astamir
New member
Hello,
Well odd as it may seem I have had my three newts (two firebellys and one eastern) for 14 years now, and this is my first time on this site! Irresponsible as it may seem, I never bothered to really research proper newt care, and kind of just did what I thought made sense. I keep about a gallon of water in the tank, and have a filter going. I clean the tank about once a month (take the newts out, soak everything in hot water, and scrub it down.) They all pretty much stick to the land (it's about half land and half water) and I never thought that this was a bad thing until I came here and started reading about it! All that aside, the reason for my post is that my eastern newt (Gingrich) has developed these dark stripes on the side of his head that are worrisome because they didn't used to be there. I first noticed them about 8 months ago, and actually got so worried that I took him to an exotic pet vetrinarian. At that point there was dead skin kind of hanging off of the dark patches (although he was not shedding at the time) and that was what made me feel like I needed to do something about it. My experience at the veterinarians was not super positive. First of all she seemed like she was about 20 years old (in any case she was young enough that she obviously didn't have years and years of experience). Secondly, the first thing that she did was to pick Gingrich up, grasping him firmly, (just about giving me heart failure, since I try not to handle them at all unless absolutely necessary) and start rubbing at the side of his head with a Q-tip! The dead skin came off and Gingrich being a hearty fellow seemed to deal with this pretty well (probably better than I in some ways), and she told me that it was some sort of a fungal problem. She gave me two options for treating it- 1. I could rub some lotrimin (same over-the-counter strength used for treating athlete's foot) on it or 2. I could attempt to somehow get him to ingest a medication (terumo u-100 insulin)- either by cutting up an earthworm and injecting the insulin into the earthworm chunks, or by holding his mouth open and squirting it down his throat. (she actually recommended this over the other technique). So what happened is that I did neither of these things. I just didn't trust her "professional" opinion. The lotrimin thing sounded too weird, and I really didn't like the way she handled him and suggested that I handle him as though it were no big deal. So I just started cleaning the tank more frequently (about every 2 weeks) and for a while it seemed like it was getting better. It never went away completely but it waxes and wanes. It never got to the dead-skin-hanging-off point again, but right now it is getting really dark and starting to worry me again so here I am looking for help. I apologize for the long-winded post.
I am planning to remove the filter and get an air stone after reading here about how water currents stress them out. ...But I am not really interested in changing the whole set-up to where the tank is mainly water as seems to be recommended here. I mean, come on, I have had the little buggers for 14 years!!! and they seem to be pretty darn happy to me. So I must be doing something right? Anyway I will post a picture so you can see what I am talking about and maybe someone out there knows what is going on? I love my guys! best pets ever!! Thanks for reading.
Well odd as it may seem I have had my three newts (two firebellys and one eastern) for 14 years now, and this is my first time on this site! Irresponsible as it may seem, I never bothered to really research proper newt care, and kind of just did what I thought made sense. I keep about a gallon of water in the tank, and have a filter going. I clean the tank about once a month (take the newts out, soak everything in hot water, and scrub it down.) They all pretty much stick to the land (it's about half land and half water) and I never thought that this was a bad thing until I came here and started reading about it! All that aside, the reason for my post is that my eastern newt (Gingrich) has developed these dark stripes on the side of his head that are worrisome because they didn't used to be there. I first noticed them about 8 months ago, and actually got so worried that I took him to an exotic pet vetrinarian. At that point there was dead skin kind of hanging off of the dark patches (although he was not shedding at the time) and that was what made me feel like I needed to do something about it. My experience at the veterinarians was not super positive. First of all she seemed like she was about 20 years old (in any case she was young enough that she obviously didn't have years and years of experience). Secondly, the first thing that she did was to pick Gingrich up, grasping him firmly, (just about giving me heart failure, since I try not to handle them at all unless absolutely necessary) and start rubbing at the side of his head with a Q-tip! The dead skin came off and Gingrich being a hearty fellow seemed to deal with this pretty well (probably better than I in some ways), and she told me that it was some sort of a fungal problem. She gave me two options for treating it- 1. I could rub some lotrimin (same over-the-counter strength used for treating athlete's foot) on it or 2. I could attempt to somehow get him to ingest a medication (terumo u-100 insulin)- either by cutting up an earthworm and injecting the insulin into the earthworm chunks, or by holding his mouth open and squirting it down his throat. (she actually recommended this over the other technique). So what happened is that I did neither of these things. I just didn't trust her "professional" opinion. The lotrimin thing sounded too weird, and I really didn't like the way she handled him and suggested that I handle him as though it were no big deal. So I just started cleaning the tank more frequently (about every 2 weeks) and for a while it seemed like it was getting better. It never went away completely but it waxes and wanes. It never got to the dead-skin-hanging-off point again, but right now it is getting really dark and starting to worry me again so here I am looking for help. I apologize for the long-winded post.
I am planning to remove the filter and get an air stone after reading here about how water currents stress them out. ...But I am not really interested in changing the whole set-up to where the tank is mainly water as seems to be recommended here. I mean, come on, I have had the little buggers for 14 years!!! and they seem to be pretty darn happy to me. So I must be doing something right? Anyway I will post a picture so you can see what I am talking about and maybe someone out there knows what is going on? I love my guys! best pets ever!! Thanks for reading.
