Newbie desperately needing help for Newtie D:

I got into such a hurry trying to find answers for my newt, that I didn't properly introduce myself so am now back to edit that in Family of 4 here with 2 college-age daughters- one graduated in a couple months and the other in her 2nd year of a likely 8 years stint. Home schooled my girls all the way through high school and although I manage a vacation rental we own myself, I am just now seeking what the next phase of my life will hold- hopefully with Newtie

We used to have 3 cats, but as they aged and passed, along with other more traumatic life events, my husband brought home our first newt "Gold" from his fishing trip in an attempt to soothe our then young daughters' feelings of loss over other issues. In 2007 we found Newtie and brought her home as a companion for Gold. They seemed to enjoy each other, but Gold didn't live very long. Now, we have had only Newtie, a Pacific rough-skinned newt, for at least 10 years.

I hate to meet the group this way, but I only found this forum due to what has been happening with our newt. I want to begin by saying that my daughter (an adult) and I scoured this website and read everything we could find, but didn't find anything that seemed right on the issue and we are losing time so I went ahead and signed up hoping someone had the answer.

My family has had Newtie for 12 years and she was an adult when we found her so no idea how old she is and I am afraid she is near death She has never been a great eater and in the early years she got pretty skinny (like a pencil) a few times until I caught on that I had to be persistent in forcing the issue numerous times per day until she would finally eat, but those problems disappeared years ago. In addition, she will only eat wax worms and until this last year, would only eat them if you played games with her to get her to eat them off the tweezer. Surprisingly, after all these years, she finally decided I could drop a worm in her bowl and she would get around to eating it when she felt like it- what freedom for me!

Until last January, Newtie had always been in the same place in one area of our home, but we made same changes and she ended up in our dining room which surprisingly made her much more interactive with us. She had been very happy and making her little newt noises and would get excited when you would say "worm". Her appetite was better than it ever had been and she was often eating a worm every day or 2, on occasion even more than 1 in the same day. She was all around better than I had ever seen her. Then in early August she suddenly quit eating. By the way, we have air conditioning so it wasn't an issue with the house being too hot, I would think, as it probably maxed out in the low 70's.

Newtie has gone a couple weeks without eating before numerous times and it didn't seem to faze her a bit so I wasn't concerned at all and she was acting fine so why would I. I did still offer her a worm regularly and she would just put her head down and away from it. Once she actually took the worm and spit it out, but just that once. She looked fine and acted fine other than refusing to eat, however, once we were ebbing up on 2 months with no food, I really began to get concerned. The only reason I hadn't been too worried previous was thinking that maybe she had eaten so, so much before this happened because she is trying to hibernate or something.

Now we are 2 and a half months with no food and a couple weeks ago we started noticing what we now know are signs of bloat thanks to this website- didn't even know that was a thing before. In the last 2 weeks she has gone from looking underweight to getting huge in her lower body- her neck and limbs are fine. From everything I have read here, I don't think she has a kidney problem or bacterial issue and suspect that the bloat is from her starving to death because it has only recently appeared. I picked up bits and pieces about perhaps soaking her in pedialite??? Also force feeding liquefied dog food? Out of desperation we put her in the fridge 2 days ago and she is still alive, but I almost don't know how- I don't want to give up if there is anything we can do to turn this around. Please tell us how to do the pedialite and/or dog food thing along with any other advice before it is too late. Thank you all so much!

Apologies- I should add that Newtie is a Pacific rough-skinned newt and we actually aren't sure of the sex and have just always called her a girl. Thanks!

Hi! I hope someone will help you with the questions you're asking. One thing in my mind as one of our newts was really skinny and I kept him cool for a while to get the eating routine back again. Could you get any small earth worms and put one in the box Newtie is in the freeze? It would move around there and maybe trigger her to eat and it's soft so it's easier to digest.
Good luck!!! I hope you get help soon!

Thanks so much for replying! We are feeling pretty lost with this

Newtie is in water in the fridge. We supplied a rock so she could get out if she wants, but in her regular habitat, she has a pool surrounded by lots of things to crawl on. Since she has been sick, she seems to want to mostly be in her pool so we put her in water. She is really lethargic outside of water Never could get her to eat anything other than wax worms so even though we could try it, doesn't seem likely she would eat it now We are thinking that force feeding (how on earth?) or soaking her in nutrients she will absorb may be her only hope. Once she is feeling better we could probably go back to wax worms.

I REALLY appreciate you responding. I am hoping someone can tell us how to force some nutrients into her.

Have you searched through also this site: https://www.caudata.org/cc/index.shtml
There's about illnessess, but about force feeding couldn't find anything that helpful. Someone on this site had force fed a newt but it was two person's job and must be done very carefully not to hurt the little one. I suppose it's quite risky as the jaws etc. are so tiny. This was about axolotls: https://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=70199

Thank so much for your response! I have indeed read through both of the links that you shared prior to posting, but very much appreciate you taking the time to post them both

So, Newtie has been in the fridge since Sunday (4 days) in about 3/4 inch of water with a rock she can climb on. We noticed that her tail improved within the first day or 2- it had been looking kind of bent up if that makes sense, and now other than the very tip, it is looking much improved. She generally seems to be feeling better and is more interactive as well, but her belly is so big that she really cant move outside of the water much at all.

Yesterday, day 3, I went to the pet store in hopes of there being someone who knew their newts. There was not BUT I did come home with something called "Fluker's Repta-Boost", a powdered nutritional supplement that includes an appetite stimulant. We knew it was a long-shot, but mixed this stuff into water and then dripped it all over Newtie several times and let her sit in it in hopes that she would absorb some of the nutrients through her skin. We made a couple of attempts at getting the syringe into her mouth, but she wasn't having it. While we had her soaking in the stuff, we rubbed her sides a little very gently in hopes that if she were constipated, it would break loose.

I read on a veterinarian website for reptiles/amphibians that when the animal has edema, which I suppose would include being bloated up as she is, that treating for dehydration can become counter-productive. It kind of makes me wonder if we should have her in water at all, but if she doesn't have any, she looks horribly uncomfortably and can't move much- think beached whale

I don't know what else to do. We can't leave her in the fridge forever and even if we manage to get her to absorb some nutrients through her skin, if she doesn't start eating and/or lose the whale belly.....