Illness/Sickness: Help Please

[Karis]

I have two axolotl's one black and one white.
The black one seems to be sick. She hasn't eaten for around a week and has these bubble growths on her underside. I took a photo to the pet shop and they told me they were boils and to change her food, only problem is is that she is no longer eating. She was on the prawn and heart frozen cubes and I've now tried her on the axolotl pellets but she won't take them and won't eat the cubes.
One of them also keeps dropping what looks like eggs but with a solid brown red coloured mass in the centre.
We've also discovered what looks like worms or something in the water and have no idea what they are.
Any help would be greatly appreciated as the people we tend to ask don't have enough of a clue.

 

[auntiejude]

Your axie really needs to see a vet - that could be a prolapse, a hernia or an infection, and need professional input.

You 2nd picture doesn't look like eggs as there is no egg jelly, they could be badly formed poop. Try examining some, if they come apart when you poke them it's poop.

Your axie should be eating worms most of the time, prawns are too salty and heart is an unnatrual food for axies. Many axies will only take pellets if they have been soaked as they are quite hard.

Are the 'worms' in the tank small white things? Probably planaria, completely hamless. You should be able to scoop them out.

 

[Karis]

The little poop egg things some do have a embryotic looking sack around them and they have little fibre bits coming off them. They've only started popping up the last couple of weeks. At first they are firm after about a week they start disintegrating.
Some of the worms are the same colour as the egg poop things.
There seems to be some problems with what we've been told by pet shops because we asked multiple pet shops about setting up a tank and they have said gravel is ok and they have said the frozen cubes were the best thing to feed them.
Looks like a trip to Bunnings is in order to get some worms.

 

[Elise]

I wish you would have attached a few more pictures as it's difficult to tell.

The first image could be parasitic cysts, bacterial granuloma or abscesses, etc. You need to make a vet appointment; this isn't going to get better on its own.

I would also strongly suggest removing the gravel from your tank as soon as possible. They will often ingest it leading to digestive impaction. Sand or bare-bottom are the general consensus for safe axolotl substrates. More information can be found at Axolotl.org - Housing.

 

[auntiejude]

OK, I don't know how many times this has come up on this forum but

MOST PET SHOPS KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AXIES!

Their job is to get you to buy stuff, and although they may well know something about fish they really don't give good advice about axies. Having said that there are a few good ones out there, but if you don't know which ones they are you shouldn't trust a pet shop or LFS on axies. You are much better off here, where enthusiasts, experts, hobbyists and professionals gather to exchange advice and ideas. Even better, a vet with experience in amphibians and exotics.

Gravel is fine for fish because they usually feed at the surface and have little mouths, axies feed at the bottom of the tank and often accidentally eat gravel because they have huge mouths and feed by sucking stuff in. It then lodges in their gut and causes pain, they try and pass it and it causes pain, it gets stuck and causes impaction or infection.

Bloodworm is fine for axies up to about 4" after that earthworms are best.

Please get your axie to a vet, those lumps look nasty and he needs a professional.

 

[Petersgirl]

Those 'bubble lumps' reminded me of this axolotl:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...l/94585-extremely-bloated-axolotl-photos.html

This same axolotl had been fed beef heart and had real problems digesting it. The poop/egg-type things may be undigested beef heart or possibly parasites. Either way, Auntiejude is right. Your baby needs a vet.

 

[Karis]

Is this a better picture?
I just want my little girl to get better
She hasn't been eating and we are still getting those little egg poop things in the tank.
The reason that I thought they may have been eggs is because the white axolotl is meant to be a male.
Also I haven't been feeding my axies straight meat. They are from an Australian company called "Fish Fuel Co." It says they have been designed for top level carnivorous fish including axolotls. I would never give them straight meat without researching but this said it was safe for them to consume. The site below is the stuff I've been feeding them.
Fish Fuel - Heart & Prawns
Hopefully I can find a vet that can help me.
Should I try putting her in the fridge? I only ask because I've seen it written on here so often.

 

[HayleyK]

Do you hand feed your axolotl? Or to you just drop pellets in? The second picture looks a lot like my pellets that I feed my axolotl. Are they blue planet? You should take them out of the water if she doesn't eat them as it will foul up the water and mess up the nitrates.

If you're just dropping them in because you have no time to hand feed, perhaps a small bowl to place them in for easy removal/ less mess.

Earthworms are the best staple diet. Although the packet of meat may say it's okay to feed axolotls, the nutritional values aren't always the best and contain too much fat that can cause problems such as organ failure. Beef heart is okay as a treat - but still there are many different and better options for axolotl treats.

As for the cyst I wouldn't have a clue, and would see a vet.

 

[auntiejude]

That frozen food has:
"trimmed hearts, prawns, dietary fibre and natural seaweed binder"
and really isn't good for axies. They don't need fibre and they certainly don't need 'seaweed binder'.

Worms are what axies need, in the wild they would eat worms, insect larvae, freshwater crustaceans (like shrimp), insects, microfauna such as daphnia, and molluscs (slugs & snails).

