Axies not eating, possible bloat

Hi, all.

I'm a long time keeper, first time poster, hoping to get some advice/opinions from anyone with any medical knowledge. All answers are greatly appreciated.

We had a filter stop working a few weeks back and by the time we caught it, the water parameters had become very unpleasant. Low pH, High ammonia and nitrite. We got the 'lotls out to a temporary tank, but shortly after that, they began to develop lumps on their gills and bodies. We fridged them and began treating them with methylene blue.

We lost one. Before she died, her body became very bloated, and it was from this that we researched and learned about the horrors of bloat. Of the other two, one is doing fine, eating, lumps nearly gone and the other may be showing early signs of bloat. Here's a picture of her.



Ignore the blue, she'd just come out of the methylene.

Does this axolotl look like she may be bloating? And if so, can anyone suggest a treatment? We've been trying without much success to locate an amphbian vet close to us, but we may need to treat her ourselves in the meantime. I've read a few things about Ringer's solution and even laxatives, but any guidance for us to help our girls would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

She doesn't look terribly bloated to me - How chunky was she before this happened? Of course, keep an eye on it. Being as you lost another to bloat I'm sure you unfortunately know what to look out for (swollen legs, abdomen, throat and floating) Bloat is often caused by fluid or gas build up in the gut - not something I'd recommend using laxatives for. It's a really nasty issue for axolotls and up to this point I've only been able to treat it the once when it occured in a girl I rehomed with terrible impaction, with the help of a professional. Even that's a long shot being as even exotic vets that actually have any experience with axolotls are hard to come by.

My Toothless always looks that fat.

just thinking is methylene blue safe for axolotl? and also can you tell us what you feed , and lastly that isnt a bloat

jeromeetabuzo said:

just thinking is methylene blue safe for axolotl? and also can you tell us what you feed , and lastly that isnt a bloat

Click to expand...

People are divided on the use of Methylene Blue, it is listed as being safe for Axolotls provided you use the lowest dose possible see this article.

Many people feel that there are much safer alternatives and others consider it to be toxic to Axolotls and Salamanders generally.

If you search this forum you will find a miasma of opinion on the subject.

Hi everyone,

I'm Lord Lucan's girlfriend, he's away for the weekend, so I've been taking care of them over the weekend. Thanks to everyone who's replied. To answer your questions she's not been fed for around a month now as she's been in the fridge for treatment. Before that she was fed solely on earthworms, the same food we gave our boys, fortunately they're all fine. We raised them from eggs, so they've never been kept on gravel or been exposed to anything they could have swallowed, so we're sure it's not impaction. We're certain this situation is down to poor water quality. We moved house recently and the water here doesn't hold a neutral PH well at all - we've learnt the hard way it's prone to turning acidic. We didn't test the PH often enough to spot the issue, which we feel absolutely awful about . As for the methylene blue, we've been using a quarter to a half the recommended dose for fish. We did monitor them very carefully at first and it doesn't seem to have caused them distress and has seemed to help them shed most of the lumps. The slime coat does seem to be almost healed now.

Unfortunately, it is looking like she has bloat. I've just water changed her and her neck is starting to show some swelling, also the back legs aren't bending at the knee as they should when she's moving around. She's not floating yet though...Have to admit it's not looking good, but I'm willing to try to do all I can to help her. I'm going to speak to my local exotics vets again tomorrow - they say they don't treat amphibians, but hopefully there may be someone there willing to try to drain some fluid from her.

I'm keeping her in the fridge for the time being and doing daily water changes, can anyone suggest anything else I could try? I've read aquarium salts can be used in the absence of Ringer's solution to treat bloat, has anyone got any experience of that? Or any idea where I could get Ringer's solution in the UK? (again I'll ask my vets tomorrow). Better still, if anyone happens to know a good amphibian vet in Yorkshire? (I live in Leeds).

"I'm keeping her in the fridge for the time being and doing daily water changes, can anyone suggest anything else I could try? I've read aquarium salts can be used in the absence of Ringer's solution to treat bloat, has anyone got any experience of that? Or any idea where I could get Ringer's solution in the UK? (again I'll ask my vets tomorrow). Better still, if anyone happens to know a good amphibian vet in Yorkshire? (I live in Leeds)."

Check out the sticky thread on where to find vets, the list is pretty comprehensive.

You might find an Axolotl vet nearby

Thanks Jen,

We'd heard about the place in Battleflatts, so good to see it's on the list of recommended vets. It's not terribly local to us, but we spoke to them earlier and got an appointment for tomorrow :happy:. The vet sounded very helpful, said we could have as much time as we need to make sure we can do everything we can to help them. He also said he would have recommended fridging and low dose methylene blue baths, so fingers crossed the bloat isn't organ failure and we can try to keep treating it.

Thanks for the advice, all. I'm posting the outcome for educational purposes to help anyone that finds this thread in the future.

We took the two axolotls to the vet on tuesday. The one in the picture had become very bloated very quickly and died shortly after we got her there. A postmortem revealed that her organs were fine, but there was a buildup of fluid in the abdomen and a significant bacterial infection. While I'm not prepared to pay for a full autopsy of the organs, we can say with as reasonable as possible certainty that this infection is probably what killed her.

Her sister, Hope came home today, having received an injection of antibiotics and will be getting a 4-hour bath in Beytril for the next 7 days on the vet's advice. She's not showing any signs of bloat, but has the same lumps, so it seems likely that she has whatever the other one had. Antibiotics should sort it and I'll post again when there's some change.

The lesson that's been learned here cost two beautiful axolotls their lives, and so I'm determined that lesson should reach as many people as possible. The infection took hold because the water quality issues damaged their slime coats and due to either that or sickness caused by toxic shock, their immunity was weakened. If something like this happens to you, don't waste time fridging them or treating them with anything less than powerful antibiiotics. Seek a vet as quickly as possible!

Thank you for posting the update.

I'm so sorry you lost two of your lotls during all this

Hopefully others will benefit from the information shared - that can be your lotls legacy to caudata.org




<3 >o_o< <3

Sorry to hear of your loss

Fingers crossed for your other little lass, hope all goes well with the antibiotic treatment and she's good as new soon.

Thanks for the good wishes, all. As of now, Hope appears to have pulled through. Fingers crossed, but she completed her course of treatment and seems clear of any sign of infection. Eating fine, and full of life, in fact she's a slippery little thing! (At the moment, while we're re-cycling the tanks, they're in temporary accomodation and need to be 100% changed every day which, I can tell you is a chore after more than a month! Her brothers are bad enough but Hope doesn't want to go near a tub again, maybe she thinks we're trying to put her back in the fridge!)

I'll put a picture up when I find my phone cable!