Tiger salamander swollen head/neck

My salamander is very sick, and I don’t know what to do. His head, jaw, and neck are very swollen. We first noticed his lower jaw and chin being swollen, but it has spread to his whole head. You can see how spherical his head looks, with the top and bottom bulging out. The tissues around his eyes are also swollen and pink. He is very lethargic, and acts like he is in pain. He doesn’t move much on his own, but he has a “spasm” every 5 minutes or so. His belly will contract once suddenly, the contraction moves up to his head, and he opens and shuts his mouth. The whole thing is best described as a dry heave. He also has difficulty opening his mouth. Every time he does so it makes a sucking noise, as if his mouth were filled with something sticky.

This started about 4 days ago, after we’d fed him. We normally feed him earthworms or crickets. This time it was crickets, about 8 3/4in ones over 4 hrs. Normally we don’t feed him so many, but he looked like he was still hunting and my boyfriend couldn’t resist. I thought that was too many, and at first it looked like he was just overfed. We expected him to start feeling better after he digested the crickets, but it’s gotten worse. He’s pooped twice since he was fed, and passed at least 6 intact cricket heads, so I don’t think he’s blocked internally. I’m wondering if he has a mouth infection or something like that.

You can see his tank setup here. Originally the gravel was covered by the sand, but it has all shifted and mixed itself up. I’ve learned from looking in these forums how dangerous the gravel is for him, and we definitely need to change that, but like I said, I don’t think he’s blocked.

The local veterinarians don’t have much experience/knowledge with non-traditional pets (I know because I worked for one). Does anyone have any suggestions? It’s really hurting me to see him in such pain.

I am so sorry to hear about your animals condition. I do not keep tiger salamanders and I am by no means any authority on amphibian medicine but it looks as if it may be some sort of infection. You mentioned that parts of the crickets are passing undigested. This could be a symptom of a heavy parasitic load. It is too bad that you do not have any local vets that specialize in exotics. If you could obtain a copy of Wright's book on amphibian medicine and husbandry then perhaps a local vet may still look at the animal. Based on the symptoms that you have described it may already be too late though. In my experience once a caudate starts to "go south" death quickly follows. What temperature are you keeping it at? It looks as is your enclosure is in a main living area and this may be too warm. Most salamanders appreciate temps in the 60's to lower 70's max. Keeping them warmer could speed up the process of any infection that may be suffered. Also. is that water at one end of the enclosure? It is difficult to tell from the pic. You should place the animal in a quarantine enclosure with either damp paper towels or a thin layer of moist substrate and place it in the coolest area of the house. These are just general suggestions. I hope that it works out.
Chip

thats terrible to hear i hope your poor salamander gets better. Is there an exotics pet shop near you perhaps? im asking because sometimes exotics pet shops will take in sick animals and try to help if there are no vets in the area who have experience, i did this with a sick gecko and shes alive and well today thanks to them. even if theres no shops in your local area perhaps calling a shop which keeps salamanders they may be able to offer you some advice if you need it quickly.
hope everything turns out ok!!

The first thing that I might try is a total overhaul of the set-up. Tiger sallys are burrowers, they like loose substrate that they can burrow into. I usually use a mixture of coconut husk and soil. make sure there are no chemicals or fertilzer in the soil you use. I would get rid of the water section, they don`t need it. He will absorb moisture through his skin from the substate. I keep my tigers in a fairly dry set-up, checking it daily making sure the soil is still a little moist. In my experience, when I have kept tigers too moist, they seem more prone to bacteria/disease. You might want to try keeping one end of the tank fairly moist, and have it gradually get dryer as you get to the other end of the tank. Let the tiger decide how moist he likes it. There are a couple ppl on this forum such as EDK, or jennewt that are familiar with antibiotics that may help. good luck.

I've heard of mouth infections in newts, and this is possible, but it usually results in the animal having difficulty closing its mouth all the way.

