Please help!

It started out as a scratch about a month ago, I tried doing a couple of salt baths 3 days ago and each time the area looked irritated after and he has been stressed out ever since. I have mela and pimafix and aquarium salt, what treatment should I use and what dosage?

Hi there, I agree it does look sore. I wouldn't be salt bathing unless there is fungus on the wound, plus salt baths can be quite irritating for them in general.

Perhaps you could try a tea bath or get some Almond Leaves (eBay) to add to the tank, these are more soothing on sore skin. Also keep your water parameters and temperature in check and hopefully the little fella will improve. I'd steer clear of adding "medicines" to the tank without researching them first. You'll find a guides above in the links on what is safe and what's not.

You can also find tea bath instructions in many other threads here - just search & it should come up.

Thanks so much for replying! Can I get the tea leaves from a local store? (I forgot to check this forum after not recieving any replies ) I have been fridging and giving him daily aquariumsalt, melafix, and pimafix dips and here is what it looks like today. He has refused to eat since placing him in the fridge, what steps should I take from here?

Also does anyone here know how to safely sterilze live aquarium plants? Should I be worried about them affecting him when he is returned to his tank?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=613647431979562&l=7e0acc525e

Any tea will do - even a teabag, as long as it's made up with hot water and left to cool - you want one teabag for 10 litres of water. Just make sure it's not fragranced - i.e a fruit or herbal tea.

Here's the recipe:

Im a first time Axi owner , I wasnt sure what was going on and I read somewhere fridging speeds the healing process? I will set him up in a larger aquarium in my closet for now and start the tea baths, do I keep him in the tea mixture 24/7? What does "dash" the tea mean? (I am assuming I put the tea bag in the boiling water and wait 10-15 min?), how often do I replace the tea?

As far as the plants go, they are in the tank I pulled him from do you think whats going on with him is contagious/should I be worried about returning him to the tank when this is resolved?

Don't worry about it - I'm a first time owner too, with two of my own, and when I started I didn't have a clue! Luckily the guys on here helped me out The reason why fridging isn't recommended for wound cases is because fridging slows down their metabolism - good if they've swallowed something potentially dangerous, like pebbles, not so much if you need them to get nutrients from their food.

Any tank will do fine - some owners even use a large container! - as long as he can stretch to his full length and is kept somewhere safe where people won't knock it over. Be aware that if this tank isn't cycled (which most tanks that aren't in constant use are) you will need to replace the water with dechlorinated water daily - this is why some owners use large plastic tubs, where the axolotl can be put in another tub, the old water replaced and the tank ready for use again with ease. I use a small 'nursing tank' which used to be used for raising goldfish fry, which I replaced daily while Toothless was poorly.
Which dechlorinator are you using? Stress Coat + is very good for wounds as not only does it clear the water of chlorine and chloramines, but it also has aloe vera in it, which keeps wounds clean. I use it for all my tank water

Now, 'dashed' does mean 'made up with hot water,' then it's added to the water when it's cool. Your axolotl should be fine in it 24/7 - remember, they don't 'breathe' the water, they take in air when they come to the surface and store it in their lungs. After a week, do a 60% water change (if you are replacing water daily because of an uncycled tank you will need to make up smaller portions of the tea bath daily depending on the size of the tank, and you won't need to do the 60% water change because you'll be doing 100% water changes every day). You basically replace the tea dosage when it runs out - if you have a large, cycled tank you can do 60% after a week, and then smaller changes every week after - if your baby still has wounds after this time you can start the process over again. If you need to replace water daily, you will need to replace the tea bath daily. It all depends whether the tank you are using is cycled or not.

I don't think it's contagious at all. I would only be concerned if I saw cottony tufts sticking to the wound, in which case it may be fungus - that is contagious as far as I know. Wounds aren't contagious and I think the mild purple discolouring may be from the medicines rather than a signifcant infection. I'd use the tea baths until the wound disappears and watch for fungus/unusual discolouration, spots, etc before putting him back in his tank. It looks to me like he got a small wound and was a little stressed out by the moving, temp changes and treatments - don't worry, I stressed mine out big time when I had to cycle my tanks in much the same way. Be sure you float him in to the new tank slowly if he's been in the fridge as he might be temperature shocked otherwise - simply remove him from the fridge, let him get used to room temp, then float him in to the new 'nursing' tank.

