Illness/Sickness: Axolotl w/ pimple on head

Hey everyone! It's been awhile. I have been helping my girlfriend raise her axolotls for about a year now. She now has two beautiful axies, a female and a male.

About two weeks ago, the female would not eat her usual meal (1 earth worm, every 2 days). She tried to eat it, but later brought it back up and spit it out. She has yet to eat since. The female is normally pretty active in the tank. She will swim around and follow your finger along the glass. But lately she has been keeping to herself, hiding in dark areas. During those two weeks, my GF monitored the female axie, the male axie, and the water conditions (I don't live with my GF so this is the best she could do at the time, with the knowledge and experience she has). Even though the female was not eating, the male seemed fine and was eating regularly and my GF didn't notice any wacky water conditions. Since I've returned, I noticed her gills were pushed forward, and her tail fin was rippled at the top. I thought maybe she was impacted, and thats why she was stressed. So I suggested putting her in the fridge for awhile. She has been there for about two days now.

I change the water daily and she has been passing any digested material she's currently holding. However today, we noticed this chick has a pimple or something on her head! The "pimple" is a white spot that is raised a little bit (you really can't appreciate the raised part in the photos, sorry). We're obviously not that worried about it, but I am curious if anyone knows what it is, and how we can treat it (if we can), before it becomes a worse problem. Two photos are attached. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks everyone!

Hi everyone,

Just an update (with picture). It appears that the bump is not growing in width or height but the white core is more pronounced with what appears to be some inflammation. Just to give you the time reference, it's been 4.5 hours since our initial observation.

Any guesses?

7 hrs post initial observation. Seems as the white core has ruptured and she's expelling white puss from the site. I took a few q-tips and gently squeezed out the puss til blood came out. The "pimple" is now draining. I then changed her water and put her back in the fridge. I will make another update tonight.

The picture is pre-squeeze.

Thanks for posting this. This looks like it may be an abscess, if so it will probably need antibiotic treatment.

bellabelloo: Thank you for your response. After you gave us a lead for how to deal with an abscess, we did some web searching and came up with a strategy. Below is the course we're taking. Judging by how she looks now, we believe it's working. Of course, we will monitor her and keep you all updated.

When we first noticed the abscess, we lysed it open and let it drain out. We used q-tips to gently squeeze out any puss and monitored the draining for 4 hours in the fridge. During this time we changed her water about twice to keep it clean. Depending out the drainage, I would keep the water change to a minimum, as to not stress your axolotl out anymore than they are.

Following the drainage, we decided to supply her axolotl with a broad spectrum antibiotic that is commonly bought over the counter. We are using Maracyn Plus. Currently we are using the directed dosage on the bottle (10mls Maracyn Plus/10 gallons of water OR ~1/4 tsp. Maracyn Plus/1 Gallon of water). She is getting a 30 minute antibiotic bath once in the morning and once at night in the fridge.

After two 30 minute treatments the abscess has already closed, decreased in size, and appears to be healing quite well. I have attached some pictures. The first is a picture of the draining abscess at it's worse (before we gave the first antibiotic treatment). The second picture is of the morning after the first antibiotic treatment, appearing to heal nicely.

Thank you for the detailed instructions on how you handled this problem. I haven't had anything like it yet, but if I do, I'll be back to review what you did.

The axolotls are lucky to have people who care so much. :happy:

You guys are on the right track use the antibiotic treatment for about 1.5 weeks to two and see how the girl is doing.

I am happy to report that after 3 days of antibiotic treatment, the female axie has made a full recovery. The entire swollen area has diminished. The white core is gone. We're going to move her isolated tub to room temperature now and continue with the water changes. I hope this information helps others in the future.