I don't have any experience with applying antibiotics to a salamander - it would need to be given by injection, and that's way beyond me. There is some info on injecting antibiotics here:
http://www.axolotl.org/health.htm
but you would really need help from a vet.

update - Ringer's bath helping

Thank you all for the advice. We've moved Wog (the tiger salamander) from his normal tank to a "sick tank," ie a big tupperware with some wet paper towels. We put it in a styrofoam cooler with a half frozen water bottle under it to keep him cool and a blanket over the top to make it dark.. We've also treated him to a salt bath for 30 mins last night and today. I made the salt bath from the amphibian Ringer's solution recipe I found here, with just the NaCL and the sodium bicarbonate. He doesn't really like being put in it, but it definitely helps reduce the swelling for an hour or two afterwards. The sucking sound he was making is actually him breathing. He can't breath through his nose, so he has to suck in a big mouth of air. After the salt bath you can hear his breath going through his nose. It makes little whistling noises like people do when they're stuffed up. I don't know if the salt bath will help cure what's going on, but it definitely helps with his symptoms, and hopefully makes him more comfortable.

this can be a sign of internal organ problems which by the time these symptoms show is usually the later stages.

If you'd read my posts completely, you'd have seen that I've already admitted that the setup is wrong, and that we've moved him into a big tupperware with wet paper towels in a cool place. Having someone I don't know explode at me when I've already admitted publicly that I've made a mistake isn't helpful, or very respectful. I posted on this website knowing his tank needed improving. I thought it was more important to try to get some advice for doctoring him than hiding my mistakes. If you have some doctoring advice I'd would welcome it, but if you just want to shout at someone, please do it somewhere else. Your run-on sentences are very hard to understand, and I feel bad enough about this situation without someone else deliberately trying to make me feel worse.

Firstly to llorellyn, let me apologise for salamandra's approach to this thread. I received independent complaints about his messages in this thread and after reading them I decided to remove them and most of the responses from other members to them. None of these messages were helpful and I felt they were not fitting with our forum. Certainly, salamandra's messages were against the forum rules and I will be contacting him shortly to tell him so. I would ask you to please not judge the majority of the users here based on your experience of one individual. In his defense, he is a young teenager and frankly I don't think he is accustomed to mature conversation. So let us give him the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

Regarding Wog, I think the various possibilities have been mentioned. Keep him cool, I would keep him on some topsoil or some such substrate without additives (fertilisers and pesticides which seem to be ubiquitous in US garden centre products in my experience). He probably would do better in less moist conditions. I keep my three tiger salamanders in a very dry setup, with one end having more moist soil than the other (as someone else mentioned earlier in the thread). All of these changes should assist any possible recovery. As to what's exactly wrong with him, I favour a septicemic infection, but that's just an educated guess. If he hasn't wasted away yet but is not showing improvement I would try to find a vet and give them a print out of the directions on my axolotl site for the administration of antibiotics via injection.

Good luck.

Thank you, John, for removing those messages. Everyone else who has posted here has been very helpful and considerate about this, and I would like to thank all of them as well for their concern and advice.

Unfortunately, Wog seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Last night when we checked on him he was very contorted and almost nonresponsive. We thought for sure he would die during the night. He didn't, but he's still on death's door. Today at lunch his green spots were turning red, like he's sun-burned. I think that is probably a sign of organ failure/system shock. We are still going to try to keep him comfortable, but I'm worried we'll push him over the edge if we do to much. Although that might not be a bad thing at this point...

Thank you all again for your concern. I'll let you know how things turn out.

hope evrything turns out fine for him

what? i said im sorry i admit i may have said it harsh but i honestly didnt mean it to sound so harsh i was simply AND only worried about the salamander im sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i honestly wasnt going at you like it seemed i wasnt honest

im not a nasty guy honest please forgive my words i really didnt mean it how it came out!

wy are you making em seem so bad i really am sorry i have said it so meany times my hed herts

If you want to improve your reputation may I suggest you actually comply with the rules and attempt to spell correctly, use grammar, punctuation (where appropriate, not a line of !s), and capital letters at the beginning of sentences. I'm not alone in my low tolerance for pigeon English.

hmmmmmm ok! i will start taking my time with posts!