Illness/Sickness: Desperate for advice.

[megan84]

Hello my name is Megan,

Ive had my axie for 4-5 years. I live in Australia and last month we had a shocking heat wave. My Axie Axle developed a red mark on his face. Stupidly I left it for sometime before going to the vet becauseI thought he hit his nose on something.

He developed 2 more red marks on his body. I took him from vet to vet trying to get help. Finally finding one 1/2 an hour away that specialises in exotic animals. My vet said it is septicemia

Axle has been on antibiotic injections (fortum every 3 days) for about 3 weeks now with no improvement.

The vet suggested surgery to cut the infected areas out. Since then he has improved greatly but now I can see redness coming though on his nose again.

I dont have water parameters. I have included photos. They start with pics of him sick, after the op, and now.

I have the water under 17'c using ice bricks and frozen bottles. I bought Melafix, but havent started using it.

I have spent over $500 in the last 3 weeks on Axle, I love him dearly.


Is it time for a fridge visit? Any advice would be fantastic

 

[The Banana]

Oh my! Hope everything will be OK for you & Axle, and treatment will pay off.
All the best. ♥

 

[zoezakella]

Sorry to hear about your axies problems although I cannot comment about the red skin patch I thought I would mention to you about your axies substrate. You are obviously a very caring owner so thought I would mention that the gravel you have your axie on is very dangerous and can easily be swallowed by your axie leading to impaction Your axie would be a lot happier on a bare bottomed tank or on sand. Axies act like a hoover when it comes to food and suck up anything in their path!

Also it is not clear from your photo how tall your tank is but fill it up as far as it will got to safely as the more water there is the easier it is to maintain the temp!

Good luck

 

[megan84]

Thankyou both, he is doing even worse now. His face is swelling up

About the gravel.... as i was waiting for my account to be activated last night, i think i read just about every article on here. I will definately get sand today. Im rushing over to the pet place in just a minute to get some sand and a container to frigde him. figured id switch the gravel to sand while he is chillaxing

 

[zoezakella]

Hi Megan,

So sorry to hear that and wish I could help you further

Keep you axie in nice cool dechlorinated water for the time being and see how he/she goes until you can get some more expert advice from some more experienced members!

Great news about the sand and thanks for taking the advice on board!!

All the best x

 

[megan84]

Is bottled water ok?

 

[zoezakella]

Is bottled water ok?

Would personally use tap water with some dechlorinator in it do you have any??

 

[megan84]

Aw Zoe, you are a great help. Ill get some when I pick everything else up (and then hiding the receipts from the hubby)

 

[zoezakella]

my pleasure and so so so loving the hiding of receipts from hubby :rofl: mine has given up, between 2 kids (2 & 4) and my amphibian friends he is well outnumbered lol!!

Can I ask Megan has you axie been in normal tap water up until now>??

 

[megan84]

Well for the last 4 years yes im affraid to say. I didnt know any better . since he has got sick i have been doing 25% cleaning cycles with bottled water.

Its a shame that I learnt the hard way to look after him. i followed what the pet shop said when i bought him. I feel absolutely terrible. I know he is sick because i have been doing everything wrong for sooo long. Im surprised he has survived so long.

Please dont get me wrong, I did these things without knowing any better. I love him sooo much and am filled with guilt.

 

[zoezakella]

Well for the last 4 years yes im affraid to say. I didnt know any better . since he has got sick i have been doing 25% cleaning cycles with bottled water.

Its a shame that I learnt the hard way to look after him. i followed what the pet shop said when i bought him. I feel absolutely terrible. I know he is sick because i have been doing everything wrong for sooo long. Im surprised he has survived so long.

Please dont get me wrong, I did these things without knowing any better. I love him sooo much and am filled with guilt.

Ok Megan dont go blaming yourself we all make mistakes!! I was also advised upon my first axies to put them on gravel as sand was dangerous was furious when I found this website and then found one of my axies was impacted so basicallly we all are here to help and some of us have also learnt from our own mistakes so dont beat yourself up over it!!

wow your guy has done good if you have had him for so long in normal tap water!! I cant even begin to comment on that one!!

I will say however the amount of money you have spent on your dear axie is testiment enough of your love to him lets just hope we can help you sort him out!! Sadly I can help with the basic stuff but we need some more experienced members now to help you with the rest GOOD LUCK!!!! :happy:

 

[megan84]

ok, have got him into the vet on wednesday. he is in the fridge now in declorinated water. put the melafix and declorinator in the tank. set the filter back up (took it out because i thought it was stressing him.) got charcoal for filter. replaced grave with black sand.

Still would like to know if anyone else has experienced this with their axie and any solutions

 

[smily sam]

replaced grave with black sand.

do you meen gravel

 

[megan84]

Hahahaha yes Sam I definately mean gravel. Although after learning that everything I have done for Axle in the last 4 years was wrong, it was almost a grave.

 

[zoezakella]

ok, have got him into the vet on wednesday. he is in the fridge now in declorinated water. put the melafix and declorinator in the tank. set the filter back up (took it out because i thought it was stressing him.) got charcoal for filter. replaced grave with black sand.

Still would like to know if anyone else has experienced this with their axie and any solutions

Fingers crossed for Wednesday

Well done for getting your axie sorted aswell. Not sure if you know this but you need to take the charcoal out of your filter as that will absorb all the medicine that's put into the tank.

 

[megan84]

just gave him his antibiotic injection. im so worried. hopefully someone has an idea on how to treat it.
i hate seeing him like this

 

[zoezakella]

Poor you must be hard As I say I have not seen this before so could not comment on how to treat it but thinking allowed if he has been having these injections for 3 weeks and it is not clearing am just thinking that maybe the fortum is not working so your vet should try something else

 

[megan84]

i agree. i rang them in tears today, my usual vet wasnt there so they asked another vet. she was sooo rude. she told me to get him out of the fridge and just give him the needle. she then said she thought it was a pigmentation??? how come after 4 years he suddenly got pigmentation??? she was the one that said it was septicemia. im going to be soo angry if its pigmentation. putting him through all this and the $$.

I cant wait to get back to the usual vet. poor little man. im soo worried. im so glad i have this forum for company, not many people understand how much i love him.

 

[zoezakella]

i agree. i rang them in tears today, my usual vet wasnt there so they asked another vet. she was sooo rude. she told me to get him out of the fridge and just give him the needle. she then said she thought it was a pigmentation??? how come after 4 years he suddenly got pigmentation??? she was the one that said it was septicemia. im going to be soo angry if its pigmentation. putting him through all this and the $$.

I cant wait to get back to the usual vet. poor little man. im soo worried. im so glad i have this forum for company, not many people understand how much i love him.

OH NO fingers crossed for you!! LOL your in good company here we are all bonkers about our axies!!

 

[megan84]

yep mine is a subsitute child. haha. i had to take a half day off from work last week because i was so devestated about him in surgery. yep bonkers