Triturus marmoratus with strange illness

I have two T. marmoratus, about 1.5 years old, just on the brink of maturity. At the same time, both stopped eating and I noticed they both had a slight lump on their backs. It can be seen in the photos, just in front of the back legs. The one in the picture has a very noticable bulge, the other one has a much smaller bulge, but it is there. Neither have eaten in nearly a month, so I fear their prospects are grim. They had a large feeding of crickets just before this became noticable, so I suspect this could have been the cause (or part of the cause).

Anyone else ever seen such a thing? Any ideas about cause or treatment?

Constipation?

It could in fact be a result of impaction(constipation) and there may be nothing you can do, aside from surgery. Although crickets(those available commercially) have very soft bodies, it is very possible that a part of their shell may have gotten lodged somewhere and was unable to be digested.

I do not have too much knowledge of this in caudates, but in geckos, some keepers have luck force-feeding vegetable oil as a lubricant.

Another technique used in lizards is to soak them in water to help loosen the stool. If the marmoratus aren't too prone to drowning, I would try to keep them aquatic.

Good Luck!!!

~Aaron

How about an update Jennifer?
Hoping they are better....

Calcium deficiency, if you want my opinion.

Absolutely no offence (i do hope they get better)
but i find it incomprehensible: feeding junkfood like McCrickets to amphibians.

Depends on what you feed the crickets; I breed my own crickets in an old frigde and therefor can control their diet. I feed my juveniel salamanders and newts almost entirely on crickets dusted with Korvimin or some kind of calcium containing powder (Equimins limestone flour seems to do very well for Salamandra I heard from an excelent english breeder).

Unfortunately, one died.

Regarding crickets, I've never heard them called junk food. I agree that worms are better for most sals (and mostly what I feed), but crickets are an excellent source of protein. Their only drawback that I know of is their lack of calcium.

Follow-up. The second marmoratus (the one in both pictures above) reached the point of being near death. Following euthanasia, autopsy revealed that the "lump" on its back was clearly a deformity of the spine. The digestive tract looked normal.

I think this must have been metabolic bone disease (MBD), which is generally a result of lack of calcium or vitamin D. This does not explain why both newts stopped eating after a single (rare) feeding of crickets.

I know another person who has also had T. marmoratus die with bent spines. I suspect that this species may have a more stringent need for calcium or vitamin D than other species of caudates commonly kept.

I know of no other examples of caudates with MBD. I have heard of no documented cases in the literature (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Has anyone else on this forum had any experience with MBD in caudates?