Egg bound Tiger and strange behavior

I have two Tigers that are in a mixture of dirt and coir with a small water dish and a hiding area. We change the mixture every few weeks because otherwise fungus gnats become a problem.

They had been thriving well, eating mostly earth worms, red worms, and occasionally crickets because they go crazy for them. We do not have air conditioning at the house so in the summer when it got warm we would ice pack around the tank which seemed to work well. Winter is here now and we keep the house at about 66 degrees. Since the weather change, one of the salamanders, who was not a very big eater to begin with, has not been wanting to eat more than maybe once a week. The other larger, more active one was still eating about three times a week.

Last week both of them started spending all their time in the water dish rather than in the soil like usual. Over the weekend, the larger one died. This week the exotic veterinarian that I work with (I'm a veterinary tech) and I performed a necropsy and discovered that her reproductive system was huge, and there were eggs clustered everywhere, around the liver, heart, and packed around the intestines. We found a partially digested worm and no signs of impaction there or any masses in the body. Cause of death, we speculated, was the salamander becoming egg bound. We examined the remaining salamander and could not find anything wrong clinically.

So my questions are:
How common is it for them to become egg bound, and with captive breeding so notoriously difficult, how is this problem fixed if you suspect that this is happening?

Is my other salamander acting in a manner that would raise any red flags for illness by spending so much time in the water dish and having a decreased appetite? I have heard that decreased appetite is normal and abnormal from various sources.

Were both of your tiger salamanders confirmed male and female? From my experience from doing necropsies on various Taricha species, we found females harboring unfertilized eggs and they appear as if they are packed around the intestines and other organs though it was never the cause of death. It was usually parasites or fungal/bacterial infections

It's possible that they were exposed to some sort of skin fungus and are having trouble staying hydrated as they can't properly absorb the water through their skin, which is why they might be spending more time in the water dish. In my opinion, when herps tend to act out of the ordinary as in not being as active or spending all the time in the water (if this is unusual) and not eating, are red flags. I would urge you to see the exotics vet you work with again to look for any signs of fungal infection and take fecal samples if possible. I would also think about moving it to a quarantine-like enclosure and monitor it for the time being in case something in the current enclosure is causing these behaviors. It's possible that your salamander is perfectly fine and going off feed is normal for it but my tiger salamander is a voracious eater and I would be definitely concerned if she ever went off feed. Sorry I can't be of more help! I hope everything works out okay!

Thank you for you input! I'll have to collect a fecal sample and send it to our lab. Surprisingly I never see fecal matter in the cage so I will have to look a lot closer.

Are there any physical signs of a skin fungal infection? We looked the live salamander over pretty well and did not see anything out of the ordinary with the skin or any other part. The oNE we did the necropsy on looked very healthy internally, the intestine was a bit decomposed but the vet said that that can happen very fast in a dead animal so she didn't think it was any sort of pathology. I wonder what testing would need to be done to identify a skin infection or if you treat and look for any improvement to diagnose. Do you know what type of antibiotic would be used? I would think Baytril, that's typically what we use for reptiles I think, but I don't know if the vet would know what is best without research, my tigers are the first she's treated.

I'm going to clean the tank out, usually we just rinse it and change the substrate, but are there any safe cleaners that would get rid of any fungus or other infectious things? Can they get a fungal infection from fungus gnats or are the gnats secondary to something like that? I had Tigers for years as a child and never had the gnat problem or any health/behavior problems, but with these ones it seems to be an ongoing battle. Maybe I should use a different brand of dirt or something?

We know the one that died is female, but not sure about the other one. It is more vibrant in color and smaller than the other, but neither of us could really tell what sex it is. I can take a picture of its cloaca if that could help. So they can have lots of unfertilized eggs in them and they aren't harmful? The eggs looked so strange because both of us thought they would be in the actual tubes, not freely throughout the body.

Again, thanks for answering my boat loads of questions, haha.

From comments made by vets on this site its my understanding that ambystoma can't become "egg bound", their eggs are not like reptiles.

But can they produce too many eggs? Not egg bound where nothing comes out, but where they literally have no more space in anything for any more eggs

Hi Lindsay,

Which exotic vet do you work for? I live in West Jordan and take my rats and rabbits to Wasatch Exotic (though luckily I have not needed to use their services for my caudates...yet).

To the best of my knowledge, the fungus that the gnats live on is not pathogenic. And I have only ever had an issue with gnats when I have kept the substrate too damp (I use a mix of coco fiber and organic potting soil). Though being in Utah, I know it is hard to maintain an ideal humidity level so sometimes I think it is better to err on the side of caution and keep things more wet than we would like!

Sorry I can offer no real help, but I do give my condolences for your loss. It is never easy to lose a friend, be it human or otherwise.

HJ

Also, where did you get your water from? It could have had some stuff in it

I'm also wondering if they can make too many eggs and wonder how that works with them.

Thanks for the condolences jewett. I work at North Ogden, I haven't been to the Wasatch one. I do keep it fairly wet, not soaked or anything though.

Anyone have info on stuff to clean tanks with? I'm hesitant to use anything, but I'm concerned if I just use water it won't help clear up any of the problems.