I'm not sure which plants you are using so I can't say whether they are safe. You could take a picture and put it on here to be ID'd or look for it online - I found my floating plants this way (Mini Water Lettuce, axolotl safe, but invasive). If you want, you could also post a picture of your baby so we can see how he's getting on

So, action plan - get nursing tank ready, prepare tea bath, get him up to room temp, slowly introduce him to the new tank, add tea bath, then prepare dechlorinated water if the tank needs water changes daily.

If any of this doesn't make sense, please feel free to ask. I didn't get any of it when I first got my Tooth either

Sorry I didn't answer sooner - had Internet issues yesterday ggrrrrr.

Yes you can keep your Axie in the tea solution 24/7, just make sure it's diluted as per the instructions. By "dash" the tea, I would think it means to stir or jiggle the tea bag in the boiling water to release the tannins etc then allow to cool completely before adding to your tank.

You can even still add a bit of tea when your little one goes back into his normal tank, it won't hurt him and some say it has antibacterial / anti fungal benefits (although I've not had personal experience).

With your plants, how long have you had them in the tank? If they've been there for a while, I don't think sterilising them will do much now. I usually quarantine new plants for a few days in dechlorinated water and give them a good rinse before adding to the tank, no probs so far. Hope he feels better soon.:happy:

Lol @petersgirl, you beat me to it - gee I type slow

No problem Jen10s Sometimes people pick up on things I forgot that way and it helps the member out more ^.^

Thank you so much for the info! I use Stress coat + as my dechlorinater, I changed his tea water today and the area definatly looks like it is slowly healing (it dosnt look so angry anymore). He finnaly ate for me today also! Gonna keep this up until he is better I will post a picture next time I feed him/change the water. I have him in 10L of the tea/water in a big container in my closet. I thought about adding the tea to his usual 10g tank but was concerned about the plants and fishies that also live in there.

What fish and how many do you have in the tank? Did you quarantine them before adding to the tank?
A 10g tank is rather small for one axie, even more so with the extra bio load of fish. Do you use a filter?

Glad he is getting better and eating

Tea should be OK with your plants and fish, but I'm concerned about the whole keeping fish in with him.

What type of fish are they? Unless they are cloud minnows or feeders, they could nibble your lotl's gills. Read up on "Mixing Disasters" as axolotls are best only living with other lotls.

Good to hear he's eating for you and skin improving with the tea baths.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=620447164632922&l=3647275c23


Here is a picture of him a week ago, he is all healed now and is back in his tank

I have a repti-filter in the tank pointed away and over plants so the water flow doesn’t bother him I highly recommend this filter because unlike fish filters it is designed for turtles which are the dirtiest in my opinion! It can also be placed anywhere in the tank because of the suction cups. I am also pretty OCD about keeping his tank clean because of how pretty it is lol, I use the gravel vac sometimes twice a week changing 50% water depending on the amount of waste. All of the plants are live so I don’t feed the fish as much as I would in a normal tank (they feed off the plant matter); it also helps keep the water clean. I've had fish tanks for 10 years, my favorite being cichlids (8"-16") so I’m pretty much a pro at keeping tanks clean (unfortunately! lol it’s such a pain). The guppies + shrimp are pretty much just something for me to look at and I think Quag likes the company, and snacks LOL. I don’t quarantine them just because of the amount of work it takes I do inspect them and observe at least once a day, I know how to detect and treat all sorts of issues with fish from working at petsmart for years and dealing with my own. The cut on his mouth happened when he bit down on the hemostats I use to feed him, though it only looked like a little scrape it became infected a long time after, he has mastered our feeding routine now but he used to attack the worms.

The bottom layer of the tank is "plant substrate" although it looks like gravel it actually breaks apart like dirt/sand when crushed which I figured should be OK should he eat it, I then after getting more money (his set up cost prob 200$ all together good thing he was free ^^ I covered the bottom with the large black stones which GREATLY help keep the tank clean! They prevent the waste from floating around the tank when Quag moves around and keep the plants where I want them. I try to arrange them to create areas where he can escape the LED light (generates no heat and hangs on the inside of the tank so I can use a screen over the top). I prune them once a week and replace them as space in the tank opens up.

