Axolotl's leg covered in fungus.

L

lexie

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Hi, my axolotl, Balthazaa, is being housed with a larger axolotl, Gwenevere, about 4cm larger than him. I have been keeping an eye on them but nothing seems to be going wrong... Gwen doesn't even pay attention to Balthazaa... But she's a little pig, and I'm afraid she's bitten him...

I've attached a photo, but Balthazaa's front leg is... well, falling off. There is a heap of fungus there and little red stringy bits, and then his little foot is barely there, the leg is gone. I'm giving him 5 minute salt baths twice a day (I only noticed this 15 minutes ago, I looked at him last night to feed and didn't see ANYTHING) and he's in the fridge with a towel over him so he won't freak out when the light comes on and off. It's winter and the water's around 15C in the tank, and I just checked all the water parameters and they're all normal... Just as they normally are. No ammonia, no nitrite. I can't remember the exact reading on the nitrate but I remember thinking "that's normal.. ok, the water's fine" so there's no problem there.

Is there anything else I should do? I love this guy and I don't want anything to happen to him! The pics are a bit blurry, sorry.
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He's pooped a hell of a lot in the fridge, I changed his water today and checked parameters to make sure he'd be ok... Some of the fungus has fallen off but the leg still looks pretty bad. I expect that with the salt baths his leg will eventually just fall off... And then once all the infection's gone I'll put him back in the tank and he'll be ok, and his leg will just grow back. Right?

Can someone tell me what CAUSES the fungus thing?
 
heat is the main reason, because the axies get stressed in higher temps and stress weakens there immunity to fungus.
 
perhaps if it isnt getting better you might need to look into parasites? a person here ages ago had an axie whos skin was getting eaten sort of, she did a skin scrape and it turned out there were some nasties at fault...

for now i suppose just keeping the water nice and cool and doing salt baths for the fungus is the best.

good luck
 
Oh no, after reading that I'm really anxious. Thanks Stewart

Are salt baths not a good idea? what else could I do?? He's very squirmy, the idea of putting him under running water and tweezing the fungus off just won't work, as he just doesn't stay still.

Anything else I should do? He's been there 3 or 4 days now and still no improvement.
 
it looks like fungus to me. but the hand still looks black and the arm looks like its got fungus on it, doesnt fungus usually start from the tip of the fingers then work its way up the hand and arm?.
 
it will take hold wherever it can on the axie. if the slime coat is a tincy bit thinner there etc it will get a hold on there first
 
The only progress after this long of having him in the fridge and giving him salt baths is that now the fungus has spread to the fingers, and is falling off a tiny bit...I hope this is progress, as I don't know how long to expect the healing process to take.
Thanks for all your help... I just feel so bad for him... He's so saddddd looking
 
The fungus has gotten alot worse now, there's alot more of it and it's covering his tiny hand, and it's not falling off...
 
If there has been damage to the tissue so there is dead tissue then the fungus will continue to spread.

Ed
 
Can someone give me a precise idea of what to do here? What medications should I use? I can get to the LFS later today but I'm not sure I trust the staff there so if someone could tell me what to buy that'd be great...

Is there any way of preventing the fungus from spreading other than the medications? It looks like his leg just needs to be cut off - but I could never do that!!

Any other suggestions?
 
I would say amputate the leg(i was going to do that to myne) but i went with salt baths. Dont worry the limb wil grow bac.

Thats just my persenal oppinion
 
if there is actually dead tissue there i am unsure how to remove it other than via scalpel etc :S i am not sure about amputation, i know it grows back and everything but what if the tip of the stub gets fungus and then spreads even closer to the body? i can understand how you dont want to cut its leg off, the thought horrifies me (im thinking of having to break the bones and stuff- eek!)

sorry i cant be of more help!
 
If the limb has sufficient damage that it looks dead then you will need to seek out the advice from a vet who works with amphibians and/or fish to see if the limb does need to be amputated or whether removal of the dead tissue will be sufficient.
For the best results the amputation would have to occur in above the dead tissue to help prevent further spread of the problem. Because of this I would not suggest performing the amputation yourself as there are some good sized blood vessels in the leg and severing them without a means to stop the bleeding could result in the animal bleeding out. Also you would not have access to anesthesia to allow for a humane surgical technique.

Please review the process for salt treatments here http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/salt.shtml

To further help with the animal to deal with the fungus, a small amount of AQUARIUM salt (not table salt or free flowing kosher salt) can be added and kept in the water. I would not hesitate to add up to a tablespoon per gallon as this changes the osmotic pressure for the fungus and makes it harder for it to grow however as I stated above, as long as there is dead tissue the fungus will continue to colonize it.

Ed
 
I've followed those steps exactly for the salt bathing process, Ed, thanks... The only difference is that I have not been able to pick the fungus off whilst he's been in the bath. He's very fidgetty..

I'll try adding a tablespoon of aquarium salt to the water he's in at the moment. It's a one gallon bowl.

I'm going to have a look in the phone book today and call all the vets local to my area to see if any of them could confidently look at my axie. Thanks for all your help.
 
No luck
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I don't know what to do. No vets... (If anyone knows of one in Brisbane, Australia let me know) And he's not getting better... Help!
 
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