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Illness/Sickness: Constipated Juvenile Axolotl

mermaid

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I have a young axolotl (about 4 in long) who seems to be very constipated. He hasn’t poo’d at all for about 3 days now, and has been floating at the surface constantly (generally tilted on his side somewhat). When he tries to get back down to the bottom, he floats back up again once he stops swimming.

He’s been having some other issues as well which really concerned me, although they seem to have stopped for now other than the floating and the new constipation. At this point he is floating constantly. Before, however, it would be an off-and-on thing which happened daily: I would feed him around 4-6 pm like always, and then when I woke up the next day he would be floating! Then, that same day, right around the time when I feed him, he would vomit which scared the **** out of me. As soon as this happened he would instantly sink back down to the bottom, no more floating. Then after a bit I would feed him as usual, and the cycle repeated. This happened for about three days. Then he stopped vomiting and began constantly floating as he is now, and he stopped pooping entirely (he had been doing that as normal even on the days when he threw up).

(Note: A couple of times I caught him coming to the surface and taking a bunch of rapid gulps of air. I'm pretty sure this is not normal! And am unsure whether he's been doing it more as I can't watch him 24/7.)

I have been feeding him as usual because I don’t want him to starve, but now am not sure whether I should cut back on feeding him for a bit? Last night I decided to try brine shrimp rather than bloodworms (frozen but thawed before I feed him. I have been feeding him the frozen bloodworms since I got him about a month ago) to see if that would make any difference. He was very uninterested in the food last night after a couple of bites (not sure if he doesn’t like brine shrimp or just didn’t want to eat), and after a while I put him back in his tank, deciding not to try the bloodworms that night. Note: I have been feeding him separately in a container for a few days now since some ammonia was present (1 ppm) and I was worried that it was due to me leaving the bloodworms in the tank for an hour every night to feed him (he’s a slow eater!).

I started doing daily water changes (25%, the last 3 days) due to the ammonia; then I discovered API’S “quick start” which says it consumes ammonia and nitrite and introduces good bacteria. I used this last night. After this the ammonia was at 0 (as well as nitrite, although that already had been at 0), so I am not going to do a water change today.

An important detail I should add is that I moved just a week ago, from one city to another, and his issues began around then (other than a little bit of floating off and on in the week before I moved). I was wondering if the change in water chemistry might have anything to do with it? I always use prime for his water, but maybe it’s something that can’t be removed by that?

I tested the water again last night. The ph was 7.6; ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate at 0 ppm. My 10 gal tank is bare bottomed and I have a cave, and some fake plants for him to hide under, and a flat rock for him to hang out on. I have a filter with quiet flow that doesn’t disturb the water much. Temp is 66-67 farenheit (I have a nano chiller to keep it at that temp).

If he was full-grown I would definitely fridge him, but since he is so young I wasn't sure if I should or not? Any suggestions on what to do to help my little guy would be greatly appreciated! I'm sorry, I know this is a lot of information but I didn't want to leave anything out in case it was important. This is the first axolotl I've owned and I'm so worried about the little guy, just want him to be ok!
 

ellenc

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If he lets you touch him, try massaging on his left side about a quarter the up from the hind leg. That could stimulate the lower bowel. If it is an infection, amikacin is the antibiotic I use in my lab.
 

mermaid

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Hi, so after doing some more reading I did decide to fridge him, which seemed to help somewhat. A few days in I got your suggestion and I also started massaging him like you said, and I think that may be what made a big difference! He is almost 100% back to normal now. Thanks so much for your help :happy:
 
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