I have two algae eaters in (started with just one but he needed back-up with the amount of plants and algae). And I usually have a couple feeder guppies in with some ghost shrimp that usually disappear by the end of the week (and Mr. Quag looks suspiciously fat =_=). The algae eaters don’t go near him and the stupid guppies that do are gone the next day ^_^;. Quagmire is a pretty active guy and, instead of hanging out in the dark parts of the tank I often catch him chillin in the plants and literally "hanging out" on his croc ornament. There were also times that he would grab onto the plants directly under the filter and stay there for awhile.

If you check out his album you can see how much he changed after I "rescued him", he had pretty much no gills and was white (he turned a golden color eventually) he also passed 9 pieces of gravel the first week he spent with me, he was 2-3yrs old when I got him in march . Though he grew his little pink gills back I am wondering if the actual gill will grow back? I have seen a lot of pics on here with axis that have long gills and I feel sorry for the guy .
Here is a pic of him "hanging out" today
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=620447271299578&l=e60bd3c5dc

Are you not aware of the dangers of keeping axolotls and algae eaters together ? I suggest you remove them !

RupertxGiles said:

Are you not aware of the dangers of keeping axolotls and algae eaters together ? I suggest you remove them !

Click to expand...

Indeed. Chinese algae eaters (CAE) become very territorial as the mature. CAE's are known to become aggressive and suck the slime coats of its tank mates, more so to slower moving, larger bodied fish/axies.

Yes I have read about it, I inspect everyone in there everyday and plan on moving them into my other tanks when/if they cause trouble. But for now they keep busy maintaining the plants and algae. Right now they avoid him at all costs and are too small to go in with my other fish without being eaten in minutes.

Been deliberating weather to post this, it is harsh and am sorry. However:

Quagmire said:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=620447164632922&l=3647275c23


Here is a picture of him a week ago, he is all healed now and is back in his tank

I have a repti-filter in the tank pointed away and over plants so the water flow doesn’t bother him I highly recommend this filter because unlike fish filters it is designed for turtles which are the dirtiest in my opinion! It can also be placed anywhere in the tank because of the suction cups. I am also pretty OCD about keeping his tank clean because of how pretty it is lol, I use the gravel vac sometimes twice a week changing 50% water depending on the amount of waste. All of the plants are live so I don’t feed the fish as much as I would in a normal tank (they feed off the plant matter); it also helps keep the water clean. I've had fish tanks for 10 years, my favorite being cichlids (8"-16") so I’m pretty much a pro at keeping tanks clean (unfortunately! lol it’s such a pain).

Did you actually cycle the tank before you added him and all the other inhabitants? You said it was set up for a week, that is as bad as putting him in a new setup if not worse.

If you clean the tank so much, why do you have so much algae in a ten gallon tank that you would need two algae eaters? Amano and cherry shrimps are a better choice of algae eaters if needed. A healthy planted tank doesn't have algae. What kind of algae do you have? Do you feed the plants? How long are the lights on for? Could the algae be the natural process of a newly set up tank?


I have a 6x2x2 and a 3x1x18 tank, neither are a pain to keep clean. A spot check every day and a water change once a week is easy to do, part of the course of keeping aquatic animals, even enjoyable!


The guppies + shrimp are pretty much just something for me to look at and I think Quag likes the company, and snacks LOL. I don’t quarantine them just because of the amount of work it takes I do inspect them and observe at least once a day, I know how to detect and treat all sorts of issues with fish from working at petsmart for years and dealing with my own. The cut on his mouth happened when he bit down on the hemostats I use to feed him, though it only looked like a little scrape it became infected a long time after, he has mastered our feeding routine now but he used to attack the worms.

A 60l cycled, filtered tank, water changes once a week. Put in new guppies and shrimp watch them breed and thrive for at least thirty days = happy, healthy, cheap snacks for axie Personally not too difficult I think. Why on earth would you want to risk having to treat an axie for eating food that could be dangerous to him? 99% of the fish treatments aren't axie safe and would lead to costly vet bills. This would be far more hassle and painful than having a quarantine tank.

If you'd like company for your axie, this should be another axie. (You should only consider this if you can get a much bigger tank) Anything else is likely to end up as food!

You may also wish to change your feeding tool to something like chopsticks or plastic tweezers to prevent accidents like this happening in the future.


