Help, lump on head of my girl

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macd

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My one year old girl has been off her food for 4 days and today she has a big lump on her head, if anyone has any ideas I would be really grateful, by the way it seems to be under the skin, will post photo as soon as I can. She is white and the lump looks like a big pimple
 
I'm assuming you're talking about an axolotl!

Hard to say what it is without a photo.

What is your tank temperature and have you tested your water parameters - ie ammonia, nitrite or nitrate?

This may have no bearing at all on the lump, but could have a bearing on why she is off her food. How often do you feed her and with what? Our adults will occasionally go off their food for a few weeks.

Does she share the tank with other companions?
 
Yuk, getting worse

Yes, sorry she is an axolotl, I will get photo as soon as she cooperates, hiding, but lump is worse as in bigger and actually seems to be oozing fluid if that's possible all in one day, she shares with her mate a black male and water checked today good and fish breeder friend said it appears to under the skin not a wound, (sure it's not water related)he suggested lancing it but it seems to have lanced itself, Help! Any ideas, he said he's never seen anything like it, by the way she had babies about three weeks ago which I have hatched and are doing well, I just tried to bring her to front for photo again but No way is she having any of it, just wants to hide in back corner.
 
Salt bath ? Maybe?
 
As long as it is not clear what problem she definitely has it is hard to give any helpful hints, so a photo would be necessary. Could be anything but your description reminds me of a picture of an encapsulated infection I saw once.
One thing you should do is to seperate her from her companion as fast as possible and keep her in clean, cool water. If it really is an infection (and up to now it's just a "maybe...") you will have to make sure that the second one does not get infected, too! So seperate her in a quarantine tank / bucket / bowl at a shadowy place and keep a close eye on her. If its getting worse I strongly recommend that you go visit a vererinarian! Bacterial infections can not be dealt with with salt baths.
 
I agree with the quarantine. Any time you have a symptom which you cannot directly identify as to cause you should begin daily water checks and a quarantine as a small problem can get rather big rather quickly if this step is not taken. The last thing you want is to make one sick amphibian into two three or more. Get a hospital tank setup as quickly as possible and seperate. The oozing is not a good sign to me if what you're dealing with is infectious as the infectious agents are now leaking from her poor sick head and into the water your healthy pets share.

Good luck with your sick little girl.
 
Still not eating, salt bath??

Hi, I'm sorry but my computer crashed so haven't been able to log on, anyway I'm going to try and put a photo (even though it's blurry I'm sure you can get the idea) of my sick axie up as she's still not eating been 7 days with no food now and still got pimple on her head, that's exactly what it looks like! It actually looks way better was more swollen but I'm still worried because of the eating. Is a salt bath a good idea or what about methylene blue? I can't bear to watch her getting sicker, by the way I mainly feed them on live worms and the other thing I can think of is when she laid eggs the tank got a bit mucky as when I was trying to get all the jelly eggs out was a real mission! Could that have been the problem? i do water changes regularly.
 

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Have you put her in a seperate tank now ?, if not I would do so and I'd take her to a vet as advised by Phoenixtear, it sounds like an abcess. I noticed in the photo that the tank has gravel on the floor this can be accidently consumed by your axolotl and in time cause compaction. Gravel can also be a pain to clean as the food and waste particules drop between the stones and pollute the water, I would therefore remove it and iether leave it bare of use well rinsed sand. A week of not eating is not a huge problem for an adult axolotl,but keep offering her the earth worms or small thin slivers of heart/meat..if she doesn't eat remove the left over food. Fingers crossed that she starts to re-cover soon.
 
I agree it is not a good look and until you are sure what it is quarentine is the best answer. I don't know where abouts in N.Z. you are but there is a great vet in Te Aroha who has three very large and healthy axie in his waiting room so if you are in the waikato region he would be a good place to start.

Otherwise I would ring around your area and see if there is a vet that specialises in axies.

Good Luck
 
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