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Pretty Ugly Injury

EmbryH

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Hey guys. Long time no see. Unfortunately it is with bad news that I come back from my hiatus. While I've been away, I adopted Albus and Jinx, my old roommate's axolotls. They've been great for months, but the other day we ran into a problem.

I had gone to feed everyone, when I opened my worm container to find all of them dead. Of course I couldn't feed my axies dead, moldy worms, so I asked my boyfriend to go to the store and get more...

...a few minutes later I walk by Albus and Jinx's tank, to see Jinx in a curled position, holding his arm out oddly. Then I saw the injury.

It seems that Albus took a good chunk of flesh out of Jinx when he realized he wasn't getting a worm. I'm pretty upset about this because it's been a very long time since we've had a serious injury.

I immediately put Jinx in the fridge, where he has spent most of his time since this happened, which was Wednesday evening.

Here's a link to some images. The first group of them were taken one day after the attack, and the last two were taken just now. You can see how his limb is swollen and discolored.

My basic plan is to monitor it closely, offer him food often, and basically keep him mostly in the fridge until the wound starts to close (if he doesn't drop the leg).

My question is can you guys think of any other measures I can take to make this easier on him, or to make sure fungus won't set in?
 
E

Elise

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It looks as though some of the skin was degloved as a result of the injury. I have no input other than to wish Jinx a full recovery. I really hope you post follow up pictures because this type of injury seems to be quite common and I've yet to see how they look during/after the healing process.
 

Petersgirl

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Axxies are amazing healers - so let's back up that natural healing tendency by carrying on feeding consistent meals, keeping him dark and cool, and lessening stress. Just like you, Axxies benefit from quiet and consistency when poorly.

It is your choice whether to move your bubby into a hospital tank at this point. Just be aware if it's not cycled you will need to do daily water changes, so bear that in mind. The best measure will be tea baths (or Indian Almond Leaves, if you have them). Tea baths tighten their skin and have an antibiotic and antifungal effect, as well as soothing the slime coat. Here's the recipe:

I mainly use teabaths for minor skin problems. It may also be used with fungal problems but on that account I prefer salt baths. Tea has a slightly antifungal and antibacterial effect (resulting from tannins) and additionally it closes the pores in the skin a little bit (mainly resulting from tannin and caffeine). The skin tightens and gets some kind of protective layer, making it harder for fungi and bacteria to intrude the body. On the other hand it makes it harder for salt or medicine to reach pathogens which are already inside the body - that is the reason I do not use it on fungal infections, although a tea bath is sometimes recommended as a cure for fungal infections by some people.
The medication is as follows: I take one bag of black tea without any additional aroma (it is important to use black tea because this kind of tea is fermented and so it has tannins) for every 10 litres of water (preferably used in a quarantine tank). This tea gets dashed with boiling water in a seperate bowl - I leave it there for at least 10 to 15 minutes so the tannins are resolved into the water. The tea has to cool down and is finally added to the quarantine water. After a week I make a bigger change of water (60% at least), the rest of the tea is removed over time by normal water changes. If you have to make more regular water changes (f.i. in a small bowl or tank) the tea concentration can be refilled. As far as I know there are no negative effects even for long term treatment.
A similar effect (although not as strong) may have the addition of dried oak or beech leafs now and then as a precaution.
So use a plain black tea without flavourings (so not herbal or fruit). Pop it in a cup. Make up the hot tea without milk or sugar, then leave until cool. Add to the tank and follow these instructions to lessen it.

The tea will not harm your axolotl at all, even if it is completely healthy.

Hope this helps :)
 

EmbryH

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Thank you so much for the well-wishes and suggestions!

I'm cataloging the wound every day, and I'll post some updates here soon. He doesn't seem to be getting any worse, and it appears as though a small layer of flesh is starting to regenerate. He ate when I offered him food yesterday, but not today. Still, I don't take that as too discouraging of a sign, as it was a good sized worm he at, and my axolotls normally won't eat two days in a row.

I'll look into doing a tea bath tomorrow.

Thank you again for the suggestions!
 

