LizardStudent
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- May 9, 2021
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Hi all, I've got an injured ambystoma maculatum salamander. I've been looking through this forum for ways to help her, but I haven't really found a thread with her exact injury and I'm hoping someone can help me better identify it so I can help her as much as possible. Here's what happened:
I got her from a local reptile shop, felt bad for her and was afraid someone who isn't knowledgeable would buy her - I already had a yellow spotted in my care and figured they could be tank mates. Brought her home, put her in a quarantine tank to monitor before introducing her to my other salamander. Two days ago, notice she's lethargic, moving slow, seems to be struggling. Check her out and her eyes are cloudy and I spot tiny white mites crawling around on her. Start treating her for the mites and flushing her with water, then realize she's got a wound right in the fold of her back left leg with mites particularly congregated around it. If I had to guess, I'd say a cricket might've bit her and gave her the wound but impossible to know for sure. After getting the mites off, I start trying to treat the wound; i make a super super diluted solution of povidone-iodine, and use a Q-tip to put it on the wound. After that I flush with clean water, dry the wound, and apply neosporin (no pain killer ingredients added). I've got her in a hospital setup with damp paper towels and a water dish. Yesterday she perked up but today is back to lethargic, although her eyes aren't really cloudy anymore and the mites seem to be gone.
My main question is, in the picture I attached of the wound, what is the black discoloration emanating from it? A bacterial infection? A sort-of bruising of her skin? And also, is there anything I should be doing differently so far with trying to care for her? I've considered getting some silvadene cream as an anti-bacterial/anti-fungal but I don't wanna overdo it with the meds. Any information helps, thank you
I got her from a local reptile shop, felt bad for her and was afraid someone who isn't knowledgeable would buy her - I already had a yellow spotted in my care and figured they could be tank mates. Brought her home, put her in a quarantine tank to monitor before introducing her to my other salamander. Two days ago, notice she's lethargic, moving slow, seems to be struggling. Check her out and her eyes are cloudy and I spot tiny white mites crawling around on her. Start treating her for the mites and flushing her with water, then realize she's got a wound right in the fold of her back left leg with mites particularly congregated around it. If I had to guess, I'd say a cricket might've bit her and gave her the wound but impossible to know for sure. After getting the mites off, I start trying to treat the wound; i make a super super diluted solution of povidone-iodine, and use a Q-tip to put it on the wound. After that I flush with clean water, dry the wound, and apply neosporin (no pain killer ingredients added). I've got her in a hospital setup with damp paper towels and a water dish. Yesterday she perked up but today is back to lethargic, although her eyes aren't really cloudy anymore and the mites seem to be gone.
My main question is, in the picture I attached of the wound, what is the black discoloration emanating from it? A bacterial infection? A sort-of bruising of her skin? And also, is there anything I should be doing differently so far with trying to care for her? I've considered getting some silvadene cream as an anti-bacterial/anti-fungal but I don't wanna overdo it with the meds. Any information helps, thank you
