BenWn
New member
Former (proud) owner of 3 axolotl, as of two days ago, (frantic) owner of 2 axolotl trying to figure out what to do.
The 2 living axolotl are about 4; the dead ("Tippy") one ~3 years at time of death. Ex-olotl had a known physiological or neurological abnormality (unclear which) of some kind that caused him to have balance issues: he would slowly rotate until (as a very young animal) actually lying on his back, and sometimes seemed to be experiencing spasticity. Behaviorally, he was relatively active, but otherwise displayed behavioral signs (gill position, alertness, ready feeding, etc.) of a happy axolotl. (He was a "replacement" animal for a novice keeper that I held back due to concerns about whether she was equipped to deal with a special-needs animal.)
I'm trying to do is evaluate what steps are appropriate for my other animals at this point.
Progression of illness in Ex-olotl:
Due to circumstances outside my control (read: I have been stuck living with my parents at least a year longer than planned, and my mom refuses to let me upgrade my setup) I keep my animals in lab-like setups - plastic tub, no filter, 100% water change after feedings or as water dirties. On the upside, after a water change, the quality is guaranteed pristine, and emergency fridging is straightforward. On the downside, literally everything else about this situation. (All these animals were retired training/laboratory stock; I adopted them from the PI I did my undergraduate thesis with, and spent the duration of the year I worked on that thesis keeping this kind of setup running for ~100 single-animal tanks at a time.)
I believe that water quality was a definite exacerbating factor here, but not the only factor; they've gone 5 days without a change before without any signs of ill health, and I've been raising them since they were only 4in long, so.... if it was likely to be lethal, I would not currently have any axolotl at all.
Bold has been thrashing again today, so while I went ahead and did another water change, I'm concerned about other possible causes.
Concerns:
IDK, I'm still pretty emotional about the poor lil guy. It's hard when you lose a critter that's so utterly dependent on your care; I feel terrible that with everything else going on, there probably was something I could have done to prevent this and I just totally slipped up and missed my cue.
The 2 living axolotl are about 4; the dead ("Tippy") one ~3 years at time of death. Ex-olotl had a known physiological or neurological abnormality (unclear which) of some kind that caused him to have balance issues: he would slowly rotate until (as a very young animal) actually lying on his back, and sometimes seemed to be experiencing spasticity. Behaviorally, he was relatively active, but otherwise displayed behavioral signs (gill position, alertness, ready feeding, etc.) of a happy axolotl. (He was a "replacement" animal for a novice keeper that I held back due to concerns about whether she was equipped to deal with a special-needs animal.)
I'm trying to do is evaluate what steps are appropriate for my other animals at this point.
Progression of illness in Ex-olotl:
- Unclear. Animal seemed behaviorally and visually normal 24 hrs before confirmed death.
- No issues with pooping. Tanks were overdue for cleaning, but no signs of skin irritation/rash on any of the animals.
- Fed 24-48 hrs before death: two small (2-4 in) earthworms bought at a local pet store + some amount of earthworm substrate. Was eager to eat and displayed absolutely no difficulties doing so (as opposed to my other two animals, one of whom ("Baby") likes to eat worms either straight out of my hand or after I put the lid back on his tank, and the other of whom ("Bold") had a worm somehow come out her gill slit (!) )
- Some amount of flailing/splashing from both Ex-olotl and Bold, which has, in the past, typically been a result of someone clunking around on the same surface as their tanks.
- The following morning, the Ex-olotl was.... well, very dead. He'd thrown up both worms largely undigested. (Other than that, I didn't see any relevant details.) He was somewhat swollen, but as that's also an on-death effect I'm not sure it's relevant.
- (Immediate tank cleaning on living animals as typically performed.)
Due to circumstances outside my control (read: I have been stuck living with my parents at least a year longer than planned, and my mom refuses to let me upgrade my setup) I keep my animals in lab-like setups - plastic tub, no filter, 100% water change after feedings or as water dirties. On the upside, after a water change, the quality is guaranteed pristine, and emergency fridging is straightforward. On the downside, literally everything else about this situation. (All these animals were retired training/laboratory stock; I adopted them from the PI I did my undergraduate thesis with, and spent the duration of the year I worked on that thesis keeping this kind of setup running for ~100 single-animal tanks at a time.)
I believe that water quality was a definite exacerbating factor here, but not the only factor; they've gone 5 days without a change before without any signs of ill health, and I've been raising them since they were only 4in long, so.... if it was likely to be lethal, I would not currently have any axolotl at all.
Bold has been thrashing again today, so while I went ahead and did another water change, I'm concerned about other possible causes.
Concerns:
- Impaction: Are earthworms gut-loaded with dirt a a probable cause?
- Pathogens: Are food-born pathogens a likely cause? Should I switch to feeding the reptomin carnivorous newt pellets (floating, so not ideal) immediately and discard the remaining worms; additionally, should I pre-emptively treat with the amphibian-safe anti-pathogen medication that I have or is the systemic stress not worth the potential benefit? (I can look up the formulation on request; it's specifically one I checked all ingredients for safety against a veterinarian amphibian toxicology guide earlier in the month, after a friend's animals had an unrelated bacterial infection. Three antibiotics, one of which I believe also assists with parasites.)
- Fridging: Would it be beneficial to lower the animals to 40 degrees F? How long?
- Overfeeding? Underfeeding? I've generally been rationing out worms since quarantine started; Bold is clearly a female animal from cloaca shape and general rotundness, with limbs that seem proportionately chunky, while Baby is a male whose body is a wee bit thinner than his head - I've been trying to get him a bit fatter for like a year and a half now, but it hasn't taken. I typically try to space feedings to every third day, a large worm ("nightcrawler") but currently only have small worms, and was feeding two at once to try to compensate for reduced volume. My concern is that cause of death could have been too long (5 days rather than 3) without food followed by a too-rich meal, or general poor nutrition.
IDK, I'm still pretty emotional about the poor lil guy. It's hard when you lose a critter that's so utterly dependent on your care; I feel terrible that with everything else going on, there probably was something I could have done to prevent this and I just totally slipped up and missed my cue.
