Help my axolotl is barely alive

There are visible differences. They both look a cottony in the early stages, little patches of necrotic tissue typically on the head and gills, but saprolegnia turns hairy and puffy, almost like a dandelion puff. It spreads out like a sphere, whereas columnaris runs along the skin. It makes these raised areas where the skin is infected with bacteria but not yet necrotic (the fuzzy white bits around the gills in these photos are the necrotic bits). In a pale axolotl you should see redness in those areas, they are inflamed. I'm pretty sure the skin is attempting to encapsulate the bacteria to contain them (hence all the little bumps). Also the necrotic regions are white (until they get dirty with debris), but the bacteria that cause columnaris are yellow rods. They stack up like little haystacks, and you can actually see them in these pictures, in between the white spots, they stick out like mini spaghettis. (By the time you can see them with the naked eye, there really are a ton of them!)

I should specify again, I'm not a vet, just an animal care technician and my specialty is fish, not amphibians. This does look very similar to what I would expect to see in a scaleless fish with columnaris, though.

Oh, one thing I didn't mention is that hydrogen peroxide gently applied to the skin with a cotton swab while the animal is (briefly) out of the water also works to kill the bacteria. Draining the tank, cleaning it with peroxide and rinsing well would work to disinfect it.The only thing is, I don't know how axolotls react to peroxide. I know they handle the antibiotics, though, because I treated mine this way.
 
Re: Sick axolotl (swollen cloaca???) PLZ HELP

ACamphibians13 said:
Well it might be a tumour caused by some form of cancer I don't think it could be the gravel since axoltls and salamander larvae both eat there food by sucking it into their mouth but that would not explain the the lump because they would die after choking on the gravel. What I'm hoping is that it is a male and the swollen cloaca just means That it is the breeding season. I hope that your body will be ok.
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Idk if this is true but I know I read somewhere that axolotls basically can't get cancer, I believe the article said its 1000x less likely in axololts than humans.
 
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  • Shane douglas:
    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
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  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
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  • stanleyc:
    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
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    Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus Japanese . I'm raising them and have abandoned the terrarium at about 5 months old and switched to the aquatic setups you describe. I'm wondering if I could do this as soon as they morph?
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