Illness/Sickness: Growing very concerned about Alan.

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Ady

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Hi guys, you may or ma not remember this post from December :http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...-think-alan-stressed-but-i-dont-know-why.html
Alan has never been the same since i moved into this house and he just seems to be getting worse and i dont know what i can do.

Since december, he did start to eat again, but he has gone back to spitting out his worms. He seems ok on frozen bloodworm but its real hassle to feed him it.

He seems to have lost most of the control over his hind legs. the tip of his tail is still curled, and now he has some gill fungus all of a sudden. about a month ago he started shedding skin and spending most of his time by the filter or floating. but now he stays on the bottom all the time.

But the thing that distresses me the most is that he seems to fall on his back while clumsily turning round, but just stays there, fully upside down laying on his back. i dont like it one bit. i think it is related to him not using his hind legs, but i have no idea what could have caused that in the first place.

My parameters are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Ph seems quite high, about 8 - 8.5. The same as straight out of the tap.
Temp averages 18 - 19C

Sand as substrate, the tank is 30x30x60cm (i know this is small)
There are 4 cherry shrimp with him, he ate the other 4 back in october i think.

Any suggestions? your advice is very very much appreciated.

I am very worried, I honestly can't afford to take him to the vet, here is a picture of him laying upside down as i found him just before posting this (he has now righted himself)
 

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I think because of your continuing problems and the new 'righting reflex' issue, it might be something neurological.

Unfortunately, I can't offer much advice, other than it might be less stressful to him to be in a shallow container where he doesn't roll over as much. You could also try offering a lot of leverage opportunities, where he can push against things and right himself more easily.

In addition, maybe a stint in the fridge will help. If nothing else, it might help with the fungus.
 
Whats on his gill? it looks like fungus on the bottom of his gill in the pic D: hope not if it is, then salt bath time...
 
Yes that's fungus that appeared over the last couple of days, like i said in the original post. But it actually came off earlier, while i was trying to feed him!

Interesting point Kaysie, it had crossed my mind. his back legs just twitch sometimes and he doesnt seem to show any worry if he's about to tip over, he just lets it happen and lays there.

Anybody have any experience with this issue or seen or heard of it before?
 
Poor Alan!

I've absolutely no experience of this happening, I do have an axie whose behaviour is sometimes quite alarming and erratic, along with a strange leg condition, but as he hasn't worsened I am chalking it down as just the way he is.

I hope this is something that rights itself.

Only other thing I can possibly think of is, is there any chance anything toxic to axies could be getting in the tank? Even hand creams or surface spray, anything? Especially if you moved, could anything dodgy be in the water?
 
Oh no! Poor Alan! That's my Daddy's name!
I find that photo more distressing than any of the nipping injury photos I've seen yet.
My heart goes out to you both :love:
 
mewsie said:
Poor Alan!


Only other thing I can possibly think of is, is there any chance anything toxic to axies could be getting in the tank? Even hand creams or surface spray, anything? Especially if you moved, could anything dodgy be in the water?
Click to expand...

i do use hand cream daily, as i suffer from dry skin, but i only put my hands in the water if its absolutely necessary, and i dont put my hands in if ive used some within the hour. Could hand cream be highly toxic to him? and could his back legs problem be a symptom of poisoning?

I dont know what to do :( the water parameters are ok, he just wants to worry me. i'd like a vet to look at him but i just cant afford it
 
Ady, I wish I could say, I just don't know :(

It was the only other thing I could think of. It could be a developmental thing like Kaysie suggested.

Re: vets, I don't know just how tight things are, but when I took Roscoe to the vets it only cost me £26. If you could do without spending that, is there a vet school at a uni nearby? They might have a free clinic? Slightly different, but when I was at uni we ran a free clinic for optometry...

And Jo, Alan is my daddies name too! ^_^
 
Do you wash your hands before putting them in the tank? Even if I haven't used any hand cream all day, I still scrub my hands and arms thoroughly, up to the elbow, and rinse for at least a minute.
 
I don't know to be honest, if i know i'm going to need to put my ands in the water then i do clean up first. But there are moments when i haven't done that. i knew that it could cause problems but i just thought it was if you had just used some cream then don't go washing your hands in the tank or anything!

I didnt realise it could actually be such a problem. I will be much more careful from now on.
 
Oh my goodness poor Alan. That photo is very distressing. =[

I know it's a long shot but would the PDSA be able to help? I'm faily certain when my boyfriend's parents cat was ill because they couldn't afford to take her to the vet the PDSA handled it for free.
 
Erzs said:
Oh my goodness poor Alan. That photo is very distressing. =[

I know it's a long shot but would the PDSA be able to help? I'm faily certain when my boyfriend's parents cat was ill because they couldn't afford to take her to the vet the PDSA handled it for free.
Click to expand...

I'm not completely sure, but I think the PDSA only deals with "furries". But, each surgery might handle different animals I guess - you never know, if there's a vet who's interested in a specialty, they might ask to let that type of animal see them ;)
 
Thanks for your input everyone. I'll do some research on a vet, is the general consensus here that he absolutely needs to be seen by a vet?
 
It actually seems that he can't really control the back half of his body, he used to occasionally swim up for some air and have a float about, but these days it looks like he tries to swim up but can't actually do it.

As was suggested earlier by kaysie, it looks to be something neurological.

I don't know what to do with the little guy :(

Would it be reasonable to think of putting him up for adoption, So somebody with more experience can try to give him a better life?
 
Are you doing water changes since= possible contamination? I'm more into sals/newts than axies (so far), but it sounds like he needs some fridge time, supplemented with a complete water change and cleansing or removal of everything in the tank due to possible contamination. Hand cream is probably scented and I would think it would be loaded with chemicals that could be toxic to an axie. Is there any other tank mates or snails/living organisms in this tank that are thriving?

Idk about the adoption route. .
 
i do a water change weekly so i'm just keeping on with them.

There does seem to be a population of planaria ( i think they are) like tiny little white slugs on the glass. But i don't see what would cause that, because the ammonia and nitrites are fine.

Is it really worth crashing the nirtate cycle and starting all over again? seems like that could stress him out on top of his illness.
 
Planaria usually appear because there large amounts of leftover food in the tank.
 
Ady said:
Would it be reasonable to think of putting him up for adoption, So somebody with more experience can try to give him a better life?
Click to expand...

I don't know that anyone else would be able to do any more than you, but I want to commend your pet ownership, because you are willing to put your pet/s welfare before your emotions. That's increasingly rare, but how it should be.
I'm no expert, but some fridge time, in shallow water sounds like a good plan.
Sending lots of hugs ;)
 
Kaysie said:
Planaria usually appear because there large amounts of leftover food in the tank.
Click to expand...
I know, but he only eats earthworms, there is never any leftover food in there. And because he is eating so little, he also poops very rarely, and small amounts. I know, weird! :confused:
 
memojo1979 said:
I don't know that anyone else would be able to do any more than you, but I want to commend your pet ownership, because you are willing to put your pet/s welfare before your emotions. That's increasingly rare, but how it should be.
I'm no expert, but some fridge time, in shallow water sounds like a good plan.
Sending lots of hugs ;)
Click to expand...

Thank you, it would break my heart to hand him over to somebody else, the only thing that's worse than that would be to watch him deteriorate :(

If there is anybody reading this that is interested in adopting a sick axie, please get in touch.
 
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