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Contagious sores on my verrucosus

aramcheck

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My Tylos are CB and have been in my care for over 3 years. They often bite each other in feeding frenzies, and this has never been a problem. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a wound on the back of one of them that looked a bit atypical.

Sadly, a few day later, my brother in law passed away, and the newts wellbeing understandly faded in the background. They were fed, but I missed one water change, and did not keep much eyes on them. I did the overdue water change today, and noticed that not only had the wound on the initial newt gone larger and eeper, but another individual presents a similar one on the top of his head. I am now really worried abut my group, if any of you can guess what it is, and what I should do. I do not have access to an herp vet in Nottingham. (unless someone know of one).


Here are the two newts in question:

initial one:
sore1.jpg


and second one
sore2.jpg


any help would be greatly appreciated!
 

otolith

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Re: Contagious sores on my verrucosis

I had similar sores develop on several C. cyanarus. They just showed up one day and spread to others in the group. I ended up treating their tank with malachite green using half the dose recommended for tropical fish. The sores healed over after about a week of daily treatments. I changed 25% of the water daily during treatment. I am not sure what caused the sores but they never reappeared. Salt baths would be a good idea as well and will help up healing and prevent infection.

Best of luck treating them, hope they make a full recovery.
 

herpvet

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Re: Contagious sores on my verrucosis

My Tylos are CB and have been in my care for over 3 years. They often bite each other in feeding frenzies, and this has never been a problem. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a wound on the back of one of them that looked a bit atypical.

Sadly, a few day later, my brother in law passed away, and the newts wellbeing understandly faded in the background. They were fed, but I missed one water change, and did not keep much eyes on them. I did the overdue water change today, and noticed that not only had the wound on the initial newt gone larger and eeper, but another individual presents a similar one on the top of his head. I am now really worried abut my group, if any of you can guess what it is, and what I should do. I do not have access to an herp vet in Nottingham. (unless someone know of one).


Here are the two newts in question:

initial one:
sore1.jpg


and second one
sore2.jpg


any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi,

These kind of lesion could be bacterial, mycobacterial, fungal, protozoal, nematode or other (or mixed) causes. You really need to try to get some diagnostics done to have the best chance of helping the newts, so I would strongly advise getting them to a vet.

If nowhere else the university of Nottingham has an exotics department, although I believe there are several other vets within range (depending a bit on your definition of range!) of Nottingham.

I hope you can get them sorted out.

Best wishes,

Bruce.
 

aramcheck

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An update on the newts:

By the time I could do anything about it, after my brother-in-law funeral, all 4 animals in my breeding group were developing ulcers-like sores. I went to an exotic vet, who took some swabs and looked at it after staining, and could see an organism, but had no idea what it was, so we send a sample to the lab (I am waiting on a result). In the meantime, he prescribed silver sulfadiazine to be applied to the wounds twice daily.

I also started treating the water with malachite green. After some trial and error, I decided that the best course of action was to apply the silver sulfadiazine cream in the evenings, and keep the newts on damp kitchen paper overnight, in individual daily cups, as the cream would not remain on the newts in the water. Then they spend the day in their tank.

Sadly, the individual with the dorsal ulcer (top picture) developed at least half a dozen secondary wounds, stopped feeding and became totally hydrophobic and finally, comatose and showing sign of "the shine", so I decided to euthanize it :( , I am not too emotionally attached to my animals, they are not my "pets", but this was a blow as I take my responsibilities toward my captives seriously, and I know that I haven't been on the ball due to my personal circumstances... Also, that very individual had a great personality, always begging for food and often nibbling at my finger if I was doing any cleaning in the tank...

The good news is, the other animals are showing clear signs of improvement, the wounds are not bleeding anymore, and are showing sign of healing, so finger crossed the worst is behind me.

Also, I am curious to find out what the lab will say.

Keeping caudates is a great ride, but this event has been the worst so far, and I am feeling very guilty I did not keep my eyes on them, even though I know it was right to look after my wife and kids first...
 

Linus

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When you find out the lab results please update us Aramcheck! Sorry to hear about this event, at least the information can help others on the positive side.
 

aramcheck

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Sadly, I lost the whole group.

The culture came back with some bacteria (I have unfortunately lost my notes with the type, I'll see if I can get the vet to give it back to me), and the newt initially responded well to the treatment, the sore started to heal and looking "drier", they will be very active and rabid eater, as per normal.

Then, after maybe two week, one by one, over 3 days, they became aqua-phobic, very lethargic and in 24/36 hours they will get a general lose of colours, and at the end, have clouded eyes, and in one case, a large abscess on the ventral side, toward the hind leg.

Like I said in the original post, I feel very guilty as due to personal circumstance, I was slow to detect the problem and then seek medical treatment. I hope I can source some CB tylos soon, as I am quite found of their temperament, but this time I will be much more proactive if a similar problem arose, lessons hard learnt, and sadly, at a great cost for my animals ;(

All I can hope, is that my misadventure can be use as a cautionary tale. This happened in August, and it took me until now to decide to give it another go, as for the 4 years I had this group they were excellent breeders, and my Marms are striving, which did lift my mood and gave me confidence in my abilities again...
 
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