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Throat infection looks like a red/yellow lump! Help!

HitmanSougo13

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Hello, my new female axolotl had given me no problems until now...she is probably a little over 1.5 years old. Two weeks ago on a Friday she stopped eating and ran away from the food. Typically she LOVES food and responds to my snapping my fingers. She also seemed to make an explosive diarrhea that night that had a bunch of black little things in it...I was assuming she dewormed herself and hence didn't feel like eating.

The tank has no substrate just giant glass beads bigger than her head and some smooth giant rocks and a hiding spot. I changed a lot of the water due to that mess she made. The ammonnia level is now 0, nitrites is under 0.25 and nitrates levels are 5-10. PH is 8. I thought the temp may cause her to not eat but it's steady at 18-19C and I tried playing around with it during those two weeks either increasing a little or decreasing...no dice.

Since it's been some time she hasn't eaten, I had decided to force feed her...the first time was to feel her body and see if anything hard was in it but her body was soft. Although I noticed some weird skin discoloration in some little spots in the photos below. Tonight I decide to force feed her again...that's when I noticed something inside her mouth...I took a good photo of it...it looks like a lump which is red and yellow.:eek:

I intend to go to a vet this weekend, I'm aiming for tomorrow if they are open. but in the meantime...is there anything I can do for her like a salt bath? I think the fridge is out of the question as it is currently full of food but I do live where the temps are in the negative double digits.

Thank you for all your help!
 

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HitmanSougo13

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I took my girl to the vet today. The doctor says it appears to be an abscess. She suggested a few things that could be done. Antibiotics was a sure thing.

She recommended:
1. Antibiotics taken by mouth (which my axo probably could spit out)
2. Antibiotic injected by arm (7 injections 72 hours apart)
3. Lancing the abscess although it is hard to tell how much bleeding there will be as it is inside the mouth either by:
a. Me and her actively holding my axo's mouth open while my axol is wide awake.
b. Using anesthetics

We agreed to do the injections for now and see if the abscess knows how to decrease on its own...if it doesn't go away on its own...the lancing will have to be done...yikes! The abscess should decrease in size after the 3rd injection. I hope!

This vet visit cost 150 CAD just so you are aware.

I just thought of something....We have access to the photos of sick axolotls and axolotl illnesses but I found some of those pictures...can more examples. We can also put in 'solutions' and 'causes' to the photos. Would anyone be interested if some of us wanted to gather a bunch of sick axolotl pictures over the forum and put it together?
 

Rhandi Claxton

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I just thought of something....We have access to the photos of sick axolotls and axolotl illnesses but I found some of those pictures...can more examples. We can also put in 'solutions' and 'causes' to the photos. Would anyone be interested if some of us wanted to gather a bunch of sick axolotl pictures over the forum and put it together?[/QUOTE]


That is an awesome idea. It would make things so much easier for the panicking axolotl owners who don't know about this site until they end up with a sick one on their hands. Then there are so many posts, I wish I had the time and the know how to....
 

Kaysie

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By doing something like that, it's bordering on giving veterinary advice without a license, which is illegal (sometimes a Felony) in almost all countries.

We do have a list of common caudate illnesses, which can be found here, with subsequent pages of illness accounts and photos.
 

HitmanSougo13

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Hey Kaysie! Oh good point! I definitely was not trying to pull a Doctor Tran ("he's a real doctor!). I was thinking more of the lines of helping people recognize their axolotl may have a serious issue through pictures. So in this case, the 'solution' would have been: GO TO THE VET. and not 'give your pet antibiotics'.

I can't help but notice the amount of owners who say they dont' know what is wrong with their axolotl but don't do a thorough examination, through the water parameters and the axolotl physically...The examination to in my opinion isn't as much as to play doctor, but to convince the owner to take the pet to the vet if it is beyond their control.

An update on my pet. She wants to eat...I've been offering food daily and today she kept going towards it, even rested her lips on it...but she won't eat on her own. I guess that abscess must hurt. Which...now leads me to another force feeding session. She ate a ton of the liquid food....around 4ml as I made more today. She ate like a baby today. She bit on the syringe and wouldn't let go of it and kept swallowing so I just let her eat whenever and stop whenever. It was actually her own choice to let go of the syringe as I actually had 5 ml of food ready. I have already given her 3 antibiotic injections.

I'll probably take a photo tomorrow to see any changes in her throat.
Otherwise, she is getting strong fast again.
 

HitmanSougo13

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I don't like to leave posts 'unfinished' in case someone ever runs into such a situation and is looking for help, so I thought I would just wrap this threat up.

Her abscess has really gotten small!

On the day of the last injection - two days ago. My axolotl finally ate on her own...she ate two pieces of salmon though...I kind of want to give her really soft food. When she was eating those nutritional powdered food, her poop was green (sign that there are too many nutrients in the food).

yesterday she ate again on her own! Hooray!

I phoned the vet and told them the story on my axolotl's recovery. I was glad I did not need to take her in for surgery. My total cost for my axolotl's illness was about 150 CAD.
 

Kaysie

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That's really great to hear! I'm glad it didn't cost more. I know trips to the vet can really rack up!
 

Morrison

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That's great news! Luckily she's eating and feeling better. :D
 
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I don't like to leave posts 'unfinished' in case someone ever runs into such a situation and is looking for help, so I thought I would just wrap this threat up.

Her abscess has really gotten small!

On the day of the last injection - two days ago. My axolotl finally ate on her own...she ate two pieces of salmon though...I kind of want to give her really soft food. When she was eating those nutritional powdered food, her poop was green (sign that there are too many nutrients in the food).

yesterday she ate again on her own! Hooray!

I phoned the vet and told them the story on my axolotl's recovery. I was glad I did not need to take her in for surgery. My total cost for my axolotl's illness was about 150 CAD.

What powdered food did you use? I think that may be something fairly useful to those needing to forcefeed as it may be much easier than trying to feed solids and easier for axies with similar throat issues to swallow.
 
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