Those nuggets in the tank are possibly a result of undigested fibre and seaweed gunk in the frozen food. If you really can't feed your axie live worms (and I appreciate some people can't/won't for a variety of reasons) you could try frozen bloodworms - they would be better than the prawn/heart stuff.

 

[Karis]

I'll be grabbing some earthworms tomorrow.

I've only ever hand fed my axolotls as they don't seem too bright. Even hand feeding them can cause me to stand there for several minutes while they take bad aimed lunge after bad aimed lunge at either my fingers or the giant tweezers.

The pellet egg poop things (hahahaha) have a little sack around them with little fibre bits coming off them. They don't only float or sink they are actually attaching themselves to things like the plants, the tunnel and the filter inside the tank. I've just pulled them off (carefully) thinking they may have been eggs. They have little worms on them which I think may have been from the live plants that we got from the pet store.

Also she got really fat for a week, poor thing was taking after her mummy, just before the pellet egg poop things started appearing.

Also she hasn't been eating so I don't know how she would be passing food and there is around two of those pellet egg poop things (at least) a day so I don't think it's just the white one.

 

[oceanblue]

I think the loose particles are undigested food, possibly regurgitated and covered in mucus. The cyst like structure looks to me like gut herniating out through a defect in the abdominal wall. If this is the case then the axolotl cannot get food through its digestive tract until it is put back into the abdomen and the hole patched.

I wish to emphasise I am not a vet, my opinion is based upon what very distended human gut looks like (I'm a pathologist with minimal animal expertise) but think only a vet can save this axolotl. Alternatively consider euthanasia.

 

[HayleyK]

Maybe she's vomiting them up or spitting them out because they definitely look like pellets that have been in water too long. My lotl sometimes spits out his food occassionally after I've left him alone. When I'm being lazy and suck them out of the tank and into the bucket and leave it there it develops exactly the same, they aren't eggs and they're the exact same color, shape and size of pellets. It's too round/symmetrical for poop. As for the worms in/on these pellets, they're most likely feeding off of it.

If this is indeed poop - it looks like she's not digesting a single bit and it's coming out intact because pellet poop comes out like orangey sand in a sac. Which is probably highly unlikely but I'm 99.9% convinced it's uneated pellets.

 

[Elise]

Your new picture looks very similar to this prolapse. I think oceanblue has the best guess so far.

 

[Karis]

I'm not trying to argue with any of you but she was producing these before we put her on the pellets. They are still being produced and she's not eating. She hasn't eaten in well over a week and we are still getting them in the tank. She only ate two of them in total. They are attaching themselves to things. I pulled one off a plant today and there was one attached to the top of the filter.

 

[auntiejude]

OK, this is all adding up - won't eat, lumpy belly, weird nuggets.
It's all pointing to an obstructed gut or hernia leading to an impass in her digestive tract - exactly as several people have suggested (inlcuding oceanblue whose opinion I respect)

they definitely look like pellets that have been in water too long

But she's not feeding pellets, she feeding frozen prawn/heart cubes. But yes, it's more likely regurgitated food than poop having considered the hernia/obstruction scenario.

 

[Karis]

It does look like that link you posted Elise.
Thanks everyone I will have to find a vet that works on amphibians which might be hard.
I'll take out the pebbles and get some earthworms too.
I hope Roxy can make it through this or I will have one very sad 8 year old girl.
If they are still being produced even though one of them isn't eating do you think it would the white guy? Does producing two a day seem a bit extreme for one axie?

 

[HayleyK]

But she's not feeding pellets, she feeding frozen prawn/heart cubes. But yes, it's more likely regurgitated food than poop having considered the hernia/obstruction scenario.

She was feeding pellets, well at least started to.

Kari's - you have more than one axolotl? And producing two of what a day? Poop? Sometimes my guy poops like a trooper 2 sometimes 3 a day then some days he won't poop for days

 

[HayleyK]

But she's not feeding pellets, she feeding frozen prawn/heart cubes. But yes, it's more likely regurgitated food than poop having considered the hernia/obstruction scenario.

She was feeding pellets, well at least started to.

Kari's - you have more than one axolotl? Are they both not eating, or does the white one seem generally healthy? And producing two of what a day? Poop? Sometimes my guy poops like a trooper 2 sometimes 3 a day then some days he won't poop for days

 

[Karis]

Hayley as I've mentioned before;
She had a total of two pellets and won't eat now
She has been producing those things long before she started eating the pellets
There are still little floaty things being produced even though she's not eating.
Yes I have two axolotls. The white one seems perfectly happy to gobble as much food as I let him and is happy just chilling in the tank.

 

[Karis]

I've tried feeding Roxy Bloodworms (the ones that are in the little frozen cubes) and she actually moved away from the tweezers and my fingers. This has been the result in trying to feed her anything. She is just not interested in food.
It's going to cost me $85 just to get her in to see a specialist and at the moment, this close to Christmas, I just don't have that kind of money spare.
Can I try putting her in the fridge? Could that help? Or should I just do the kind thing so she's no longer in pain :'(