Weeping sores in the extremities.

My wife came home today and noticed one of my females with a mangled-looking front leg, it was open and weeping with some bone exposed, and what looked like a long hair coming out about an inch with blood flowing onto the substrate.
At first I thought she was bitten by a tankmate, It hasn't happen before, but I know it happens.
I assumed it would just have to heal.

A few minutes later I peeked in and noticed her hind foot was coming apart at the tips and the bone was starting to erupt then I noticed that a few of the other axolotls in the tank are also expressing some infected-looking toes, they look slightly chewed up and rasped at. there's no visible foreign material, no odd behavior.

I separated the one with the strong expression of this, And out her in the fridge, I also hardened up the tank water a bit, but i don't have the time now to do a full-on treatment. I have to go to work in 5 minutes. Whatever this is it's acting fast. I suspect it might be athletes foot, which I have and may have passed to them when I let one nibble my finger the other day. I don't know if its communicable to amphibians, but it is a parasitic fungus.

What to do? It looks like I am going to lose my whole tank

Ok, now im at work. tomorrow theres going to be a round of salt baths and 5 tubs in the fridge. I have a few days off for intensive treatment (3-4 baths a day), then taper off to 2 by the time im back to work,
For easily obtained dechlorinated water, I have snow Im going to pick up some aquarium salt and do a water change, After about 2 week and after a few water changes, how should this effect the situation IN the tank?
I don't want to treat them just to dump them back into a disease culture, Its a very well cycled tank, optimum temps, planted, silica playsand substrate, aerated, Full of hides, and filtered with a setup as organic as a living kidney. Its even full of pothos roots that suck up waste and provide labrynth-like hides. Driftwood with growing java moss, christmas moss, and java ferns. Hardly any current, at all as intake is diffused though a barrier and output is diffused through the sand under the hides.

What of the tank? Im pretty certain it's not the problem. Ill check the levels just in case tomorrow, but I can't see it being a water quality issue.

They still have good appitites and aren't acting stressed or showing the physical signs (other than this infection)

Ive treated obvios fungal infections before like this and it worked, but this time I cant see a fungal mass, just a fast-spreading degredation of tissue.

Ive been feeding them eathworms, some fish, a few crickets, shrimp and occasionally slices of chicken heart.

I feed them every other week and they are always plump. I try not to over feed so the tank doesn't get over-burdened.

OK, so i got home and checked them with a UV light. The infection seems to be in their bones as the bones are glowing under the UV.
Places where I can see damage, light up most. Whats most alarming is the brightest spot on all specimens is the ridge of the lower mandible, It lights right up. Normally NO part of an axolotl should be phosphorescent under UV light. Parasitic fungi however, often do.

The mandible isn't showing damage, so perhaps their is damage in their mouths. Still, they don't seem to notice, their apatite and behavior is normal.

Does anyone have an Idea based on what I've noticed as to what, precisely, I'm dealing with here?

Sounds to me like you have a better grasp on what's going on than if I was faced with it. I did recall seeing this link and wanted to make sure you knew it was out there.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/illness.shtml

Hi Mitch. I was looking at your post and was wondering what happened next?
I am just passing through the same situation, no stringy skin, just a red fingernail, strange thing
both my axies has the same injured finger, frontal left limb, third finger, both of them.
yesterday I saw one of them was showing the bone, the rest of the limb looks clean, no edema, no
redness at all. they are eating and behaving normally.
Their tank is great, lot of places to hide, plants, silica sand.... big enough, maybe too big..., water parameters and temperature are ideal... my tap water is a little bit alcaline, but it has always been like that and I have had my axies for nearly 3 years...

well, since it happened it was alot of careful treatments and slow, gradual loss of all but one. See, it always got worse with feedings, so I started to feed them minimally, in the end, two died directly from the affliction, one seemed to succumb a year later after healing when i tried to increse their diet again, and that left me with 2 very emaciated looking individuals, a male and a female. the male refused to eat and continued to decline and eventually died, the female recovered, she has been fine for over a year, no recurrances. I beleive it was some sort of fungal infection. The survivor seems happy in her planted tank alone. eats well, It COULD be that it started when i moved to the house i was living in, because it stopped when i moved out. perhaps something in the water? Perhaps some fungus came in on feeder fish? no idea. Sorta choked up about it, but stuff happens.

featherbutt said:

well, since it happened it was alot of careful treatments and slow, gradual loss of all but one. See, it always got worse with feedings, so I started to feed them minimally, in the end, two died directly from the affliction, one seemed to succumb a year later after healing when i tried to increse their diet again, and that left me with 2 very emaciated looking individuals, a male and a female. the male refused to eat and continued to decline and eventually died, the female recovered, she has been fine for over a year, no recurrances. I beleive it was some sort of fungal infection. The survivor seems happy in her planted tank alone. eats well, It COULD be that it started when i moved to the house i was living in, because it stopped when i moved out. perhaps something in the water? Perhaps some fungus came in on feeder fish? no idea. Sorta choked up about it, but stuff happens.

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Reading this kinda scared me. I don't know what I'd do if my axolotl died... I'd be so sad.  I'm so sorry you lost yours. Better luck to Celeste.