Sickly taricha granulosa

I have a T. gran who is chubby but his back bone is poking up his skin all the way from his head down his tail. He looks very different from the other one I have and from the pictures of them on this sight. He has been like this for a while, but I don't think it looks healthy. I separated him for now and have been observing him, but I can't tell what's up.
The longer story is that he looked normal for the first few months of having him and then I observed him and his tank mate in some mating behavior and then the female got fat, but I never saw any eggs, anyway he quit eating and his body looked weird, like he had a pot belly right on his body right above his legs. He even seemed to have what looked like a "marble" in his throat. After I separated him from his tank mate, he has started eating again, and he's gain weight but his back bone still sticks out. Any advice?

Hi Audrey, I don't know much about the fatness with the bone still sticking out. What does he eat?

About the marble in his throat though, is that there all the time, or only if he's resting part way out of the water and breathing? Newts do that sometimes like frogs where their throats poof out. That's normal.

Has he just started eating again? I see the whole backbone thing happen in Taricha at the pet store who probably aren't eating/sick. He could look like that from not eating for a while. Intestinal blockage anyone think? It is a very good sign that he is eating again and it may take a while for him to fill out to healthy shape from being in that form.

How long did he quit eating and how long has it been since he started again?

This may help. I have a picture. He has been eating for a couple of weeks now and he seems robust, but his back bone still sticks out.

he looks a little dehydrated to me. is he going in the water often?
How old is this little guy?

He does go in the water but he usually hangs out on the plants, not on the bottom. I have had him for about six months. How does a newt get dehydrated? Should I spray him with water?

A newt would be dehydrated because it doesnt go in to the water either because it doesnt want to, or something is wrong ith the water, ie, imbalance, too many chemicals, etc...
What do you clean your water with and how is it being filtered?
Also, is your newt shedding? He looks dry in the picture, and i cant tell if the photo is just shiny or if his skin is cloudy...I think you should talk to an expert ASAP!

I agree that he does not look healthy. I've seen other newts that had shiny skin and backbone showing like this, but I don't know what you can do. Feed him well and hope for the best.

Looks like my McGooey, except McGooey is skin and bones, very thin, still not eating, but he may have taken a bloodworm tonight. McGooey became dehydrated while battling a bacterial infection. The rest of the story is questionable, so I won't go into it. He is under a vet's care and we go back for his follow up visit tomorrow. I'm afraid to say that in my newt's case it doesn't look good, but I'm not giving up on him. I've been letting him go on a supervised swim the past couple of days in the main tank with his tank mate, and tonight was the first time he could actually stay submerged for any length of time and walk around. So, I think he's not as dehydrated as he has been. Dehydration, much like dropsy is a sign of internal processes and organs shutting down.

Find an exotics vet if the wonderful people on this board don't know what to tell you.
Good luck and take care,
Mary.

audrey, how is the newt taking care?

He is in a ten gallon tank (all by himself) with a whisperer filter. I have been giving him partial water changes every week to two weeks. His water has had a problem with carbon from the filters building up in the water, but I have been rinsing the filters before changing them and I even asked on this site about the carbon in the water and I was told it shouldn't bother my newts. I did think that maybe he had eaten some carbon because it was on the bottom of the tank and the black worms seem to like to wrap around it, but I don't know. He did shed not long after the picture was taken. It was obviously unhealthy because I found his skin when I was cleaning his water yesterday. I picked him up to clean his landing area and put him in the water and he couldn't even swim. He is getting really weak. I have a vet that I can go to but he really doesn't know anything about newts and is really expensive! The water level is about 6-7in. high. He has some live plants and some fake plants and a turtle landing to come out of the water on. Today he was still on the landing but had moved to being halfway submerged in the water. I have never been able to get my newts to eat anything but black worms (I've tried earth worms, frozen blood worms and wax worms), but should I try again? Should I do any kind of treatment? I don't know a diagnosis so I haven't wanted to try anything.

You should probably set up a hospital tank for him. Get one of those critter cages and line the bottom with wet paper towels. When they are weak and dehydrated they can and will drown. I'm not sure how to entice him to eat. I hope others can give you an idea about that. But you need to get the little guys strength back up.
Take care,
Mary.

Thanks for your advice Mary. I found my newt drowning this morning so I moved him to a hospital tank, but I still don't know what to do for him. He's shedding poorly again. I can't take him to the vet, but I read through all the common illnesses pages and it seems like he must have a bacterial infection and it doesn't seem like there is anything else I can do. Can anyone help me?

Have you found any bacterial lesions? Possibly red or bloody looking spots? If you read my post "Been kinda stupid about my t. grans" I have in there the treatment that I am currently giving my newt. Perhaps others can tell you if there are equivalent non-prescription remedies you can be using. I have been treating with two anti-biotics, force feeding and an electrolyte bath. Though I am out of the bath now and have missed two vet appointments. I cannot remember if it is a gram - or gram + infection, but I think I gave all of that information in my post. I lost a newt over the summer, probably due to the hot weather and me stupidly thinking cooling off the water with full changes would help. I was so heart-broken when he died, it took me a week to bury him because I couldn't let go. And each time I'm force feeding this poor thing, I start crying it's so frustrating and tell him that it's for both him and McGloop who died before I got him to the vet.

And do not handle him with bare hands, the oils in your skin and whatever you have on your hands, soap residue, skin lotion, what-have-you, is absorbed right into their body. Buy some latex medical disposable gloves for touching him, without powder or lotioned interiors, just the plain old disposables. A box of 50 cost me $4.99 at Walgreens.

Good luck and I really hope someone else can offer you advice on meds and things easily gotten from a pet store or pharmacy.
Take care,
Mary.

Poor shedding can be an indication of many things including infection by chytrid. The newt needs to be seen by a vet and at the least have skin scrapings taken and examined under a microscope.
You cannot at this time purchase any OTC medications that will treat chytrid.

Ed

My newt is doing the same thing, accept i took him out of the tank, and in his own. His little muscles can be seen, and also his backbone. I dont know what to do, and his skin looks horrible, and his back looks inflamed. And ideas on meds?