Axolotl has white lip

Hello!

I rescued my little boy from a petshop known for abusing animals I knew the risks and 1 week after I brought it home, he got a mycosis on 1 of his gills. Since I knew this could happen, I was well prepared. After 1 week and many bath salt, he was okay!

He always had a white lip, but yesterday, I took a picture. At first, it looks normal, but when you zoom in, you can see that his lip is white and doesn't have a normal shape. He's like this since I bought it few months ago, but this is the first time I notice it (by zooming in). He's eating normally, never skip a meal and it doesn't seem to bother him. His 2 girlfriends are ok too. Also, the white part didn't grow. So I wonder if it is something bacterial due to an injury at the petshop or if it is just his nornal lips?

Thank you for your help! Sorry if there's any spelling mistakes, I'm French

It started to get bigger. I don't know if it is a fungus or if it is a bacterial infection. Should I do a salth bath?

Fungus is bright white and has a fluffy, wispy appearance. That is not what this looks like. Rather, it looks like swelling of some sort, which may be caused by some sort of bacterial infection. Generally, I wouldn't recommend doing a salt bath unless you are 110% sure that the infection is caused by fungus, however in this case it might be worth a shot. If he is still eating and behaving normally, whatever is causing the issue is still in its early stages. I would say your best shot is to do a salt bath and see if it helps anything. If it does, continue doing them until it is cleared, if it does not help, stop the salt baths and schedule a vet appointment. He may need antibiotics if it is caused by a bacterial infection.

I'm doing a salth bath right now. I have an appointment with the vet on Tuesday. The only problem is that they are not experts in axolotls, but they accepted to check him. If it is bacterial, do you know which antibiotics they must give to him and the quantity (he's 25 cm long)? Thank you for your help!

So here's a picture after 18 hours in a salth bath. His mouth looms less yellow, but I'm now worried about his gills... they are less fluffy and they are moving less... Could it be a fungus that moved to his gills?

Here's a picture of his gills. Ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are all good (0). I found him this morning flotting at the top of the tank and he stopped eating...

Sometimes the gills can be affected by salt baths. I don't know what antibiotics they may administer, but if he's floating and no longer eating it's very good that you scheduled an appointment. Hope it goes well for you and him

I keep the water very cold (14 degrees), so he might not eat because of that (I hope). I can ask the vet to see if he can feed him someway. I did the salt bath 3 days ago and I changed his water everyday. Will the gills regrow? Do I have to wait for the gills to be okay before I put him back in his tank?

Thank you once again!

Personally, I would treat for columnaris. We can't diagnose for sure without a bacterial culture, obviously, but all the classic signs are there. Several bacterial infections cause similar symptoms, but luckily they tend to be similar enough to F. columnare to respond to the same treatments.

The first step to treating any disease is to make sure the water is very clean. Second, you'll want to decrease the temperature if you can (as gradually as possible), as it slows down the spread of F. columnare. Even if you start at a relatively cold temperature (some strains of F. columnare like the cold), decreasing it will help as the bacteria will need time to adjust to the new conditions, whereas your axolotl will enjoy them.

I have to deal with columnaris quite a lot in my line of work so I tend to skip the gentle treatments and go straight to antibiotics. Other people have different approaches. There are articles on here on how to treat Columnaris safely in axolotls. I use Furan-2 (normal dosage). I have heard of people mixing Furan-2 (nitrofurazone + furazolidone) with KanaPlex (kanamycin) with great results, but I haven't tried KanaPlex on amphibians before so I can't speak from experience.

Again, some people consider antibiotics overkill as a first response move. Using a lot of antibiotics certainly increases the risks of resistance emerging, so it's something to take into consideration. Some strains of F. columnare are more virulent than others, so you might have to go with your gut feeling, based on your impression of how the disease is progressing and/or spreading to other tank occupants.

Hope this helps : )

[edit] If you would like to have the vet identify the pathogen via a culture, a sample can be obtained via skin scraping or gill wet mount. The full name of the bacteria is Flavobacterium columnare.

Thank you! And how can I help his gills to regrow? I was still losing them this morning and they are almost all gone, so he must go breath at the top of the tank many times per day

His gills should regrow on their own. However, they should not have fallen off to that degree unless you did the salt baths incorrectly. Salt baths should be done with two to three teaspoons of aquarium salt or non-iodized table salt per liter for roughly 10 to 15 minutes. Anything with a stronger solution and/or a longer duration can potentially be very dangerous to the axolotl, with the most common side-effect being gill damage. Only time will fix this if the damage is already done. If you did this, I have absolutely no idea what could have caused his gills to fall off - they should never be damaged to that degree, or at all really, if the baths are done properly.

My vet doesn't think it is a columnaris because in almost 3 weeks his mouth looks the same and his tankmates are all in top shape. Dhe thinks it might be an injury due to a shocm against the glass. So my vet gave me baytril otic (an antibiotic) for my little guy. Few drops on his mouth 2 x per day during 10 days. I have to keep him outside the water for 10 min each time to make sure his skin has absorbed the baytril. We'll see soon if he has an infection or not. His skin still peeling, so I plan to do a black tea bath after the 10 days. He pooped and ate 1 worm after 4 days of fasting yesterday