Balloon Axolotl

This is a friends axalotl, its approx 2 years old, 5" long, kept in a tank by itself, sand substrate, fed on garden worms every 2-3days, decent water quality, and about 3 weeks ago it began to swell up. Its still feeding, moving around and appears happy and alert. It just has a belly that makes it almost as wide as it is long!!!

Its not floating so the swelling appears to be full of fluid. Does anyone know what caused it? And how to make it go down???

Re: Balloon Axalotl

Hi there!

It looks like your axie may have the same problem as this one:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...ding/67899-egg-bound-axolotl-help-needed.html

If you read it there is a LOT of great info on this. I'm definitely no expert so I'm not for sure on this, but to me it looks similar. It could have an infection.

Good luck.

Tahnee

Re: Balloon Axalotl

The poor little axolotl needs to see a vet urgently, I would think so much swelling will be causing this axolotl a lot of discomfort. If its not bloat it may be something else. This post had something similar.
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...a-mexicanum/f58-sick-axolotl/68913-bloat.html

Re: Balloon Axalotl

I agree. This almost looks like a huge air embolism, whatever has caused this will need to be treated by a vet as soon as possible! Poor little thing - good luck to you both! Please keep us posted.

Re: Balloon Axalotl

It is bloat, and I would bet that the body cavity is simply full of fluid. In a healthy freshwater animal, the kidneys are constantly pumping excess water out of the body. If the kidneys are impaired (and this can happen for a number of reasons, including hormone imbalances, kidney failure, etc), they can't keep up with the normal influx of water and bloating is what happens. Sometimes it progresses quickly (especially if it's caused by infection), sometimes slowly. I had a newt that lingered like this for months. See:
Caudata Culture Articles: Bloat

Therapies include draining the fluid and keeping the animal in a bath of isotonic fluid (fluid that has the same salt concentration as the animal's blood, thus preventing further influx of water - there is a recipe in the article I linked above). However, both of these measures are usually temporary and the animal eventually dies due to the underlying problem.

Re: Balloon Axalotl

Right, thanks for the links, there is certainly plenty of information in them!

It appears that it is bloat, the 3 most likely causes are:

Bacterial - possible, going to go over and check water quality tomorrow to see if it could be making things worse
Kidney damage - fits, but unsure as to what would have caused it, the animal hasn't be subjected to heat stress, had a decent diet (unless it wasn't often enough when the axalotl was younger)
Or Mutant gene (f) - Fluid imbalance - if its genetic i presume there is nothing you can do?

Im endeavouring to find an amphibian specific vet, struggling at the moment though!

One thing mentioned in one of the articles was that it can be caused by dehydration? Forgive me for being thick, but how do you dehydrate an animal that lives in water?

Is this more a case of electrolite/salt imbalance rather that true dehydration? And how would you go about diagnosing dehydration? Or what would be the conditions required for dehydration?

Re: Balloon Axalotl

I think you are right about dehydration. Someone has probably picked up a piece about causes of kidney failure which can be caused by dehydration in terrestrial animals including adult amphibians. Your axolotl probably has kidney failure but dehydration is not the cause.

An amphibian ringers solution may ease symptoms and if you cannot get all the ingredients then short term a solution of salt at 6g per litre is less stressful than dechlorinated tap water. Do try to make up a complete ringers solution but getting the sodium chloride concentration right is the most important short term measure. Kidney failure does not often reverse, so if you think you cannot make this animal comfortable you should consider euthanasia.

Like the previous post I am strongly recommending getting the axolotl into an isotonic salt mix to ease the electrolyte imbalance.

Re: Balloon Axalotl

A salt bath it is going to be im afraid, some of the ingredients for amphibian ringers solution are more than a little difficult to get hold of!

Anyone know anywhere to buy Potassium chloride (KCl) other than ordering from chemical supply sites? Most of then require memberships or you to be a institution before they will ship it!

How long at a time should I keep it in the salt solution???

Still looking for an amphibian vet, anyone know of one in/near hampshire?

Re: Balloon Axalotl

The proprietary salt substitute Lo-salt is 66% potassium chloride and you can use it and just cut back on the sodium chloride in the mix a bit. Most grocers and supermarkets (other than Morrisons for some reason) stock it. There is also a 50/50 blend called SoLo.

Calcium chloride in "dehumidifier granules" from hardware stores in my experience tests as fairly pure.

If the recipe includes magnesium sulphate the pharmaceutical grade of epsom salts from the local chemist is safer than the horticultural stuff. I have a bag of so called magnesium sulphate manufactured by J Arthur Bowers which was heavily contaminated with iron sulphate. It is fine for plants but not axolotls.

Cheers very much, nice to find someone who (im guessing) has done this before!

How long should it be left in the solution?

Could the whole tank be altered on a long term basis to reduce and maintain the swelling?

I haven't used full strength Ringer type solutions in axolotls but I use a weaker similar mix the whole time (at about the level of 1.25g salts per litre) - Holtfreter's solution is basically a diluted Ringer's solution. You will almost certainly need a level of about 6-7g salts per litre long term.

If you do convert the whole tank some plants are supposed not to like the high salt level, so do not be surprised if they start to die.

One possible reversible cause of bloat is extreme acid water (pH levels below 5): this causes acute loss of salts. As you say decent water quality in the first post this is probably not he cause here. Years ago I let a fish tank drift too acid and the bloated fish recovered within a day or so in a salt mix but needed continued salt support for over a month, cutting the salt at two weeks resulted in a recurrence of symptoms.

If you do convert the whole tank watch the ammonia, nitrite and nitate as the filter organisms may be disturbed by the change. Test kits that work on fresh water only may not work properly so make sure you use ones that say they are for both freshwater and marine.

Sorry to take so long to reply, Im currently moving house and have no internet!

Going to continue short term with the baths.

There is a local vet, who although not an amphibian specialist (they were ready to admit this) are going to see if they can drain some of the fluid and do a culture to see if it bacterial. If not it would appear that it is kidney damage or a mutant gene (neither of which is fixable).

Their tank contains only artificial decoration, so it will only be the filter to worry about. And they are trying to get a freshwater and marine test kit. If anyone else has any experience with using a high salinity tank feel free to mention any important points! Although oceanblue is doing a top notch job!