The bottom layer of the tank is "plant substrate" although it looks like gravel it actually breaks apart like dirt/sand when crushed which I figured should be OK should he eat it, I then after getting more money (his set up cost prob 200$ all together good thing he was free ^^ I covered the bottom with the large black stones which GREATLY help keep the tank clean! They prevent the waste from floating around the tank when Quag moves around and keep the plants where I want them. I try to arrange them to create areas where he can escape the LED light (generates no heat and hangs on the inside of the tank so I can use a screen over the top). I prune them once a week and replace them as space in the tank opens up.

Do you lift the stones when you are cleaning? A lot of waste can get trapped underneath, causing unstable water parameters, which you need to be especially careful of with a ten gallon tank with such a high bioload. What is your filter rated to?


I have two algae eaters in (started with just one but he needed back-up with the amount of plants and algae). And I usually have a couple feeder guppies in with some ghost shrimp that usually disappear by the end of the week (and Mr. Quag looks suspiciously fat =_=). The algae eaters don’t go near him and the stupid guppies that do are gone the next day ^_^;. Quagmire is a pretty active guy and, instead of hanging out in the dark parts of the tank I often catch him chillin in the plants and literally "hanging out" on his croc ornament. There were also times that he would grab onto the plants directly under the filter and stay there for awhile.

By the looks of your algae eaters, they are tropical fish and need to be in much warmer water than your axie. Keeping them together will stress them both out and cause health issues shortening their lives.
Please have a search on this topic, there are a couple of horrific threads where an axie has been eaten by algae eaters and has not survived.


If you check out his album you can see how much he changed after I "rescued him", he had pretty much no gills and was white (he turned a golden color eventually) he also passed 9 pieces of gravel the first week he spent with me, he was 2-3yrs old when I got him in march . Though he grew his little pink gills back I am wondering if the actual gill will grow back? I have seen a lot of pics on here with axis that have long gills and I feel sorry for the guy .

With clean cool water and those worms you are feeding him his gill should grow. May take a little while though.


Here is a pic of him "hanging out" today
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=620447271299578&l=e60bd3c5dc

Click to expand...

Quagmire said:

Yes I have read about it, I inspect everyone in there everyday and plan on moving them into my other tanks when/if they cause trouble. But for now they keep busy maintaining the plants and algae. Right now they avoid him at all costs and are too small to go in with my other fish without being eaten in minutes.

Click to expand...

See above, please remove them now. You are putting them all at risk by sharing the tank. Perhaps you should have thought about this before you got them?

I hope you take this the way it is meant to be taken, it is in no way a personal dig to you. You started a thread asking for help and it is meant as such.

See above, please remove them now. You are putting them all at risk by sharing the tank. Perhaps you should have thought about this before you got them?
I hope you take this the way it is meant to be taken, it is in no way a personal dig to you. You started a thread asking for help and it is meant as such.

Sounds like you’re assuming I have no experience or knowledge on this stuff; everyone has their own opinion on maintaining tanks. Although conditions aren’t always ideal and to the T, as long as the animals that live in that environment are happy and healthy I don’t see a reason to change it to the way it absolutely-needs-to-be.

I thank you for your help, but I only asked for help on treating his injury . Below is some explanations on my "methods", I hope you don’t take this the wrong way though I am a little ticked off that someone really took the time to over-analyze my post like that.

Sheesh
[/QUOTE]
Here is a picture of him a week ago, he is all healed now and is back in his tank

I have a repti-filter in the tank pointed away and over plants so the water flow doesn’t bother him I highly recommend this filter because unlike fish filters it is designed for turtles which are the dirtiest in my opinion! It can also be placed anywhere in the tank because of the suction cups. I am also pretty OCD about keeping his tank clean because of how pretty it is lol, I use the gravel vac sometimes twice a week changing 50% water depending on the amount of waste. All of the plants are live so I don’t feed the fish as much as I would in a normal tank (they feed off the plant matter); it also helps keep the water clean. I've had fish tanks for 10 years, my favorite being cichlids (8"-16") so I’m pretty much a pro at keeping tanks clean (unfortunately! lol it’s such a pain).

Did you actually cycle the tank before you added him and all the other inhabitants? You said it was set up for a week, that is as bad as putting him in a new setup if not worse.
Considering he came to me in such a condition, no gills and extremely bloated, cycling the tank was not a big priority for me. He did not seem stressed at all and actually ended up passing/vomiting 9 pieces of gravel starting that night.

