to normal, and i tried to remove anything on his eye, and noticed the eye was a bit more cloudy than the other because he seemed to have some shedding skin in the eye and i can't take it out in a easy way.

Good eye


Weird eye


Terrarium




Maybe i should place some small rocks on the water so that maybe he can remove the skin himself? Anyone that had some problems similar to this and know how to take care of it, i would apreciate to know what you have done to take care of it.

PS: i have no idea of it's sex, i just mentioned it as "him" to make it easier to write. Also, if someone has any idea of it's sub specie i wouldn't mind to know either and would, again, be apreciated.

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander
From this link it looks more closely to a A.m. diaboli than anything else due to the lack of black.

Regards, limede.

They usually do not have any problems shedding as long as they are eating well. It may have an eye problem of another nature. You’ll have to monitor him to see if the problem advances. There are various pictures on this site of gender differences. If you post a photo of the underside of the genital region, someone may be able to sex it for you.
Do you have any knowledge of the area of the country it is from? To me it looks like A. m. melanostictum, but does have pattern characteristics of both. You have a very nice looking salamander.

Mine has been eating well, only mealworms past couple of months though, but i have my earthworm colony growing again. I only called this a shedding problem because it looked like there was a bit skin stuck on the eye, and i couldn't get it out.

As far as sexing it i believe i can do it by my own, but i'm not too concerned about it either because i don't have more salamanders, neither pretend to have more, so as along as it is healthy i don't care much about it's sex, but someday i'll eventualy do it.

I have no idea from what area it is from. The site i got it from even called it a A. tigrinum mavortium, but i doubt it could be a hybrid, i'm guessing it is just poor research by the site owner.
Anfíbios - Tritões e Salamandras

Other than that, thanks for the compliment and i'll keep a eye on it.

Re: A. mavortium eye (shedding) problem

I know i'll pass as someone who's probably overly concerned about something small, but that's fine. :happy:

I forgot to mention that the eye thing isn't something new, she has been with the eye more closed than the other for some couple of months now, but it never accumulated dirt to the point where i couldn't see the eye. Today the same thing happened after she got out of the ground. I took some more pics just to be sure, and only now noticed some weird markings on the belly, that i have no idea of what they are.









This last pic also can be used to sex it, but i'm more curious about those markings.
I'll try my luck and say it is a female. It looks like a lump, but i would say a male cloaca would be bigger.

I'll try to get a pic before cleaning her next time to show how the eye looks with dirt.

Regards, Limede.

What temperatures are you keeping it at?

Room temperature, unfortunely it is a bit high since it is summer here, so at most 24ºC (75ºF). I try to keep the room well ventilated when possible and the terrarium is never at direct sunlight exposure.

Ok, now i'm getting really worried. She has been burried a lot of time, now that she came up i gave her a wash, and she has those markings all over the body, the ones seen in the last pic i posted.

I have no idea whatso ever what could be happening, if it is the heat i'll try changing the terrarium to a place that will hopefully be a bit more cool.

If anyone knows what it might be, i would realy aprecite it.

Can anyone disprove this as being Chytridiomycosis?
because i have no idea, or find anything related to something similar to this markings.

Also, she is moving a lot slower and reacting a lot less when i approach the tank.

I need some advice quick if someone could provide.

Weird skin condition [URGENT]

New topic, seems like the one i've been posting in (http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...er-help/98859-mavortium-shedding-problem.html) isn't getting much attention, and i could realy use some advice now.



So this was the first time i saw the markings on my A. mavortium, and i posted this pic on the other topic, with no response on what it could been. This was about a month ago.

She has been borrowed a lot of the time since, like she usualy do, so nothing weird here.
Yesterday i wanted to check her eye, that she has a bit more closed and when dirt usualy builds up, still wondering on that too. Now those weird spots seem to be through the whole body, especialy in the limbs, and lips.

Front limb


Rear limb



She has been in the same conditions about a year and as been healthy till now, very responsive to people approaching the tank and always eager to eat, so i doubt it might have been something in the setup that may have caused this.

However this was my first summer with her, and again, till now nothing weird. After this i moved the tank to a cooler and darker place in the house, to see if heat might be a factor in this. Yesterday when i handled her she wasn't as responsive or active as she used.

