Illness/Sickness: Out of control axolotl

PurpleStar

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I was sent here by someone on reddit.
I've been searching around for quite some time now to hopefully find someone who either knows what's going on or could help either way.

My axolotl is still rather young (don't know the exact age) but has been acting increasingly weird over the past weeks/months.
It all started with a heat wave we got, to where she constantly started drifting on top.
I assumed it was hoping to get some cold. I tried my best to keep the tank cold but I'm not home often and it was insanely warm over here. Luckily she survived the heat wave, I was able to get an air conditioning unit and am now able to better monitor the temp of the water.
However over time she didn't just float on top normally anymore ... she started to float sideways. And recently it has gotten even worse. She's not able to really keep herself straight at all anymore and when she tries to swim around, she goes berserk. Spiraling in all directions with no control which way she wants to go. Often ending up without energy, afloat on top, floating in her "cave" or attached to anything she can grip around (which is just a filter or occasionally my hand). I've recently noticed that it's always in the same direction tho, it's always to the right. I started noticing this when I put her in a bin with shallow water. She was always lobbing over to the right (left side "floating" up). As I noticed that I paid more attention to her when she swum around and she's always spiraling clockwise aka to the right.

Aside from that strange behavior, she seems very healthy.
She has no abnormalities on her body, eats well, poops regularly and is very response to me/food/etc. I checked the water and that's completely fine.

Yesterday, I did notice she was holding her left front leg on top of her body as she was walking around in the bin. But a short time after that, she did the same to her right leg and started to walk around like a chicken. Thought her left leg might've been damaged but then after some time she just sat back like normal.

In the bin, aside from her chicken walk, she sometimes turns herself on the back but other than that acts entirely normal.
In her tank, she goes absolutely berserk trying to get to places.
She didn't have this problem when I got her and only started doing that about a week ago. I feel like I should just leave the tank shallow but I doubt that's healthy.
 
Can you post the water parameters you tested, it will help!
How much of a current do you have in the tank?
What substrate do you have? Can you post a picture too so we can see the tank.
Are you making sure to dechlorinate the water?
You may want to give fridging a go in case it is an impaction issue or gas trapped, even though you said she is pooping normally.
 
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  • Shane douglas:
    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
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  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
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  • stanleyc:
    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
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    Clareclare: Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus... +1
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