If you clean the tank so much, why do you have so much algae in a ten gallon tank th fat you would need two algae eaters? Amano and cherry shrimps are a better choice of algae eaters if needed.
There are so many plants in that the algae eater was not eating the algae; he was just focusing on the plants. Also at one point, one of the plants introduced that annoying "string" algae that was pretty hard to keep up with, it would literally grow over night. When he was removed from the tank for treatment I did a complete cleaning and managed to get rid of it completely. The only reason I buy the shrimp is because they are so cheap, I have never seen cherry or amano shrimp at a pet store in my area.. But so far the algae eaters are the only thing he hasn’t eaten, because they stay away from him.
A healthy planted tank doesn't have algae. What kind of algae do you have? Do you feed the plants? How long are the lights on for? Could the algae be the natural process of a newly set up tank?
Not true! Any tank with exposure to light can produce algae, I do feed the plants once a week removing the carbon for 24hrs. The lights are on all day. As stated above it started out with only algae but the algae eater was maintaining the plants instead, I also ended up getting string/feather algae at one point from one of the plants (as they die I replace them, it takes a little bit of trial and error to figure out which plants do good in which environment). Which was a real pain in the butt as far as cleaning goes but I have since conquered it.

I have a 6x2x2 and a 3x1x18 tank, neither are a pain to keep clean. A spot check every day and a water change once a week is easy to do, part of the course of keeping aquatic animals, even enjoyable!
I have had my 55g tank for over 10 years it gets old after a while, but my love for my darling Oscar +his friends is the reason it is still around. I don’t know if you have any experience with these fish but- the bigger the fish the bigger it poops. I don’t have time to spot check because that would require me changing 5g-10g daily if I use the siphon.
I also worked in the fish dept at Petsmart for 4 years, I am totally over tank cleaning! lol I do what I have to do to maintain them but it is defiantly not my favorite thing to do (why I no longer keep turtles or fire belly toads.) I have a lot of knowledge on the products available in-store and an understanding on how tanks work- cycling, maintenance ect.
I also know the rule on how many fish per gallon is recommended, but I also know that effective cleaning and proper filtration can help one get around that rule.

The guppies + shrimp are pretty much just something for me to look at and I think Quag likes the company, and snacks LOL. I don’t quarantine them just because of the amount of work it takes I do inspect them and observe at least once a day, I know how to detect and treat all sorts of issues with fish from working at petsmart for years and dealing with my own. The cut on his mouth happened when he bit down on the hemostats I use to feed him, though it only looked like a little scrape it became infected a long time after, he has mastered our feeding routine now but he used to attack the worms.

A 60l cycled, filtered tank, water changes once a week. Put in new guppies and shrimp watch them breed and thrive for at least thirty days = happy, healthy, cheap snacks for axie Personally not too difficult I think. Why on earth would you want to risk having to treat an axie for eating food that could be dangerous to him? 99% of the fish treatments aren't axie safe and would lead to costly vet bills. This would be far more hassle and painful than having a quarantine tank.

As stated above the last thing I need is another tank to maintain, if the shrimp and fish don’t show signs at the store and are removed immediately if they do show up he should not be in danger, I have been feeding my fish feeders without quarantining for years and haven’t had any issues, are axies more prone to fungus/parasites? I know if fish are healthy they are semi-resistant to these things... I like to learn from trial and error and he seems totally fine.
If you'd like company for your axie, this should be another axie. (You should only consider this if you can get a much bigger tank) Anything else is likely to end up as food!
I did not mention this in any of my posts but before I came to own Quag he was kept with other axolotls his own age and size (females) for a long time before he started attacking them. He ended up biting off two legs off one and I think she took the female out and eventually put him with the other and he eventually did the same to her. The two females then came down with horrible mouth rot, which is when she started talking about giving them away when they were "better" and I offered to take one. Ended up taking Mr.Quagmire home. She owned them for 2-3 years before this happened. I would like to get another axi eventually but I don’t have the money right now to do that.
The reason I buy the guppies and shrimp is because they serve as company AND food, 2 for 1 !
You may also wish to change your feeding tool to something like chopsticks or plastic tweezers to prevent accidents like this happening in the future.