Today i fed her a earthworm, she ate it like always, without any apparent problem, and when i handled her she was more responsive than yesterday. So the behavior seems more normal.


Concluding, if any one has a slim idea of what this might be, or some sort of treatment that i may be able to do to help, i would be apreciated.

I'll also try to visit the local vet to throw in some questions.

Any help would be very appreciated, thanks in advance.

Re: Weird skin condition [URGENT]

My bad, same photo twice, here it is the rear limb.

I have merged the two posts together, so all the information is together and questions or responses will not be duplicated.

I have seen posts previously regarding the black spots. If you click on the 'Search' button towards the top of the page, on the green line, type in black spots tiger you will see some of the previous posts.
Here is a link from one of them :- http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...8-sickly-tiger-salamander-need-help-asap.html

I apreciate the help. When i looked through the diseases section on caudata culture i couldn't find anything similar. Also, when googling for this i also sisn't got anything alike. So i got worried.

I searched for more similar topics like you said, and found what seems to be a good treatment.

misky99 said:

30 minute soak with 1/2 tsp of salt 1 liter of water and a 1/4 of a medicine tablet (Sulfatrim 8.00 T /// 80/400 for 480mg) for two weeks. During the soak I have to scrub the lesions with a Q-tip and finally apply a silvadene ointment on the lesions.

Click to expand...

I actualy already have a silver sulfadiazine based product other than silvadene, called silverderma, which i think it just the same thing with another name.

Tomorrow i'll go to the vet and discuss this tratment with them.

Thanks for the help, glad that it doesn't look like something too serious but will definitely take action asap.

Ok, i'll continue the monologue.
Two weeks ago i took her to the vet (she called this a dermatosis of bacterial or fungal nature) and I've beem doing this treatment since then:

0,4ml of baytril in 500ml of water for 20minutes.
Apply silvadene in the end, about 4-5 times a week.

I'm happy to say that she's now looking a lot better.

3rd treatment




Yesterday (2weeks after)


For anyone who's interested in knowing the proportions of baytril to use, my salamander weight was 58grams at the time. So it's about 0,1ml of baytril (in 500ml of water) for each 14,5grams of weight.

Is the eye problem gone now?

Oh forgot to talk about that. The eye problem continues.



The right eye being the normal one.
The vet hought it could be a bad shed around the eye or something as well, but no idea to make it look normal again.

It MIGHT Be an Irritation from digging, you could put it on paper towel if it is so the eye isn't in contact with any surfaces ..

Ok, so another update.
After 2 weeks of treatment i decided to wait one week without doing anything, but she still had some spots on her belly, so i will continue the treatment with baytril (250ml water and 0,2ml baytril, since now she only needs to have her belly covered), and some silvadene after.

She shed her skin after 2 treatments again, and i decided to try and figure out if this is a bacterial or fungal problem. I'm studying biology on the university so it wasn't hard to get a microscope.



Looks like this is a fungal problem, so in theory, baytril isn't needed to treat it, since baytril is a bacteriostatic drug.

Even though this thread is mostly composed by my posts, I'll update this, since this might be helpful for anyone in the future.

About a month ago, i changed the substrate again, and tried to disinfect all the terrarium components the best I could.
But still today, she gets some relapses, having some spots on her belly. I apply silvadene, and even when it starts to look better, the spots show up again.

However, she looks healthy, and behaves healthy too.

My next plan of attack, is to simply let her in a platic container (as some people already suggested) and apply silvadene daily until she looks fungus free.
In the meanwhile, i will boil her cave and pool, as well the substrate, to kill any fungus it might have again. I will also clean the tank again.

I'll let you know if this worked. Cheers.

It's nice to hear she is better, hopefully she will make a full recovery. Sorry that you haven't received much help here but your post will certainly be helpful to others.

Thanks for the kind words.

Yeh, i can't expect people to help me with something like this unless they have experienced it themselves, but that's totally fine, and that's the reason i'm still trying to document what happens to her, so that people who need to handle this, don't stress out immediately like i did. Maybe even add this symptoms to the CC article about illness would be a good idea.