EmbryH

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Just an update: Jinx is doing ok right now. His leg is still pretty ugly, but the wound is starting to close and there's no sign of fungus.

He's eating pretty normally, and I have him in a tub in a nice cold part of the house, so he isn't in the fridge every day and has resumed a pseudo-normal life.

Pics will be up soon for those interested!
 

Petersgirl

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That's great! I really hope he carries on with the good work :)

Looking forward to pics :happy:
 

EmbryH

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Here's the updated gallery, guys.

You can see the progression. Again, I kept him in the fridge for the better part of several days, taking him out for a few hours to offer him food. Then I transferred him to a 10gallon tub so he would have more consistent water temperatures.

I do a water change every day, he's been eating well, and his wound seems to slowly be getting better. Soon I'll have an extra tank to move him into.

Here's the gallery with the newer images at the end.
 

Petersgirl

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The area of the wound definetely appears to be shrinking, and it's decidedly less red. He's looking good :)
 

EmbryH

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Hey guys, so Jinx has healed up enough that I was able to put him back in his tank on Saturday.

Thanks for the support you guys have given. I'll have updated pictures soon :)
 
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Elise

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That is incredible. Though the healing process what were some of the things you did to aid in his recovery?
 

auntiejude

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Wow, thats an amazing recovery. But then we know axies are pretty amazing at recovery anyway :D
 

EmbryH

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Thanks guys.

Jinx did most of the hard work himself. I've kept you fairly up to date on what measures I took, but I'll summarize the whole thing so that people can hopefully gain something from my experience, as having an injured axolotl can be really scary @_@

First of all, immediately after the attack, Jinx seemed to drop a little bit of weight. That was concerning, but I figured it was a combination of stress and his body trying to regenerate quickly.

As soon as I noticed his wound, I put him in the fridge and didn't disturb him until I did a water change the next day, so he had the entire night and the better part of a day to try and de-stress.

I knew that I had to get him to eat, but that keeping him in the fridge would completely destroy his appetite (Jinx and Albus have always been a little more sensitive to temperatures, I've noticed. I generally CANNOT get them to eat if they've been fridged) so in order to protect him from fungus and try to put more weight on him, every day I would take him out of the fridge and set him in a cool, shaded part of the house for about 4-5 hours to let the temperature get a little warmer. I offered him food, and he took it regularly. I didn't like making him constantly adjust to different temperatures, but it was the only way to get him to eat and avoid fungus (which I am extremely paranoid about and will avoid at all costs).

As soon as his wound looked like it wouldn't be too vulnerable to fungus, I transferred Jinx to a 10gal plastic tub with a thermometer and a small cave. The tub had a lid with several dime-sized air holes in it, and the tub was kept under a desk in the coolest room of the house. At first I was worried if this would be safe for him, but I did daily water changes, wiped down the walls of tub with each cleaning, and basically kept it as sterilized as possible. The water stayed between 58-62 degrees the entire time without need for frozen water bottles or ice blocks.

Throughout this entire process, I offered him food every single day (something I recommend doing whenever an axolotl is injured, even if you normally feed them on a bi-daily basis), kept his temperature down, and took pictures of the wound so that I could genuinely tell if there were any small changes to it, be they positive or negative. This is something that actually really helped me out. I've dealt with other bad injuries before, but this is the first time I had documented it. The knowledge you get from it is incredibly worth it, and I feel like it gave me a much better opinion on how the wound was progressing. There was no second guessing about "Was it that color yesterday? Is that something starting to grow? That's not fungus, is it?" I will definitely be doing this with any injuries in the future, and if you don't do it, I highly recommend it.

I may not have done everything 100% by the book (temperature fluctuations, unconventional containers) but I applied what knowledge and advice I had/had been given, tried to remember how Jinx as an individual reacts to things, and went, cautiously, with my instinct. I'd say it all turned out for the best, because Jinx is healed up and has even put on more weight than he started with in the first place.

That's my experience. Thanks again for everyone's support and advice; it was really, really nice to have because, again, having a badly injured axie is scary.

Thanks!
 
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