The bottom layer of the tank is "plant substrate" although it looks like gravel it actually breaks apart like dirt/sand when crushed which I figured should be OK should he eat it, I then after getting more money (his set up cost prob 200$ all together good thing he was free ^^ I covered the bottom with the large black stones which GREATLY help keep the tank clean! They prevent the waste from floating around the tank when Quag moves around and keep the plants where I want them. I try to arrange them to create areas where he can escape the LED light (generates no heat and hangs on the inside of the tank so I can use a screen over the top). I prune them once a week and replace them as space in the tank opens up.

Do you lift the stones when you are cleaning? A lot of waste can get trapped underneath, causing unstable water parameters, which you need to be especially careful of with a ten gallon tank with such a high bioload. What is your filter rated to?
I use a small gravel-vac to clean, and yes I move the ornaments and large rocks and use the vac to carefully clean the substrate below the stones without damaging the plant roots. I've got skills like that . I use a Repti-filter which is designed for turtles and treats up to 20g of water, I love this filter! It works a lot better than fish filters and is designed for high-waste tanks that result from pesky turtles I can move it around the tank so the flow is interrupted by plants and such, though Quag actually hangs onto the plants in front of it sometimes.

I have two algae eaters in (started with just one but he needed back-up with the amount of plants and algae). And I usually have a couple feeder guppies in with some ghost shrimp that usually disappear by the end of the week (and Mr. Quag looks suspiciously fat =_=). The algae eaters don’t go near him and the stupid guppies that do are gone the next day ^_^;. Quagmire is a pretty active guy and, instead of hanging out in the dark parts of the tank I often catch him chillin in the plants and literally "hanging out" on his croc ornament. There were also times that he would grab onto the plants directly under the filter and stay there for awhile.

By the looks of your algae eaters, they are tropical fish and need to be in much warmer water than your axie. Keeping them together will stress them both out and cause health issues shortening their lives.
Please have a search on this topic, there are a couple of horrific threads where an axie has been eaten by algae eaters and has not survived.
Yes they are tropical community fish, the cae is actually considered semi-aggressive, although the conditions are not ideal for them they are thriving atm. I know from experience that these fish are pretty hardy and can do fine in tanks without a heater, I have even known people that use them in their ponds. Like I stated before they will be removed when they cause an issue.

I’m not sure if you are trying to help or trying to show how much you know...

If you check out his album you can see how much he changed after I "rescued him", he had pretty much no gills and was white (he turned a golden color eventually) he also passed 9 pieces of gravel the first week he spent with me, he was 2-3yrs old when I got him in march . Though he grew his little pink gills back I am wondering if the actual gill will grow back? I have seen a lot of pics on here with axis that have long gills and I feel sorry for the guy .

With clean cool water and those worms you are feeding him his gill should grow. May take a little while though.


Here is a pic of him "hanging out" today
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=620447271299578&l=e60bd3c5dchttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...8&l=e60bd3c5dc

Quagmire said:

Sounds like you’re assuming I have no experience or knowledge on this stuff; everyone has their own opinion on maintaining tanks. Although conditions aren’t always ideal and to the T, as long as the animals that live in that environment are happy and healthy I don’t see a reason to change it to the way it absolutely-needs-to-be.

Click to expand...

To be fair, the axolotl isn't healthy since you've posted in the 'Sick Axolotl?' section, which I think is why Pookiewn posted.

The advise is to put the Axolotl in it's own tank, other than that I don't think there's much more to be said that can help.

Hi, I was just reading through this thread and wondering if you know that he doesn't have the same illness that the others he attacked had? You called it mouth rot? I haven't heard of that in axolotls, but with his mouth symptoms.....could they be related?Maybe he had the infection for a long while and it was dormant?

And one other thing I wanted to note....please don't take this as me trying to be rude....I'm really not. I don't understand why your mentality with your axolotl seems to be that the status quo is fine until something horrible happens. If something horrible happens, it's already happened and the damage has been done. We all learn from trial and error at times, but with creatures that rely on our care, I don't think it's fair to leave risky situations as-is just because something hasn't happened "yet." I wouldn't leave a baby with a big dog and separate them only after the baby had been bitten. I hope I'm making sense--I'm in bed and half asleep! Also, I hope I haven't seriously offended you.

And I hope your little guy recovers quickly from whatever is going on with him.